1.
Niger River
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The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4,180 km. Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 in area and its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and its main tributary is the Benue River. The Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first Westerner known to have travelled to the portion of the Niger River. The earliest use of the name Niger for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono published in Italian in 1550, the name may come from Berber phrase ger-n-ger meaning river of rivers. As Timbuktu was the end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean. When European colonial powers began to send ships along the West coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres, was thought to be no more than coastal wetlands. The Niger River is a clear river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Nigers headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt. Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly, this begins in September, peaks in November, an unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases. The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and lakes the size of Belgium, the river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in the Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. All the water from the Bani River, which flows into the Delta at Mopti, the average loss is estimated at 31 km3/year, but varies considerably between years. The river is joined by various tributaries, but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria measured in Yola was estimated at 25 km3/year before the 1980s, the most important tributary of the Niger in Nigeria is the Benue River which merges with the river at Lokoja in Nigeria. The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river and this strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in capture of the upper Niger by the lower Niger. The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend, is an important area because it is the major river and this made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara, and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao. The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, the origin of the rivers name remains unclear. What is clear is that Niger was an appellation applied in the Mediterranean world from at least the Classical era, when knowledge of the area by Europeans was slightly better than fable
2.
Benue River
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The Benue River, previously known as the Chadda River or Tchadda, is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately 1,400 kilometres long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months, as a result, it is an important transportation route in the regions through which it flows. Large tributaries are the Faro River, the Gongola River and the Mayo Kébbi, other tributaries are Taraba River and River Katsina Ala. At the point of confluence, the Benue exceeds the Niger by volume, the mean discharge before 1960 was 3,400 cubic metres per second for the Benue and 2,500 cubic metres per second for the Niger. During the following decades, the runoff of both rivers decreased markedly due to irrigation, the Benue River flooded in October 2012, resulting in a large increase in the population of venomous snakes in the Duguri District, Alkaleri Local Government Area, Bauchi State. A July 2013 report indicated that over 200 people in the district had died of snakebite. The General Hospital in Kaltungo, Gombe State is the nearest location for treatment of snakebite, whoever is lucky to make it to Kaltungo is treated in only two days and then they return home
3.
Nigeria
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Its coast in the south lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. It comprises 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where the capital, Nigeria is officially a democratic secular country. Modern-day Nigeria has been the site of numerous kingdoms and tribal states over the millennia, the modern state originated from British colonial rule beginning in the 19th century, and the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures whilst practising indirect rule through traditional chiefdoms, Nigeria became a formally independent federation in 1960, and plunged into a civil war from 1967 to 1970. Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa, owing to its large population, with approximately 184 million inhabitants, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world. Nigeria has one of the largest populations of youth in the world, Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Christians, who live mostly in the southern part of the country, and Muslims in the northern part. A minority of the population practise religions indigenous to Nigeria, such as native to the Igbo. As of 2015, Nigeria is the worlds 20th largest economy, worth more than $500 billion and $1 trillion in terms of nominal GDP and it overtook South Africa to become Africas largest economy in 2014. The 2013 debt-to-GDP ratio was 11 percent, Nigeria is a member of the MINT group of countries, which are widely seen as the globes next BRIC-like economies. It is also listed among the Next Eleven economies set to become among the biggest in the world, Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many other international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations and OPEC. The name Nigeria was taken from the Niger River running through the country and this name was coined in the late 19th century by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later married Lord Lugard, a British colonial administrator. The origin of the name Niger, which applied only to the middle reaches of the Niger River, is uncertain. The word is likely an alteration of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen used by inhabitants along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu prior to 19th-century European colonialism. The Nok civilisation of Northern Nigeria flourished between 500 BC and AD200, producing life-sized terracotta figures which are some of the earliest known sculptures in Sub-Saharan Africa, further north, the cities Kano and Katsina have a recorded history dating to around 999 AD. Hausa kingdoms and the Kanem-Bornu Empire prospered as trade posts between North and West Africa, the Kingdom of Nri of the Igbo people consolidated in the 10th century and continued until it lost its sovereignty to the British in 1911. Nri was ruled by the Eze Nri, and the city of Nri is considered to be the foundation of Igbo culture, Nri and Aguleri, where the Igbo creation myth originates, are in the territory of the Umeuri clan. Members of the clan trace their lineages back to the patriarchal king-figure Eri, in West Africa, the oldest bronzes made using the lost-wax process were from Igbo Ukwu, a city under Nri influence. The Yoruba kingdoms of Ife and Oyo in southwestern Nigeria became prominent in the 12th and 14th centuries, the oldest signs of human settlement at Ifes current site date back to the 9th century, and its material culture includes terracotta and bronze figures
4.
Exeter Hall
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Exeter Hall was a hall on the north side of The Strand, London, England. It was erected between 1829 and 1831 on the site of Exeter Exchange, to designs by John Peter Gandy, the site was formerly part of Exeter House, the London residence of the Earls of Exeter, almost opposite the Savoy Hotel. The official opening date was 29 March 1831, the façade in The Strand featured a prominent recessed central extrance behind a screen of paired Corinthian columns set into a reserved Late Georgian front of housing over shopfronts. The smaller halls auditorium could hold around 1,000 people, Exeter Hall was used for holding religious and philanthropic meetings, including the Protestant Reformation Society, the Protestant Association, and the Trinitarian Bible Society. On 30 June 1834 the South Australia Company hosted a huge 7-hour public meeting there to support the establishment of the colony of South Australia. The meetings of the Anti-Slavery Society were also there and such were the significance of the political meetings that the phrase Exeter Hall became a metoynm for the Anti-Slavery lobby. In addition to its function as a meeting place, it functioned as the YMCA headquarters. Hector Berlioz first conducted concerts in Exeter Hall in 1852, Exeter Hall was torn down in 1907. The site where Exeter Hall used to be located is today occupied by the Strand Palace Hotel,32, Sackville Street, Piccadilly, and in other private buildings. The site of Exeter Change, in the Strand, was selected, as central and convenient, and the fabric, known as Exeter Hall, was completed in 1831. This joins, at angles, the passage from the side entrance, so that the ground plan of these passages resembles a capital T. They are now completely open. In the centre of its front row stands the chair, which in form much resembles that of King Edward the Confessor and it is of handsomely carved mahogany, with massy open elbows, and is cushioned, in the seat and back, with purple leather. Its dimensions are large, and any gentleman of small, or even of moderate size. Those who have seen it tenanted by Lord Winchelsea, will agree that few sit there with greater dignity, the platform is nominally appropriated to gentlemen, but the more curious sex seldom fail to get admittance there, in limited numbers. With all this enlargement, however, the Hall is still insufficient for the crowds who often flock thither, as is known by the audiences of the various Missionary. When the room is filled, the finest view of it is from the deep recesses behind the platform. The scene visible from thence is truly magnificent, over their heads, the whole scene is crowned by the back gallery, at a height of many feet, behind the crimson draperies which extend among the pillars, and this is completely full also
5.
Albert, Prince Consort
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Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was the husband of Queen Victoria. He was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europes ruling monarchs, at the age of 20, he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, they had nine children. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Queen came to depend more and more on his support and guidance. Albert died at the young age of 42, plunging the Queen into deep mourning for the rest of her life. Upon Queen Victorias death in 1901, their eldest son succeeded as Edward VII, Albert was born at Schloss Rosenau, near Coburg, Germany, the second son of Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and his first wife, Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. Alberts future wife, Victoria, was earlier in the same year with the assistance of the same midwife. Albert was baptised into the Lutheran Evangelical Church on 19 September 1819 in the Marble Hall at Schloss Rosenau with water taken from the local river, in 1825, Alberts great-uncle, Frederick IV, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, died. His death led to a realignment of Saxon duchies the following year and Alberts father became the first reigning duke of Saxe-Coburg, Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, spent their youth in a close companionship marred by their parents turbulent marriage and eventual separation and divorce. After their mother was exiled from court in 1824, she married her lover, Alexander von Hanstein, Count of Polzig and she presumably never saw her children again, and died of cancer at the age of 30 in 1831. The brothers were educated privately at home by Christoph Florschütz and later studied in Brussels, like many other German princes, Albert attended the University of Bonn, where he studied law, political economics, philosophy and the history of art. He played music and excelled at sport, especially fencing and riding and his tutors at Bonn included the philosopher Fichte and the poet Schlegel. By 1836, the idea of marriage between Albert and his cousin, Victoria, had arisen in the mind of their ambitious uncle Leopold, at this time, Victoria was the heiress presumptive to the British throne. Her father, Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent, the son of King George III, had died when she was a baby. Her mother the Duchess of Kent, was the sister of both Alberts father—the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha—and King Leopold. Leopold arranged for his sister, Victorias mother, to invite the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, William IV, however, disapproved of any match with the Coburgs, and instead favoured the suit of Prince Alexander, second son of the Prince of Orange. Victoria was well aware of the matrimonial plans and critically appraised a parade of eligible princes. Alexander, on the hand, she described as very plain. Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold to thank him for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me and he possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy
6.
Fowell Buxton
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Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet was an English Member of Parliament, brewer, abolitionist and social reformer. Buxton was born at Castle Hedingham, Essex and his father was also named Thomas Fowell Buxton. His mothers maiden name was Anna Hanbury, through the influence of his mother, who was a Quaker, Buxton became associated with the Gurney family of Earlham Hall, Norwich. He was especially close to Joseph John Gurney, his sister the prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, and their sister Hannah and he lived at Northrepps Hall in Norfolk. In 1808, Buxtons Hanbury family connections led to an appointment to work at the brewery of Truman, Hanbury & Company, in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, in 1811 he was made a partner in the business, renamed Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. Although he was a member of the Church of England, Buxton attended meetings of the Religious Society of Friends with some of the Gurneys, in this way he became involved in the social reform movement, in which Friends were prominent. He helped raise money for the weavers of London, who were being forced into poverty by the factory system and he provided financial support for Elizabeth Frys prison reform work and joined her Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate. Buxton was elected to Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis in 1818, as an MP he worked for changes in prison conditions and criminal law and for the abolition of slavery, in which he was helped by his sister-in-law Louisa Gurney Hoare. He also opposed capital punishment and pushed for its abolition, Thomas and Hannah Buxton had eight children. Four of them died of whooping cough over a period around April 1820. Another one died of some time later. Hannah would send boxes of toys to the missionary Anna Hinderer in Nigeria in 1855, by 1866 her grandchildren were parcelling up toys to send to Nigeria. The slave trade had been abolished in 1807, but Buxton began to work for the abolition of the institution of slavery, in 1823 he helped found the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. He also pressured the government to send dispatches to the colonies to improve the treatment of slaves, Buxton took over as leader of the abolition movement in the British House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired in 1825. He achieved his goal in 1833, when slavery was abolished in the British Empire, except in India. Buxton held his seat in Parliament until 1837, in 1839 Buxton urged the British government to make treaties with African leaders to abolish the slave trade. The government in turn backed the Niger expedition of 1841 put together by missionary organizations, more than 150 people were part of the expedition, which reached the Niger Delta and began negotiations. The British suffered such high mortality from fevers, with more than 25% of the group dying rapidly, david Livingstone was strongly influenced by Buxtons arguments that the African slave trade might be destroyed through the influence of legitimate trade and the spread of Christianity
7.
Robert Peel
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Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, FRS, PC, a British statesman and member of the Conservative Party, served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and twice as Home Secretary. He is regarded as the father of modern British policing and as one of the founders of the modern Conservative Party and he entered the House of Commons in 1809 under the tutelage of his father and of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Peel was widely seen as a star in the Conservative Party and served in various junior ministerial offices, becoming Chief Secretary for Ireland. He cut tariffs to stimulate trade, to replace the lost revenue he pushed through a 3% income tax and he played a central role in making free trade a reality and set up a modern banking system. In 1830 the Whigs finally returned to power and Peel became a member of the Opposition for the first time, Peel then issued the Tamworth Manifesto, laying down the principles upon which the modern British Conservative Party is based. His first ministry was a minority government, dependent on Whig support, after only four months, his government collapsed and he served as Leader of the Opposition during the second government of the Viscount Melbourne. Peel declined to head another minority government in May 1839, prompting a political crisis and he finally became Prime Minister again after the 1841 general election. His second government ruled for five years - its major legislation included the Mines and Collieries Act 1842, the Income Tax Act 1842, the Factories Act 1844, Peels government was weakened by anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment following the controversial Maynooth Grant of 1845. After the outbreak of the Great Irish Potato Famine, his decision to join with Whigs, Peel remained an influential backbench MP and leader of the Peelite faction until his death in 1850. Peel often started from a traditional Tory position in opposition to a measure, then reversed his stance, Peel, a Conservative, achieved repeal with the support of the Whigs in Parliament, overcoming the opposition of most of his own party. Many critics accordingly saw him as a traitor to the Tory cause, or as a Liberal wolf in sheeps clothing, taylor says, Peel was in the first rank of 19th century statesman. He carried Catholic Emancipation, he repealed the Corn Laws, he created the modern Conservative Party on the ruins of the old Toryism. Peel was born at Chamber Hall, Bury, Lancashire, to the industrialist and parliamentarian Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet and his father was one of the richest textile manufacturers of the early Industrial Revolution. Peel was educated briefly at Bury Grammar School, at Hipperholme Grammar School, then at Harrow School and finally Christ Church, Oxford and he was a law student at Lincolns Inn in 1809 before entering Parliament. Peel saw part-time military service as a Captain in the Manchester Regiment of Militia in 1808, Peel entered politics in 1809 at the age of 21, as MP for the Irish rotten borough of Cashel, Tipperary. With a scant 24 electors on the rolls, he was elected unopposed and his sponsor for the election was the Chief Secretary for Ireland, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, with whom Peels political career would be entwined for the next 25 years. Peel made his speech at the start of the 1810 session. His speech was a sensation, famously described by the Speaker, Charles Abbot, as chief secretary in Dublin in 1813, he proposed the setting up of a specialist police force, later called peelers
