1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Zimbabwe
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Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in southern Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, although it does not border Namibia, less than 200 metres of the Zambezi River separates it from that country. The capital and largest city is Harare, a country of roughly 13 million people, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, with English, Shona, and Ndebele the most commonly used. Since the 11th century, present-day Zimbabwe has been the site of several organised states and kingdoms as well as a route for migration. The British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes first demarcated the present territory during the 1890s, in 1965, the conservative white minority government unilaterally declared independence as Rhodesia. Zimbabwe then rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations—which it withdrew from in 2003 and it is a member of the United Nations, the Southern African Development Community, the African Union, and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. Robert Mugabe became Prime Minister of Zimbabwe in 1980, when his ZANU-PF party won the following the end of white minority rule. Under Mugabes authoritarian regime, the security apparatus has dominated the country. Mugabe has maintained the revolutionary socialist rhetoric from the Cold War era, the name Zimbabwe stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, an ancient ruined city in the countrys south-east whose remains are now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word, many sources hold that Zimbabwe derives from dzimba-dza-mabwe, translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as large houses of stone. The Karanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the province of Masvingo. Zimbabwe was formerly known as Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe Rhodesia, a further alternative, put forward by nationalists in Matabeleland, had been Matopos, referring to the Matopos Hills to the south of Bulawayo. In a 2001 interview, black nationalist Edson Zvobgo recalled that Mawema mentioned the name during a rally, and it caught hold. The black nationalist factions subsequently used the name the during the Second Chimurenga campaigns against the Rhodesian government during the Rhodesian Bush War of 1964-1979, major factions in this camp included the Zimbabwe African National Union, and the Zimbabwe African Peoples Union. Proto-Shona-speaking societies first emerged in the middle Limpopo valley in the 9th century before moving on to the Zimbabwean highlands, the Zimbabwean plateau eventually became the centre of subsequent Shona states, beginning around the 10th century. Around the early 10th century, trade developed with Arab merchants on the Indian Ocean coast, the main archaeological site uses a unique dry stone architecture. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe was the first in a series of sophisticated trade states developed in Zimbabwe by the time of the first European explorers from Portugal and they traded in gold, ivory, and copper for cloth and glass. From about 1300 until 1600, Mapungubwe was eclipsed by the Kingdom of Zimbabwe and this Shona state further refined and expanded upon Mapungubwes stone architecture, which survives to this day at the ruins of the kingdoms capital of Great Zimbabwe
3.
Daylight saving time
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Daylight saving time is the practice of advancing clocks during summer months by one hour so that evening daylight lasts an hour longer, while sacrificing normal sunrise times. Typically, regions that use Daylight Savings Time adjust clocks forward one hour close to the start of spring, American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. New Zealander George Hudson proposed the idea of saving in 1895. The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30,1916, many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s. The practice has both advocates and critics, DST clock shifts sometimes complicate timekeeping and can disrupt travel, billing, record keeping, medical devices, heavy equipment, and sleep patterns. Computer software often adjusts clocks automatically, but policy changes by various jurisdictions of DST dates, industrialized societies generally follow a clock-based schedule for daily activities that do not change throughout the course of the year. The time of day that individuals begin and end work or school, North and south of the tropics daylight lasts longer in summer and shorter in winter, with the effect becoming greater as one moves away from the tropics. However, they will have one hour of daylight at the start of each day. Supporters have also argued that DST decreases energy consumption by reducing the need for lighting and heating, DST is also of little use for locations near the equator, because these regions see only a small variation in daylight in the course of the year. After ancient times, equal-length civil hours eventually supplanted unequal, so civil time no longer varies by season, unequal hours are still used in a few traditional settings, such as some monasteries of Mount Athos and all Jewish ceremonies. This 1784 satire proposed taxing window shutters, rationing candles, and waking the public by ringing church bells, despite common misconception, Franklin did not actually propose DST, 18th-century Europe did not even keep precise schedules. However, this changed as rail transport and communication networks came to require a standardization of time unknown in Franklins day. Modern DST was first proposed by the New Zealand entomologist George Hudson, whose shift work job gave him time to collect insects. An avid golfer, he also disliked cutting short his round at dusk and his solution was to advance the clock during the summer months, a proposal he published two years later. The proposal was taken up by the Liberal Member of Parliament Robert Pearce, a select committee was set up to examine the issue, but Pearces bill did not become law, and several other bills failed in the following years. Willett lobbied for the proposal in the UK until his death in 1915, william Sword Frost, mayor of Orillia, Ontario, introduced daylight saving time in the municipality during his tenure from 1911 to 1912. Starting on April 30,1916, the German Empire and its World War I ally Austria-Hungary were the first to use DST as a way to conserve coal during wartime, Britain, most of its allies, and many European neutrals soon followed suit. Russia and a few other countries waited until the year
4.
Humid subtropical climate
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A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterised by hot, usually humid summers and mild to cool winters. It normally lies on the southeast side of all continents, generally between latitudes 25° and 40° and it tends to be located at coastal or near coastal locations. However, in cases it extends inland, most notably in China. Under the Köppen climate classification, subtropical climates are found in the warmest parts of his Warm Temperate climates or Cfa and this climate features mean temperatures in the coldest month between 0 °C and 18 °C and mean temperatures in the warmest month 22 °C or higher. However, while some climatologists have opted to describe this type as a humid subtropical climate Köppen himself never used this term. The humid subtropical climate classification was created under the Trewartha Climate classification. The Trewartha system was a 1966 update of the Köppen climate classification and this was seen to effectively separate temperate climates like London or New York City from true subtropical locations like Brisbane or Savannah for example. Rainfall often shows a peak, especially where monsoons are well developed, as in Southeast Asia. Most summer rainfall occurs during thunderstorms that build up due to the surface heating and strong subtropical sun angle. Weak tropical lows that move in from adjacent warm tropical oceans, winter rainfall is often associated with large storms in the westerlies that have fronts that reach down into subtropical latitudes. However, many subtropical climates such as southeast Asia or Florida have very dry winters, with frequent brush fires, in Africa, the humid subtropical climates are found in two separate areas on the southern hemisphere of the continent. The Cwa climate is found over a portion of the interior of the Middle. Some lower portions of the Ethiopian Highlands also have this climate, the climate is also found in the narrow coastal sections of southern and eastern South Africa, primarily in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape provinces. South Africas version of this climate features heavy oceanic influences resulting in milder temperatures. This is particularly evident in its winters when temperatures do not drop as low as in other regions within the humid subtropical category. Locations in Asia with a subtropical climate differ from those in other continents in that they often have marked seasonal differences in precipitation. Cities near the boundary of this zone include Hong Kong, Hanoi. At Hainan Island and in Taiwan, the transitions from subtropical into fully tropical
5.
Harare
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Harare is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. Situated in the north-east of the country in the heart of historic Mashonaland, administratively, Harare is a metropolitan province, which also incorporates Chitungwiza town and Epworth. It is situated at an elevation of 1,483 metres above sea level, company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian government and and it retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence. Harare is Zimbabwes leading financial, commercial, and communications centre, and a centre for tobacco, maize, cotton. Manufactured goods include textiles, steel and chemicals, and gold is mined in the area, the University of Zimbabwe, the countrys oldest university, is situated in Mount Pleasant, about 6 km north of the city centre. Harare is home to the countrys main Test cricket ground, Harare Sports Club, the Pioneer Column, a military volunteer force of settlers organised by Cecil Rhodes, founded the city on 12 September 1890 as a fort. They originally named the city Fort Salisbury after The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then British Prime Minister, the Salisbury Polo Club was formed in 1896. It was declared to be a municipality in 1897 and it became a city in 1935. The area at the time of founding of the city was poorly drained, the first area to be fully drained was near the head of the stream and was named Causeway as a result. Salisbury was the capital of the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia from 1923, ian Smiths Rhodesian Front government declared Rhodesia independent from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965, and proclaimed the Republic of Rhodesia in 1970. Subsequently, the became the short-lived state of Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The capital city retained the name Salisbury until 1982, prior to independence, Harare was the name of the black residential area now known as Mbare. In May 2006 the Zimbabwean newspaper the Financial Gazette, described the city in an editorial as a sunshine city-turned-sewage farm, in 2009, Harare was voted to be the toughest city to live in according to the Economist Intelligence Units livability poll. The situation was unchanged in 2011, according to the poll, which is based on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education. In May 2005 the Zimbabwean government demolished shanties and backyard cottages in Harare, the government claimed it was necessitated by a rise of criminality and disease. This was followed by Operation Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle a year later which consisted of building housing of poor quality. In late March 2010, Harares Joina City Tower was finally opened after 14 years of on-off construction, initially, uptake of space in the tower was low, with office occupancy at only 3% in October 2011
6.
Matabeleland
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Modern-day Matabeleland is a region in Zimbabwe divided into three provinces, Matabeleland North, Bulawayo and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, the region is named after its inhabitants the Ndebele people. Other ethnic groups who inhabit parts of Matabeleland include the Tonga, Kalanga, Venda, as for the Matabeleland Northern Province, it had a total population of 749,017 people out of the population of Zimbabwe of 13,061,239. The proportion of male and female population was 48 and 52 percent respectively within an area of just over 75,017 square kilometres, the remaining Bulawayo province had a population of 653,337 in an area of 1,706.8 square kilometres. Thus the region has a population of 2,086,247 in an area of just over 130,000 square kilometres. The major city is Bulawayo, other towns are Plumtree. The land is fertile but dry. This area has important gold deposits, industries include gold and other mineral mines, and engineering. There has been a decline in the industries in region as water is in short supply. Promises by the government to water for the region through the Matabeleland Zambezi Water Project have not been carried out. The region is allegedly marginalised by the government and it is also the former name of all South Rodesia / Zimbabwe. Around the 10th and 11th centuries the Bantu-speaking Kalanga arrived from the north, later they moved north and both the San and the early ironworkers were driven out. By the 15th century, the Kalanga had established an empire, known as Munhumutapa. This empire was split by the end of the 15th century with southern part becoming the Rozvi Empire, in the late 1830s, some 20,000 Ndebele, descendants of the Zulus in South Africa and led by Mzilikazi Khumalo, invaded the Kalanga people Lozvi Empire. Many of the Kalanga people were incorporated and the rest of the tribes that comprise the Shona today were made satellite territories who paid tribute to the Ndebele Kingdom. He called his new nation Mthwakazi, a Zulu word which means something which became big at conception, in Zulu into ethe ithwasa yabankulu, Mzilikazi organised this ethnically diverse nation into a militaristic system of regimental towns and established his capital at Bulawayo. Mzilikazi was a statesman of considerable stature, able to weld the many conquered tribes into a strong, in 1852, the Boer government in Transvaal made a treaty with Mzilikazi. However, gold was discovered in the area known as Mashonaland, the home of the Ma-Shona, in 1867
7.
Northern Ndebele people
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The Northern Ndebele people are a Bantu nation and ethnic group in Southern Africa, who share a common Ndebele culture and Ndebele language. The Northern Ndebele were historically referred to as the Matabele which was a European corruption of Ndebele and their history began when a Zulu chiefdom split from King Shaka in the early 19th century under the leadership of Mzilikazi, a former chief in his kingdom and ally. Under his command the disgruntled Zulus went on to conquer and rule the chiefdoms of the Southern Ndebele and this was where the name and identity of the eventual kingdom was adopted. In the course of the migration, large numbers of conquered local clans and individuals were absorbed into the Ndebele nation, adopting the Ndebele language, historically the assimilated people came from the Southern Ndebele, Swazi, Sotho-Tswana, and amaLozwi/Rozvi ethnic groups. They were originally named Matabele in English, a name that is common in older texts, because that is the name as the British first heard it from the Sotho. They are now known as the Ndebele or amaNdebele. Life was simple for the Khumalos until the rise of chief Zwide, the Khumalos had the best land in Zululand, the Mkhuze, plenty of water, fertile soil and grazing ground. But in the early 19th century, they would have to choose a side between the Zulu and the Zwide and they delayed this for as long as they could. To please the Ndwandwe tribe, the Khumalo chief Mashobane married the daughter of the Ndwandwe chief Zwide and sired a son, the Ndwandwes were closely related to the Zulus and spoke the same language, Nguni, using different dialects. When Mashobane did not tell Zwide about patrolling Mthethwa amabutho, Zwide had Mashobana killed, thus his son, Mzilikazi, became leader of the Khumalo. Mzilikazi immediately mistrusted his grandfather, Zwide, and took 50 warriors to join Shaka, Shaka was overjoyed because the Khumalos would be useful spies on Zwide and the Ndwandwes. After a few battles, Shaka gave Mzilikazi the extraordinary honour of being chief of the Khumalos and to remain semi-independent from the Zulu and this caused immense jealousy among Shakas older allies, but as warriors none realised their equal in Mzilikazi. Mzilikazi collected all intelligence for the defeat of Zwide, hence, when Zwide was defeated, Shaka rightly acknowledged he could not have done it without Mzilikazi and presented him with an ivory axe. There were only two axes, one for Shaka and one for Mzilikazi. Shaka himself placed the plumes on Mzilikazis head after Zwide was vanquished, the Khumalos returned to peace in their ancestral homeland. This peace lasted until Shaka asked Mzilikazi to punish a tribe to the north of the Khumalo, after the defeat of Raninsi, Mzilikazi refused to hand over the cattle to Shaka. Shaka, loving Mzilikazi, did nothing about it, but his generals, long disliking Mzilikazi, pressed for action, and thus a first force was sent to teach Mzilikazi a lesson. The force was beaten by Mzilikazis 500 warriors, compared to the Zulus 3,000 warriors
8.
Botswana
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Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens refer to themselves as Batswana, formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has maintained a tradition of stable representative democracy. Botswana is topographically flat, with up to 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert and it is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Its border with Zambia to the north near Kazungula is poorly defined, a mid-sized country of just over 2 million people, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated nations in the world. Around 10 percent of the lives in the capital and largest city. The economy is dominated by mining, cattle, and tourism, Botswana boasts a GDP per capita of about $18,825 per year as of 2015, which is one of the highest in Africa. Its high gross national income gives the country a modest standard of living, Botswana is a member of the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations. The country has been among the hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the death rate due to AIDS or AIDS-related causes has fallen sharply from 2005 to 2013, and the number of new infections in children has also fallen. As of 2014, Botswana has the third-highest prevalence rate for HIV/AIDS, the history of Botswana starts more than 100,000 years ago, when the first humans inhabited the region. The original inhabitants of southern Africa were the Bushmen and Khoi peoples, both speak Khoisan languages and lived as hunter-gatherers. About a thousand years ago, large chiefdoms emerged that were later eclipsed by the Great Zimbabwe empire, around 1300 CE, peoples in present-day Transvaal began to coalesce into three main linguistic and political groups, including the Batswana. The Batswana, a term used also to all citizens of Botswana. Prior to European contact, the Batswana lived as herders and farmers under tribal rule, as groups broke off and moved to new land, new tribes were created. Some human development occurred before the colonial period, during the 1700s, the slave and ivory trades were expanding. To resist these pressures, Shaka, the king of the Zulu Empire, conquered tribes began to move northwest into Botswana, destroying everything in their path. In their efforts to re-establish themselves at the end of period, tribes began to exchange ivory and skins for guns with European traders. Christian missionaries sent from Europe also spread to the interior, often at the invitation of tribal chiefs who wanted guns, by 1880 every major village had a resident missionary, and their influence became permanent
9.
Hwange National Park
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Hwange National Park is the largest game reserve in Zimbabwe. The park lies in the west, on the road between Bulawayo and the widely noted Victoria Falls and near to Dete. It was founded in 1928, with the first warden being by the 22-year-old Ted Davison and he befriended the Manchester-born James Jones who was the stationmaster for the then Rhodesian Railways at Dete which is very near Hwange Main Camp. Jones managed incoming supplies for the park and this park is considered for inclusion in the 5 Nation Kavango - Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. In 2011, nine elephants, five lions and two buffalos were also killed by poachers, in October 2013 it was discovered that poachers killed a large number of African elephants with cyanide after poisoning their waterhole. Conservationists have claimed the incident to be the highest massacre of animals in Southern Africa in 25 years, two aerial surveys were carried to determine the extent of the deaths, and 19 carcasses were identified in the first survey and a further 84 carcasses in the second survey. Three of the poachers were caught, arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced, all royal game and elephant poaching offences now have a mandatory 9-year sentence and the supply chain is also targeted – with a man arrested on 21 October trying to smuggle raw ivory out. On or about July 1,2015, Cecil, a lion who had lived on Hwange National Park for 13 years, was illegally killed and this action spurred widespread social media coverage and a petition calling for Zimbabwes president Robert Mugabe to outlaw big game hunting permits. Dr. Walter Palmer, the killer of Cecil, had a permit and was not charged with any crime. Authorities in Zimbabwe have said he is free to visit the country, the complicity of corrupt Zimbabwean officials with poachers is claimed. But, Theo Bronkhorst, the guide in charge of the Cecil killing is presently on bail awaiting several trials. One trial for the killing of Cecil, where he is charged with “failing to prevent an illegal hunt, ”, the park is close to the edge of the Kalahari desert, a region with little water and very sparse, xerophile vegetation. The Kalahari woodland is dominated by Zambezi Teak, Sand Camwood, seasonal wetlands form grasslands in this area. The north and north-west of the park are dominated by mopane woodland, the Park hosts over 100 mammal and 400 bird species, including 19 large herbivores and eight large carnivores. All Zimbabwes specially protected animals are to be found in Hwange and it is the protected area where gemsbok. Grazing herbivores are more common in the Main Camp Wild Area and Linkwasha Concession Area, with mixed feeders more common in the Robins and Sinamatella Wild Areas, distribution fluctuates seasonally, with large herbivores concentrating in areas where intensive water pumping is maintained during the dry season. The population of the Cape wild dogs to be found in Hwange is thought to be of one of the surviving groups in Africa today, along with that of Kruger National Park. Elephants have been successful in Hwange and the population has increased to far above that naturally supported by such an area
10.
Matobo National Park
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The Matobo National Park forms the core of the Matobo or Matopos Hills, an area of granite kopjes and wooded valleys commencing some 35 kilometres south of Bulawayo, southern Zimbabwe. Mzilikazi, founder of the Ndebele nation, gave the area its name, the Hills cover an area of about 3100 km², of which 424 km² is National Park, the remainder being largely communal land and a small proportion of commercial farmland. The park extends along the Thuli, Mtshelele, Maleme and Mpopoma river valleys, part of the national park is set aside as a 100 km² game park, which has been stocked with game including the white rhinoceros. The highest point in the hills is the promontory named Gulati just outside the north-eastern corner of the park, administratively, Matobo National Park incorporates the Lake Matopos Recreational Park, being the area around Hazelside, Sandy Spruit and Lake Matopos. The national park is located within the southern Africa bushveld ecoregion, the national park is the oldest in Zimbabwe, established in 1926 as Rhodes Matopos National Park, a bequest from Cecil Rhodes. The original park borders extended well to the south and east of the current park and these areas were redesignated for settlement as part of a compromise between the colonial authorities and the local people, creating the Khumalo and Matobo Communal Lands. The park area then increased with the acquisition of Worlds View, the current name Matobo reflects the correct vernacular pronunciation of the area. The Matobo Hills were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003, the area exhibits a profusion of distinctive rock landforms rising above the granite shield that covers much of Zimbabwe. The Matobo Hills is an area of high diversity, with over 200 species of tree recorded in the national park, including the mountain acacia, wild pear. There are also many aloes, wild herbs and over 100 grass species, Matobo National Park has a wide diversity of fauna,175 bird,88 mammal,39 snake and 16 fish species. Game include white rhinos, sable antelopes, impala and leopards, the park contains the worlds densest population of the latter, due to the abundance of hyrax, which make up 50% of their diet. The game park in the west has been restocked with white and black rhinos, the former from Kwa-Zulu Natal in the 1960s and the latter from the Zambezi Valley in the 1990s. It has been designated as an Intensive Protection Zone for the two species, as well as hyenas, hippopotami, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest sand ostriches, Matobo National Park contains the highest concentration of black eagles, and breeding pairs of these birds, worldwide. A limnological research centre has operated since 1950 at Maleme Dam, the Matobo Hills are composed entirely of granite, making up the Matopos Batholith. The granite weathers into fantastic shapes, such as the rocks known as Mother. Between the granite mountains, narrow valleys form and these are often swampy valleys known as dambos or vleis, due to runoff from the whaleback mountains. These valleys form the headwaters of the Maleme, Mpopoma and Mtsheleli rivers, san lived in the hills about 2,000 years ago, leaving a rich heritage in hundreds of rock paintings. There are over 3,000 registered rock art sites, with the periods of painting being between 320 and 500 C. E
11.
Victoria Falls
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Victoria Falls, or Mosi-oa-Tunya, is a waterfall in southern Africa on the Zambezi River at the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It has been described by CNN as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the world, Livingstone named his discovery in honour of Queen Victoria of Britain, but the indigenous Tonga name, Mosi-oa-Tunya—The Smoke That Thunders—continues in common usage as well. The World Heritage List officially recognizes both names, the nearby national park in Zambia is named Mosi-oa-Tunya, whereas the national park and town on the Zimbabwean shore are both named Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls is roughly twice the height of North Americas Niagara Falls, in height and width Victoria Falls is rivalled only by Argentina and Brazils Iguazu Falls. For a considerable distance upstream from the falls, the Zambezi flows over a sheet of basalt, in a shallow valley, bounded by low. The rivers course is dotted with numerous tree-covered islands, which increase in number as the approaches the falls. There are no mountains, escarpments, or deep valleys, only a flat plateau extending hundreds of kilometres in all directions. The falls are formed as the width of the river plummets in a single vertical drop into a transverse chasm 1708 metres wide. The depth of the chasm, called the First Gorge, varies from 80 metres at its end to 108 metres in the centre. At less than full flood, additional islets divide the curtain of water into separate parallel streams, the main streams are named, in order from Zimbabwe to Zambia, Devils Cataract, Main Falls, Rainbow Falls and the Eastern Cataract. The Zambezi river, upstream from the falls, experiences a rainy season from late November to early April, at full moon, a moonbow can be seen in the spray instead of the usual daylight rainbow. During the flood season, however, it is impossible to see the foot of the falls and most of its face, close to the edge of the cliff, spray shoots upward like inverted rain, especially at Zambias Knife-Edge Bridge. At this time it becomes possible to walk across some stretches of the river at the crest and it is also possible to walk to the bottom of the First Gorge at the Zimbabwean side. Water entering the Second Gorge makes a right turn and has carved out a deep pool there called the Boiling Pot. Reached via a footpath from the Zambian side, it is about 150 metres across. Its surface is smooth at low water, but at high water is marked by enormous, slow swirls and heavy boiling turbulence. Objects—and humans—that are swept over the falls, including the occasional hippopotamus or crocodile, are frequently found swirling about here or washed up at the north-east end of the Second Gorge. This is where the bodies of Mrs Moss and Mr Orchard, the recent geological history of Victoria Falls can be seen in the form of the gorges below the falls
12.
Cecil Rhodes
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Cecil John Rhodes PC was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa, who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, South Africas Rhodes University is also named after him. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate, the son of a vicar, Rhodes grew up in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, and was a sickly child. He was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18. His De Beers diamond company, formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century, Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament in 1880, and a decade later became Prime Minister. After Rhodess death in 1902, at the age of 48, at the time of his death he was already a very controversial figure. One of Rhodess primary motivators in politics and business was his belief that the Anglo-Saxon race was, to quote his will. Most histories of South Africa covering the last decades of the century are contributions to the historiography of Cecil Rhodes. According to McFarlane, the aforementioned historiography may be divided into two categories, chauvinistic approval or utter vilification. Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England and he was the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes. His father was a Church of England clergyman who was proud of never having preached a sermon longer than 10 minutes and his siblings included Francis William Rhodes, who became an army officer. His father therefore determined to send him abroad to try the effect of a sea voyage, Herbert had already set up as a planter in Natal, South Africa, so Cecil was despatched on a sailing vessel to join Herbert in Natal. The voyage to Durban took him seventy days, and on 1 September 1870 he first set foot on African soil and his familys hope was that the climate would improve his health. They expected he would help his older brother Herbert who operated a cotton farm, when he first came to Africa, Rhodes lived on money lent by his aunt Sophia. After a brief stay with the Surveyor-General of Natal, Dr. P. C, sutherland, in Pietermaritzburg, Rhodes took an interest in agriculture. He joined his brother Herbert on his farm in the Umkomazi valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and the venture failed, in October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley
13.
Lobengula
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Lobengula Khumalo was the second and last king of the Northern Ndebele people. Both names, in the language, mean the men of the long shields. The Matabele were descendents of a faction among the Zulu who fled north during the reign of Shaka following the mfecane or difaqane, shakas general Mzilikazi led his followers away from Zulu territory after a falling out. In the late 1830s, they settled in what is now called Matabeleland in western Zimbabwe, the resulting kingdom was an Iron Age society in which the members of the tribe had a privileged position against outsiders whose lives were subject to the will of the king. In return for their privileges, however, the Ndebele people both men and women had to submit to a discipline and status within the hierarchy. That set out their duties and responsibilities to the rest of society, infringements of any social responsibility were punished with death, subject to the kings seldom-awarded reprieve. This tight discipline and loyalty were the secret of the Ndebeles success in dominating their neighbours. After the death of Mzilikazi, the first king of the Ndebele nation, in 1868, several impis disputed Lobengulas ascent, and the question was ultimately decided by the arbitration of the assegai, with Lobengula and his impis crushing the rebels. Lobengulas courage in the led to his unanimous selection as king. The coronation of Lobengula took place at Mhlanhlandlela, one of the military towns. The Ndebele nation assembled in the form of a semicircle, performed a war dance. A great number of cattle were slaughtered, and the choicest meats were offered to Mlimo, the Ndebele spiritual leader, great quantities of millet beer were also consumed. About 10,000 Matabele warriors in full war costume attended the crowning of Lobengula and their costumes consisted of a headdress and short cape made of black ostrich feathers, a kilt made of leopard or other skins and ornamented with the tails of white cattle. Around their arms they wore similar tails and around their ankles they wore rings of brass and their weapons consisted of one or more long spears for throwing and a short stabbing-spear or assegai. For defence, they carried large oval shields of ox-hide, either black, white, red, the Ndebele maintained their position due to the greater size and tight discipline in the army, to which every able-bodied man in the tribe owed service. The Ndebele army, consisting of 15,000 men in 40 regiments based around Lobengulas capital of Bulawayo, Lobengula was a big, powerful, man with a soft voice who was well loved by his people but loathed by foreign tribes. He had well over 20 wives, possibly many more and his father, Mzilikazi, had around 200 wives. It is said that he weighed about 19 stone and he was a fine warrior but not an equal of his father
14.
First Matabele War
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The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in the country today called Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele Kingdom, Lobengula had 80,000 spearmen and 20,000 riflemen, armed with nine-pound Martini-Henrys, which were modern arms at that time. However, poor training meant that these were not used effectively, matters came to a head when Lobengula approved a raid to forcibly extract tribute from a Mashona chief in the district of the town of Fort Victoria, which inevitably led to a clash with the Company. The British government agreed that the British South Africa Company would administer the territory stretching from the Limpopo to the Zambezi under royal charter, queen Victoria signed the charter in 1889. However, in 1893, a chief in the Victoria district named Gomara refused tribute, in order to save face, Lobengula was impelled to send a raiding party of several thousand warriors to bring his vassal to heel. The raiding party destroyed several villages and murdered many of the inhabitants, as a result the Company officials demanded from the raiders that they leave immediately. The Ndebele refused and in the hostilities that developed the Ndebele sustained a number of casualties. There was a delay of just over two months while Jameson corresponded with Rhodes in Cape Town and considered how to amass enough troops to undertake an invasion of Matabeleland. BSAP columns rode from Fort Salisbury and Fort Victoria, and combined at Iron Mine Hill, around the point of the country. Together the force totalled about 700 men, commanded by Major Patrick Forbes, Forbes combined column moved on the Matabele kings capital at Bulawayo, to the south-west. An additional force of 700 Bechuanas marched on Bulawayo from the south under Khama III, the most influential of the Bamangwato chiefs, and a staunch ally of the British. The Matabele army mobilised to prevent Forbes from reaching the city, by the time the Matabele withdrew, they had suffered around 1,500 fatalities, the BSAP, on the other hand, had lost only four men. Lobengula fled Bulawayo as soon as he heard the news from Bembesi, in keeping with custom, he. In the resultant conflagration, the large store of ivory, gold and other treasure was destroyed. The reconstruction of Bulawayo began almost as soon as the fires were out, the column of Khamas men from the south had reached the Tati River, and won a victory on the Singuesi river on 2 November. The town, mostly made up of wood-beam huts with mud walls, was largely destroyed, on 3 November, Bulawayo was reached by the Victoria column from Mashonaland, accompanied by Jameson and Sir John Willoughby. By this time, Lobengula and his warriors were in flight towards the Zambezi. An attempt was made to induce Lobengula to surrender, but no replies were received to the messages, the United Salisbury Column later arrived in Bulawayo, and on 13 November, Major Patrick Forbes organized his column and started in pursuit of Lobengula
15.
British South Africa Company
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The company received a Royal Charter in 1889 modelled on that of the British East India Company. Its first directors included the Duke of Abercorn, Rhodes himself, Rhodes hoped BSAC would promote colonisation and economic exploitation across much of south-central Africa, as part of the Scramble for Africa. The BSAC was created in the expectation that the fields of Mashonaland would provide funds for the development of other areas of Central Africa. BSAC regarded its lands north of the Zambezi as territory to be held as cheaply as possible for future, rather than immediate, the BSAC also created the Rhodesian railway system and owned the railways there until 1947. The Royal Charter of the British South Africa Company came into effect on 20 December 1889 and this was initially for a period of 25 years, later extended for a further 10 years, so it expired in 1924. The company had been incorporated in October 1888, and much of the time after Rhodes arrived in London in March 1889, in these discussions, Rhodes led the BSAC negotiators. These two groups had originally been in competition but united because of economic interests. Gifford and Cawstons interests were represented by the Bechuanaland Exploration Company and its offshoot, the British South Africa Company leased mineral rights from the Central Search Association, paying it half the net profits from mineral exploitation. From the start, Gifford disliked Rhodes, who he thought had acquired too much power in BSAC and had marginalised him, Cawston supported Rhodes only in those commercial activities likely to make a profit and not in any less commercial ventures. The four other directors were appointed to represent the other shareholders, the dukes of Abercorn and of Fife, respectively chairman and vice-chairman were appointed to give the company prestige but they took little part in running the company. Neither had previous interest in Africa and Fife had no business experience, albert Grey, later Earl Grey had an active role as a liaison between Rhodes in South Africa and government officials in London. He and Horace Farquhar, a prominent London banker, completed the first Board, lochs successor as High Commissioner from 1895, Sir Hercules Robinson inherited these plans, but none of Loch, Robinson or Ripon took any steps to promote such a rising. Joseph Chamberlain, who succeeded Ripon in 1895, was almost certainly aware that Rhodes was planning a rising, Rhodes and Jameson made plans to assist, and probably to promote, a Johannesburg rising. Earl Grey was the only London-based director to know about plans for the Jameson Raid, Grey communicated at least some of the plan to Joseph Chamberlain, who avoided specifically endorsing it. News of the Raid shocked the BSAC directors who, except for Beit and Grey, Rhodes at first denied responsibility for Jamesons actions but, in the face of further revelations, he assumed full responsibility for them. The BSAC Board recognised that the company would be attacked, and he offered to resign as managing director, but a decision on this was deferred despite the demands of Cawston and Gifford for its acceptance. However, after the trial of the Jameson raiders implicated Rhodes further and following pressure from Chamberlain, Rhodes, after his removal, Rhodes remained a major shareholder in the BSAC and he continued to be involved unofficially in its affairs. In 1898, the Duke of Fife and Lord Farquhar both resigned from the Board, Rhodes and Beit replaced them and another supporter of Rhodes also joined the Board, as Rhodes had recaptured full control over the company, Cawston decided to resign
16.
Leander Starr Jameson
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Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet KCMG CB PC, also known as Doctor Jim, The Doctor or Lanner, was a British colonial politician who was best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid. The kindly stranger named Leander Starr was promptly made a godfather of the baby and his father, Robert William, started his career as an advocate in Edinburgh, and was Writer to the Signet, before becoming a playwright, published poet and editor of The Wigtownshire Free Press. A radical and reformist, Robert William Jameson was the author of the dramatic poem Nimrod and Timoleon, Timoleon was performed at the Adelphi Theatre in Edinburgh in 1852, and ran to a second edition. In due course, the Jameson family moved to London, living in Chelsea, Leander Starr Jameson went to the Godolphin School in Hammersmith, where he did well in both lessons and games prior to his university education. L. S. Jameson was educated for the profession at University College Hospital, London. He distinguished himself as a student, becoming a Gold Medallist in materia medica. After qualifying as a doctor, he was made Resident Medical Officer at University College Hospital, there he rapidly acquired a great reputation as a medical man, and, besides numbering President Kruger and the Matabele chief Lobengula among his patients, came much into contact with Cecil Rhodes. Jameson was for some time the inDuna of the Matabele kings favourite regiment, Lobengula expressed his delight with Jamesons successful medical treatment of his gout by honouring him with the rare status of inDuna. Although Jameson was a man, he underwent the initiation ceremonies linked with this honour. From this time his fortunes were bound up with Rhodes schemes in the north, immediately after the pioneer column had occupied Mashonaland, Jameson, with F. C. Selous and A. R. Colquhoun, went east to Manicaland and was instrumental in securing the part of the country, to which Portugal was laying claim. In 1891 Jameson succeeded Colquhoun as Administrator of Mashonaland, in 1893, Jameson was a key figure in the First Matabele War and involved in incidents that led to the massacre of the Shangani Patrol. Jamesons character seems to have inspired a degree of devotion from his contemporaries, elizabeth Longford writes of him, Whatever one felt about him or his projects when he was not there, one could not help falling for the man in his presence. People attached themselves to Jameson with extraordinary fervour, the more extraordinary because he made no effort to feed it and he affected an attitude of tough cynicism towards life, literature and any articulate form of idealism, particularly towards the hero-worship which he himself excited. When he died The Times estimated that his personal hold over his followers had been equalled only by that of Parnell. Longford also notes that Rudyard Kipling wrote the poem If— with Leander Starr Jameson in mind as an inspiration for the characteristics he recommended young people to live by, Longford writes, Jameson was later to be the inspiration and hero of Rudyard Kiplings poem, If. The Jameson Raid was later cited by Winston Churchill as a factor in bringing about the Boer War of 1899 to 1902. But the story as recounted in Britain was quite different, the British defeat was interpreted as a victory and Jameson was portrayed as a daring hero
17.
Second Matabele War
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It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele people, which led to conflict with the Shona people in the rest of Rhodesia. In March 1896, the Ndebele revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company in what is now celebrated in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, the Mlimo the Ndebele spiritual leader, is credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Ndebele and the Shona that the settlers were responsible for the drought, locust plagues, the Mlimos call to battle was well-timed. This left the country nearly defenceless, the British immediately sent troops to suppress the Ndebele and the Shona, but it cost the lives of many on both sides. Months passed before the amount of British forces were adequate to break the sieges and defend the major settlements, the Mlimo planned to wait until the night of 29 March, the first full moon, to take Bulawayo by surprise immediately after a ceremony called the Big Dance. He promised, through his priests, that if the Ndebele went to war and his plan was to kill all of the settlers in Bulawayo first, but not to destroy the town itself as it would serve again as the royal kraal for the newly reincarnated King Lobengula. Once the settlers were purged from Bulawayo, the Ndebele and Shona warriors would head out into the countryside, however, several young Ndebele were overly anxious to go to war, and the rebellion started prematurely. On 20 March, Ndebele rebels shot and stabbed a native policeman, over the next few days, other outlying settlers and prospectors were killed. Frederick Selous, the famous hunter, had heard rumours of settlers in the countryside being killed. When news of the murder reached Selous on 23 March. Nearly 2,000 Ndebele warriors began the rebellion in earnest on 24 March, many, although not all, of the young native police quickly deserted and joined the rebels. The Ndebele headed into the countryside armed with a variety of weapons, including, Martini-Henry rifles, Winchester repeaters, Lee-Metfords, assegais, as news of the massive rebellion spread, the Shona joined in the fighting, and the settlers headed towards Bulawayo. Within a week,141 settlers were slain in Matabeleland, another 103 killed in Mashonaland, with few troops to support them, the settlers quickly built a laager of sandbagged wagons in the centre of Bulawayo on their own. Barbed wire was added to Bulawayos defences, oil-soaked fagots were arranged in strategic locations in case of attack at night. Blasting gelatin was secreted in outlying buildings that were beyond the defence perimeter, smashed glass bottles were spread around the front of the wagons. Except for hunting rifles, there were few weapons to be found in Bulawayo, fortunately for settlers, there were a few working artillery pieces and a small assortment of machine guns. Selous raised a troop of forty men to scout southward into the Matobo Hills. Maurice Gifford, along with 40 men, rode east along the Iniza River, whenever settlers were found, they were quickly loaded into their wagons and closely guarded on their way to Bulawayo
18.
Wagon fort
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A wagon fort is a mobile fortification made of wagons arranged into a rectangle, a circle or other shape and possibly joined with each other, an improvised military camp. It is also known as a laager, ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman army officer and historian of the 4th century, describes a Roman army approaching ad carraginem as they approach a Gothic camp. Historians interpret this as a wagon-fort, similar ad hoc defense formations were used in the United States, and were called corrals. These were traditionally used by 19th century American settlers travelling to the West in convoys of Conestoga wagons. The armed men would then man the perimeter, the circled wagons serving to break up the charge, to create a certain amount of concealment from observation. This tactic was known as circling up the wagons. One of the earliest examples of using conjoined wagons as fortification is described in the Chinese historical record Book of Han, in the 13th century, the armies of Kievan Rus used tabors in the Battle of Kalka to defend themselves from Mongol forces. In the 15th century, during the Hussite Wars, the Hussites developed tactics of using the tabors, called vozová hradba in Czech or Wagenburg by the Germans, such a camp was easy to establish and practically invulnerable to enemy cavalry. The etymology of the word tabor may come from the Hussite fortress and modern day Czech city of Tábor, which itself is a name derived from biblical Jezreel mountain Tavor. The crew of each wagon consisted of 18 to 21 soldiers,4 to 8 crossbowmen,2 handgunners,6 to 8 soldiers equipped with pikes or flails,2 shield carriers and 2 drivers. The wagons would normally form a square, and inside the square would usually be the cavalry, there were two principal stages of the battle using the wagon fort, defensive and counterattack. The defensive part would be a pounding of the enemy with artillery, the Hussite artillery was a primitive form of a howitzer, called in Czech a houfnice, from which the English word howitzer comes. Also, they called their guns the Czech word píšťala, meaning that they were shaped like a pipe or a fife, from which the English word pistol is possibly derived. When the enemy would come close to the fort, crossbowmen and hand-gunners would come from inside the wagons. There would even be stored in a pouch inside the wagons for throwing whenever the soldiers were out of ammunition. After this huge barrage, the enemy would be demoralized, once the commander saw it fit, the second stage of battle would begin. Men with swords, flails, and polearms would come out, together with the infantry, the cavalry in the square would come out and attack. At this point, the enemy would be eliminated or very nearly so, the wagon forts effect on Czech history was lost, but the Czechs would continue to use the wagon forts in later conflicts
19.
Maxim gun
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The Maxim gun was a weapon invented by American-British inventor Hiram Stevens Maxim in 1883, it was the first recoil-operated machine gun. It has been called the weapon most associated with the British imperial conquest, the mechanism of the Maxim gun employed one of the earliest recoil-operated firing systems in history. The idea is that the energy from recoil acting on the block is used to eject each spent cartridge and insert the next one. Maxims earliest designs used a 360-degree rotating cam to reverse the movement of the block and this made it vastly more efficient and less labor-intensive than previous rapid-firing guns, such as the Mitrailleuse, Gatling, Gardner, or Nordenfelt, that relied on actual mechanical cranking. It also decreased the gas buildup in the barrel, allowing the gun to fire more bullets over a period of time without overheating the barrel. The Maxim gun design required water cooling, giving it the ability to maintain its rate of fire for far longer than air-cooled guns, the disadvantage of this was that it made the gun less flexible in attack than the lighter air-cooled weapons. Trials demonstrated that the Maxim could fire 600 rounds per minute, compared to modern machine guns, the Maxim was heavy, bulky, and awkward. A lone soldier could fire the weapon, but it was operated by a team of men. Apart from the gunner, other crew were needed to speed reload, spot targets, several men were needed to move or mount the heavy weapon. Maxim established the Maxim Gun Company with financing from Albert Vickers, a blue plaque on the Factory where Maxim invented and produced the gun is to be found in Hatton Garden at the junction with Clerkenwell Road in London. Albert Vickers became the chairman, and it later joined hands with a Swedish competitor, Nordenfelt, to become Maxim Nordenfelt Guns. The Post Office Directory of trades in London of 1895 lists its office at 32 Victoria Street SW on page 1579, finally, the company was absorbed into the mother Vickers company, leading first to the Maxim-Vickers gun and then, after Vickers redesign, the Vickers machine gun. Maxims first patents related to the development of the Maxim were registered in June, the first prototype was demonstrated to invited guests in October 1884. A prototype of the Maxim gun was given by Hiram Maxim to the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition in 1886–1890, under the leadership of Henry Morton Stanley. More a publicity stunt than a military contribution, in view of the main financier of the expedition, William Mackinnon. The first unit in the world to receive the Maxim was the Singapore Volunteer Corps in 1889 and this was a civilian volunteer defence unit on the then-British island. The Maxim gun was first used by Britains colonial forces in the 1893–1894 First Matabele War in Rhodesia, during the Battle of the Shangani,700 soldiers fought off 5,000 warriors with just four Maxim guns. It played an important role in the swift European colonization of Africa in the late 19th century, the extreme lethality was employed to devastating effect against obsolete charging tactics, when native opponents could be lured into pitched battles in open terrain
20.
Frederick Selous
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Frederick Courteney Selous DSO was a British explorer, officer, hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir H. Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character, Selous was also a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman. He was the brother of ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous. Frederick Courteney Selous was born on 31 December 1851 at Regents Park, London, as one of the five children of an aristocratic family, third generation of part-Huguenot heritage. His father, Frederick Lokes Slous, was Chairman of the London Stock Exchange and his mother, one of his uncles was painter Henry Courtney Selous. Frederick had three sisters, and one brother who became a famous ornithologist, fredericks love for the outdoors and wildlife was shared only by his brother, however, all of the family members were artistically inclined, as well as being successful in business. At 42, Selous settled in Worplesdon, England and married 20-year-old Marie Catherine Gladys Maddy and they had three sons, Frederick Hatherley Bruce Selous, Harold Sherborn Selous, and Bertrand Selous, who was born prematurely on 6 July 1915 and died five days later. From a young age, Selous was drawn by stories of explorers, furthermore, while in school, he started establishing personal collections of various bird eggs and butterflies and studying natural history. One account is related by his master at Northamptonshire when Selous was 10 years old. On going around the dormitories to see that all was in order, discovered Freddy Selous, laying bare on the floor clothed only in his night shirt. On being asked the cause of this behaviour, he replied Well, you see, one day I am going to be a hunter in Africa. He escaped by crawling on ice slabs to the shore. He was educated at Bruce Castle School, Tottenham, then at Rugby and his parents hoped that he would become a doctor. However, his love for natural history led him to study the ways of wild animals in their native habitat and his imagination was strongly fuelled by the literature of African exploration and hunting, Dr. David Livingstone, and William Charles Baldwin in particular. He eventually became as great a hero himself and his travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe. In 1890, Selous entered the service of the British South Africa Company, at the request of magnate Cecil Rhodes, acting as guide to the pioneer expedition to Mashonaland. Over 400 miles of road were constructed through a country of forest, mountain, and swamp and he then went east to Manica, concluding arrangements which brought the country there under British control
21.
Frederick Russell Burnham
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Frederick Russell Burnham DSO was an American scout and world-traveling adventurer. He is known for his service to the British South Africa Company and to the British Army in colonial Africa and he helped inspire the founding of the international Scouting Movement. Burnham was born on a Dakota Sioux Indian reservation in Minnesota where he learned the ways of American Indians as a boy. By the age of 14, he was supporting himself in California, while also learning scouting from some of the last of the cowboys, Burnham had little formal education, never finishing high school. After moving to the Arizona Territory in the early 1880s, he was drawn into the Pleasant Valley War and he escaped and later worked as a civilian tracker for the United States Army in the Apache Wars. Feeling the need for new adventures, Burnham took his family to southern Africa in 1893, Burnham distinguished himself in several battles in Rhodesia and South Africa and became Chief of Scouts. Despite his U. S. citizenship, his title was British. He had become friends with Baden-Powell during the Second Matabele War in Rhodesia, teaching him outdoor skills, Burnham returned to the United States, where he became involved in national defense efforts, business, oil, conservation, and the Boy Scouts of America. During World War I, Burnham was selected as an officer and recruited volunteers for a U. S. Army division similar to the Rough Riders, for political reasons, the unit was disbanded without seeing action. After the war, Burnham and his business partner John Hays Hammond formed the Burnham Exploration Company, Burnham joined several new wilderness conservation organizations, including the California State Parks Commission. In the 1930s, he worked with the BSA to save the big horn sheep from extinction and this effort led to the creation of the Kofa and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuges in Arizona. He earned the BSAs highest honor, the Silver Buffalo Award, in 1936, to symbolise the friendship between Burnham and Baden-Powell, the mountain beside Mount Baden-Powell in California was formally named Mount Burnham in 1951. Burnham was born on May 11,1861 on a Dakota Sioux Indian reservation in Minnesota, to a family living near the small pioneer town of Tivoli. His father, the Reverend Edwin Otway Burnham, was a Presbyterian minister educated and ordained in New York, he was born in Ghent, Kentucky. His mother Rebecca Russell Burnham had spent most of her childhood in Iowa, having emigrated with her family from Westminster and she hid Frederick in a basket of green corn husks in a corn field and fled for her life. Once the Sioux attack had been repulsed, she returned to find their house burned down, the young Burnham attended schools in Iowa. There he met Blanche Blick, whom he later married, Two years later, Edwin died, leaving the family destitute. For the next few years, Burnham worked as a messenger for the Western Union Telegraph Company in California
22.
Masvingo
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Masvingo is a town in south-eastern Zimbabwe and the capital of Masvingo Province. The town is close to Great Zimbabwe, the monument from which the country takes its name. The town was known as Fort Victoria until 1982, when its name was changed to Nyanda. Within a few months its name was changed to Masvingo when it was discovered that Nyanda did not translate very well between dialects. It is the oldest colonial settlement in Zimbabwe, and grew up around the encampment established in 1890 by the Pioneer Column en route to their eventual destination, Salisbury. The Old Fort national monument is located in the centre of town, the very first cricket match in Zimbabwe is said to have taken place close by in 1890. The population was approximately 15,000 in 1970,30,523 in 1982 and it had a population of approximately 58,000 in 2002 and is said to have passed the 100.000 peg in 2008. Masvingo is located 292 kilometres south of Harare, most of the local population belongs to the Karanga Shona ethnic group. It is divided into suburbs including Mucheke, Rujeko, Rhodene, Target Kopje, the suburbs are divided into high-density, middle-density and low-density suburbs. Mucheke, the oldest township and Rujeko are the most populous high-density suburbs, the middle-density suburbs are Eastvale located close to Zimuto Police Camp and Target Kopje located on the southern part of town on a small hill close to Flamboyant Hotel. Rhodene, a low-density suburb on the part of the city centre, is the most affluent suburb in Masvingo. A new suburban development, Zimre Park, is taking shape to the north east of the town along Bulawayo Road. Masvingo Polytechnic, Great Zimbabwe University, Bondolfi Teachers College, Morgenster Teachers College, the three institutes are run by the government, while Bondolfi and Morgenster are privately owned. Great Zimbabwe University grew out of what was once Masvingo State University, Reformed Church University is another University 25 km south of Masvingo run by the Reformed Church of Zimbabwe. It was formerly the Great Zimbabwe University, Masvingo Teachers College is one of the government run colleges from which Great Zimbabwe devolved. The college has remained at the campus and the University has a new site. Other teachers colleges around Masvingo include the Reformed Church of Zimbabwe run Morgenster Teachers College, High schools in the city include Victoria High School, Kyle College, Masvingo Christian High School, Ndarama High School and Mucheke High School. Gokomere High School, one of the most prestigious schools in the whole of Masvingo Province
23.
Kimberley, Northern Cape
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Kimberley is the largest and capital city of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal, the city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. Notable personalities such as Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes here, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure on Sept.2,1882. The first Stock Exchange in Africa was also built in Kimberley, in 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his fathers farm. He showed the pebble to his father who sold it, the pebble was purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it. It proved to be a 21. 25-carat diamond, and became known as the Eureka, three years later, in 1869, an 83. 5-carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby. This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200, Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense, the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstones Red Cap Party, found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the diggings of the De Beer brothers — his arrival there sparking off the famous New Rush which. Within a month 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men, as the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine – in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nikolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields, the Free State Boers in particular wanted the area as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and Vaal Rivers. Following the mediation that was overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871. Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barklys visit to New Rush in September the following year, Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, the matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J. B. Currey. Roberts writes that when it came to renaming New Rush, proved himself a worthy diplomat and he made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it after His Lordship. New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873, digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone
24.
Economy of Zimbabwe
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The economy of Zimbabwe shrank significantly after 2000, resulting in a desperate situation for the country – widespread poverty and a 95% unemployment rate. Zimbabwes participation from 1998 to 2002 in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo set the stage for this deterioration by draining the country of hundreds of millions of dollars. Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe was a problem from about 2003 to April 2009. Zimbabwe faced 231 million percent peak hyperinflation in 2008, a combination of the abandonment of the Zimbabwe dollar and a government of national unity in 2009 resulted in a period of positive economic growth for the first time in a decade. The country has reserves of metallurgical-grade chromite, other commercial mineral deposits include coal, asbestos, copper, nickel, gold, platinum and iron ore. Since 2000, Zimbabwe has seized and forcibly redistributed most of the white owned commercial farms. Short term gains were achieved by selling the land or equipment, the contemporary lack of agricultural expertise has triggered severe export losses and negatively affected market confidence. Idle land is now being utilised by rural communities practicing subsistence farming, production of staple foodstuffs, such as maize, has recovered accordingly – unlike typical export crops including tobacco and coffee. Zimbabwe has also sustained the 30th occurrence of recorded hyperinflation in world history, Government spending is 29. 7% of GDP. State enterprises are strongly subsidized, taxes and tariffs are high, state regulation is costly to companies, starting or closing a business is slow and costly. Labour market is regulated, hiring a worker is cumbersome. By 2008 unemployment had risen to 94%, Zimbabwe has adequate internal transportation and electrical power networks, however maintenance has been neglected over several years. The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority is responsible for providing the country with electrical energy, Zimbabwe has two larger facilities for the generation of electrical power, the Kariba Dam and since 1983 by large Hwange Thermal Power Station adjacent to the Hwange coal field. However, total generation capacity does not meet the leading to rolling blackouts. The Hwange station is not capable of using its full capacity due to old age, in May 2010 the countrys generation power was an estimated 940MW against a peak demand of 2500MW. Use of local small scale generators is widespread, the telephone service is problematic, and new lines used to be difficult to obtain. This has since changed as sim cards are available at most retail shops. Zimbabwe has only one service provider however and the lack of competitiveness impacts the local population badly
25.
Chitungwiza
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Chitungwiza – known colloquially as Chi Town – is a high-density dormitory town in Zimbabwe. It is approximately 30 kilometres south-east of the Harare city centre and it was formed in 1978 from three townships, Seke, Zengeza, and St Marys. From early 2000s another township named Manyame Park was established making them four. Chitungwiza is the largest high density town in Zimbabwe, it is known for its hospital named Chitungwiza Central Hospital which is located in Zengeza 4 a suburb in Chitungwiza. Chitungwiza came into existence in the late 1970s with most black people who stayed in oldest high density towns like Highfield migrating to Chitungwiza. The oldest of the suburbs is St Marys which is divided two sections, Manyame Park and Old St Marys, St Marys is popularly known for being the oldest suburb in Chitown. There is Zengeza, which is divided into 5 sections i. e. Zengeza 1,2,3,4 and 5, Zengeza 4 being relatively the largest section. There is also Seke another suburb located in Chtown and it is divided into many sections i. e. Unit A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, O AND P. There is a mall in Chitungwiza which located between Seke and Zengeza it is popularly known as Chitungwiza Town Centre. Some of the shopping centres in Chitungwiza include Makoni, Chikwanha, PaGomba, Pazvido, PaJambanja, Chigovanyika, Huruyadzo, PaDaddy, unit j shopping centre. Chitungwiza is also known as home for some famous people in Zimbabwe including the late John Chibadura, Charles Charamba, Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa, Prophet Walter Magaya. Governing Structures In Chitungwiza, a city the services are provided by Chitungwiza Municipality which is run by the Chitungwiza Municipality Ward Councillors. There are 25 wards in Chitungwiza, and from the 25 ward councillors, the councillors including those elected for posts serve for 5-year term of office and are overally elected by the ward residents on Zimbabwe hamornised elections. The one who is in charge of the management and all employees of Chitungwiza Municipality, is the Town Clerk, the current Mayor and Deputy Mayor are Mr Phillip Mutoti and Mr Mushangwe respectively, for the 2013-2018 term of office. The Town Clerk is Dr George Makunde, and since he is a Government employee, the Director of Health and Environmental Services is Dr Tonderai Kasu, the Director of Engineering Services is Eng Maxwell Karenyi and the Finance Director is Mrs Evangelista Machona. Public transport is composed of single level buses and more reliably minibus taxis. Chitungwiza has over 30 primary schools and over 25 secondary schools, in terms of education, Chitungwiza has several schools some run by the local council, some by government and a few privately owned. Among the schools you find Zengeza 1 High School, Seke 1 High School, in higher education, Seke Teachers College which opened its doors to the public in 1982 trains primary school teachers in the general course and Early Childhood Development. St Marys ECD centre, the national model ECD centre is found in Chitungwiza
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Bougainvillea
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Bougainvillea is a genus of thorny ornamental vines, bushes, and trees with flower-like spring leaves near its flowers. Different authors accept between four and 18 species in the genus and they are native plants of West Africa Gambia, South America from Brazil west to Peru and south to southern Argentina. Bougainvillea are also known as buganvilla, bugambilia, pokok bunga kertas, bougenville, Napoleón, jahanamiya, veranera, trinitaria, the vine species grow anywhere from 1 to 12 m tall, scrambling over other plants with their spiky thorns. The thorns are tipped with a black, waxy substance and they are evergreen where rainfall occurs all year, or deciduous if there is a dry season. The leaves are alternate, simple ovate-acuminate, 4–13 cm long, Bougainvillea glabra is sometimes referred to as paper flower because the bracts are thin and papery. The fruit is a narrow five-lobed achene, Bougainvillea are relatively pest-free plants, but they may suffer from worms, snails and aphids. The larvae of some Lepidoptera species also use them as food plants and it is possible that the first European to observe these plants was Jeanne Baré, Commerçons lover and assistant who was an expert in botany. Because she was not allowed on ship as a woman, she disguised herself as a man in order to make the journey, twenty years after Commerçons discovery, it was first published as Buginvillæa in Genera Plantarum by A. L. de Jussieu in 1789. The genus was subsequently spelled in several ways until it was corrected to Bougainvillea in the Index Kewensis in the 1930s. Originally, B. spectabilis and B. glabra were hardly differentiated until the mid-1980s when botanists recognized them to be distinct species. Meanwhile, Kew Gardens distributed plants it had propagated to British colonies throughout the world, soon thereafter, an important event in the history of bougainvillea took place with the discovery of a crimson specimen in Cartagena, Colombia, by Mrs. R. V. Originally thought to be a species, it was named B. buttiana in her honour. However, it was discovered to be a natural hybrid of a variety of B. glabra. Natural hybrids were found to be common occurrences all over the world. Bougainvillea are popular plants in most areas with warm climates. Locarno in Switzerland, with its mild Mediterranean climate, is famous for its bougainvillea, although it is frost-sensitive and hardy in USDA Hardiness Zones 9b and 10, bougainvillea can be used as a houseplant or hanging basket in cooler climates. In the landscape, it makes an excellent hot season plant and its high salt tolerance makes it a natural choice for color in coastal regions. It can be pruned into a standard, but is grown along fence lines, on walls, in containers and hanging baskets
27.
Zambezi
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The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 square kilometres, the Zambezis most noted feature is Victoria Falls. Other notable falls include the Chavuma Falls at the border between Zambia and Angola, and Ngonye Falls, near Sioma in Western Zambia, there is also a smaller power station at Victoria Falls. The area around the source is a monument, forest reserve. Eastward of the source, the watershed between the Congo and Zambezi basins is a belt of high ground, running nearly east-west. This distinctly cuts off the basin of the Lualaba from that of the Zambezi, in the neighborhood of the source the watershed is not as clearly defined, but the two river systems do not connect. The region drained by the Zambezi is a vast broken-edged plateau 900–1200 m high, composed in the interior of metamorphic beds. Coal is also found in the district just below Victoria Falls, gold-bearing rocks occur in several places. The river flows to the south-west into Angola for about 240 kilometres, then is joined by tributaries such as the Luena. It turns south and develops a floodplain, with extreme variation between the dry and rainy seasons. It enters dense evergreen Cryptosepalum dry forest, though on its western side, where it re-enters Zambia it is nearly 400 metres wide in the rainy season and flows rapidly, with rapids ending in the Chavuma Falls, where the river flows through a rocky fissure. The river drops about 400 metres in elevation from its source at 1,500 metres to the Chavuma Falls at 1,100 metres, in a distance of about 400 kilometres. From this point to the Victoria Falls, the level of the basin is very uniform, the first of its large tributaries to enter the Zambezi is the Kabompo River in the north-western province of Zambia. A major advantage of the Kabompo River was irrigation, civilization was built on farming, and the surplus of crops. The savanna through which the river has flowed gives way to a wide floodplain, a little farther south is the confluence with the Lungwebungu River. This is the beginning of the Barotse Floodplain, the most notable feature of the upper Zambezi, for more than 200 km downstream the annual flood cycle dominates the natural environment and human life, society and culture. Eighty kilometres further down, the Luanginga, which with its tributaries drains an area to the west. A few kilometres higher up on the east the main stream is joined in the season by overflow of the Luampa/Luena system
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Limpopo
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Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the western and northern borders. The name Limpopo has its origin in the Northern Sotho language word diphororo tša meetse. The capital is Polokwane, formerly called Pietersburg, the province was formed from the northern region of Transvaal Province in 1994, and was initially named Northern Transvaal. An alternate name considered for the province was Mapungubwe, the area where its most ancient gold-using civilization had been discovered a few years earlier. Limpopo has the highest level of poverty of any South African province, in 2011,74. 4% of local dwellings were located in a tribal or traditional area, compared to a national average of 27. 1%. The Northern Sotho language is spoken by more than half of Limpopos population, Limpopo is the link between South Africa and countries further afield in sub-Saharan Africa. On its southern edge, from east to west, it borders with the South African provinces of Mpumalanga, Gauteng. Its border with Gauteng includes that provinces Johannesburg-Pretoria axis, the most industrialized metropole on the continent, the province is at the centre of regional, national, and international developing markets. Limpopo contains much of the Waterberg Biosphere, a massif of approximately 15,000 km2 which is the first region in the part of South Africa to be named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The massif was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion yielding diverse bluff, the Waterberg ecosystem can be characterized as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld. Within the Waterberg, archaeological finds date to the Stone Age, nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans. The current premier of Limpopo Province is Stanley Mathabatha, representing the African National Congress and it is also one of the poorest regions of South Africa with a big gap between poor and rich residents, especially in rural areas. However, Limpopos economy and standard of living have shown great improvement, a recent border shift with Limpopos wealthier neighbour, Mpumalanga, was effected to try and bring some wealth into the province. The bushveld is beef cattle country, where extensive ranching operations are often supplemented by controlled hunting, about 80% of South Africas game hunting industry is found in Limpopo. Sunflowers, cotton, maize and peanuts are cultivated in the Bela-Bela, Modimolle is also known for its table grapes. Tropical fruit, such as bananas, litchis, pineapples, mangoes and pawpaws, as well as a variety of nuts, are grown in the Tzaneen, Tzaneen is also at the centre of extensive citrus, tea and coffee plantations, and a major forestry industry. Commodities such as granite, corundum, and feldspar are also found
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Petrea
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Petrea is a genus of evergreen flowering vines native to Mexico and Central America. They have rough-textured leaves, hence the common name sandpaper vine and it looks somewhat similar to a tropical Wisteria. Carl Linnaeus named Petrea in honour of Robert James Petre, 8th Baron Petre of Ingatestone Hall in Essex, Petre was a patron of botany. Queens Wreath, Purple Wreath, Sandpaper Vine, Bluebird Vine Petrea blanchetiana Schauer syn, Petrea algentryi Moldenke, Petrea peruviana Moldenke, Petrea obtusifolia Benth. Petrea martiana Schauer, Petrea schomburgkiana Schauer Petrea denticulata Schrad, Petrea insignis Schauer Petrea macrostachya Benth. Petrea rugosa Kunth Petrea subserrata Cham
30.
Subtropics
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The subtropics are geographic and climate zones located roughly between the tropic circle of latitude at 23.5 latitude and temperate latitudes. Subtropical climates are characterized by warm to hot summers and cool to mild winters with infrequent frost. Subtropical climates can occur at elevations within the tropics, such as in the southern end of the Mexican Plateau and in Vietnam. Six climate classifications use the term to define the various temperature. A great portion of the deserts are located within the subtropics. Within savanna regimes in the subtropics, a wet season is seen annually during the summer, within Mediterranean climate regimes, the wet season occurs during the winter. Areas bordering warm oceans are prone to heavy rainfall from tropical cyclones. Plants such as palms, citrus, mango, lychee, the tropics have been historically defined as lying between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, located at 23. 45° north and south latitude respectively. The poleward fringe of the subtropics is located at approximately 40° north and south latitude respectively, northern fringes of the type can go further north due to moderating effects of ocean streams, like in parts of Southern Europe due to heat transported by the Gulf Stream. Several methods have used to define the subtropical climate. In the Trewartha climate classification, a subtropical region should have at least eight months with a temperature greater than 10 °C. According to the Troll-Paffen climate classification, there exists one large subtropical zone named the warm-temperate subtropical zone. According to the E. Neef climate classification, the zone is divided into two parts, Rainy winters of the west sides and Eastern subtropical climate. According to the Wilhelm Lauer & Peter Frankenberg climate classification, the zone is divided into three parts, high-continental, continental, and maritime. According to the Siegmund/Frankenberg climate classification, subtropical is one of six zones in the world. Heating of the earth near the equator leads to large amounts of upward motion and convection along the trough or Intertropical convergence zone. The upper-level divergence over the near-equatorial trough leads to air rising and moving away from the equator aloft, as the air moves towards the Mid-Latitudes, it cools and sinks, which leads to subsidence near the 30th parallel of both hemispheres. This circulation is known as the Hadley cell and leads to the formation of the subtropical ridge, many of the worlds deserts are caused by these climatological high-pressure areas, located within the subtropics
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Semiarid climate
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A semi-arid climate or steppe climate is the climate of a region that receives precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely. There are different kinds of climates, depending on such variables as temperature. Semi-arid climates tend to short or scrubby vegetation, with semi-arid areas usually dominated by either grasses or shrubs. To determine if a location has a climate, the precipitation threshold must first be determined. If the areas precipitation is less than the threshold but more than half the threshold. Hot semi-arid climates tend to be located in the tropics and subtropics and these climates tend to have hot, sometimes extremely hot, summers and warm to cool winters, with some to minimal precipitation. Hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found around the fringes of subtropical deserts, hot semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Africa, Australia and South Asia. In Australia, a portion of the Outback surrounding the central desert regions lies within the hot semi-arid climate regime. Hot semi-arid climates can also be found in North America, primarily in Mexico, areas of Texas near Mexico, cold semi-arid climates tend to be located in temperate zones or elevated portions in subtropical zones. They are typically found in continental interiors some distance from bodies of water. Cold semi-arid climates usually feature warm and dry summers, though their summers are not quite as hot as those of hot semi-arid climates. Unlike hot semi-arid climates, areas with cold semi-arid climates tend to have cold winters and these areas usually see some snowfall during the winter, though snowfall is much lower than at locations at similar latitudes with more humid climates. These large diurnal temperature variations are seen in hot semi-arid climates. Cold semi-arid climates are most commonly found in Asia and North America, however, they can also be found in Northern Africa, South Africa, Europe, sections of South America and sections of interior southern Australia and New Zealand. As a result of this, some areas can have climates that are classified as hot or cold depending on the isotherm used. One such location is San Diego, California, which has cool summers for the due to prevailing winds off the ocean. Arid Forest Research Institute Continental climate Dust Bowl Goyders Line Pallisers Triangle Köppen climate classification Wave height Ustic
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Pretoria
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Pretoria is a city in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the three capital cities, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government. Pretoria is the part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities including Centurion. There have been proposals to change the name of Pretoria itself to Tshwane, the elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over Dingane and the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River. The elder Pretorius also negotiated the Sand River Convention, in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal and it became the capital of the South African Republic on 1 May 1860. The founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic can be seen as marking the end of the Boers settlement movements of the Great Trek, during the First Boer War, the city was besieged by Republican forces in December 1880 and March 1881. The peace treaty ended the war was signed in Pretoria on 3 August 1881 at the Pretoria Convention. The Second Boer War resulted in the end of the Transvaal Republic, the city surrendered to British forces under Frederick Roberts on 5 June 1900 and the conflict was ended in Pretoria with the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. The Pretoria Forts were built for the defence of the city just prior to the Second Boer War, though some of these forts are today in ruins, a number of them have been preserved as national monuments. The Boer Republics of the ZAR and the Orange River Colony were united with the Cape Colony, Pretoria then became the administrative capital of the whole of South Africa, with Cape Town the legislative capital and Bloemfontein served as the judicial capital. Between 1910 and 1994, the city was also the capital of the province of Transvaal, on 14 October 1931, Pretoria achieved official city status. When South Africa became a republic in 1961, Pretoria remained its administrative capital and it lies at an altitude of about 1,339 m above sea level, in a warm, sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range. Pretoria has a subtropical climate with long hot rainy summers and short cool to cold. The city experiences the typical winters of South Africa with cold, clear nights, although the average lows during winter are mild it can get bitterly cold due to the clear skies, with nighttime low temperatures in recent years in the range of 2 to −5 °C. The average annual temperature is 18.7 °C, rain is chiefly concentrated in the summer months, with drought conditions prevailing over the winter months, when frosts may be sharp. Snowfall is a rare event, snowflakes were spotted in 1959,1968 and 2012 in the city. During a nationwide heatwave in November 2011, Pretoria experienced temperatures that reached 39 °C, similar record-breaking extreme heat events also occurred in January 2013, when Pretoria experienced temperatures exceeding 37 °C on several days. The year 2014 was one of the wettest on record for the city, a total of 914 mm fell up to the end of December, with 220 mm recorded in this month alone
Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Durban, South Africa
Katima Mulilo, Namibia
Francistown, Botswana
Livingstone, Zambia
