Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Maathai, Wangari Muta

(Encyclopedia)Maathai, Wangari Muta wän-gäˈrē mātīˈ [key], 1940–2011, Kenyan environmental...

Maghreb

(Encyclopedia)Maghreb or Magrib both: mäˈgrĭb [key] [Arab.,=the West], Arabic term for NW Africa. It is generally applied to all of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia but actually pertains only to the area of the thr...

American Colonization Society

(Encyclopedia)American Colonization Society, organized Dec., 1816–Jan., 1817, at Washington, D.C., to transport free blacks from the United States and settle them in Africa. The freeing of many slaves, principall...

Breytenbach, Breyten

(Encyclopedia)Breytenbach, Breyten brīˈtən brīˈtənbäkh [key], 1939–, South African writer, painter, and activist. Although he is from a distinguished Afrikaner family, he soon became a committed opponent o...

Alexander Bay

(Encyclopedia)Alexander Bay, town, part of the Richtersveld local municipality, Northern Cape prov., NW South Africa, where the Orange River enters the Atlantic Ocean. Especially rich alluvial diamond deposits were...

Copperbelt

(Encyclopedia)Copperbelt, mining region, N central Zambia, central Africa. A natural extension of the mineral-rich region of SE Congo, the Copperbelt is one of the richest sources of copper in the world. Cobalt, se...

exploration

(Encyclopedia)exploration, travel to a part of the earth that is relatively unknown to the traveler's culture, historically often motivated by a desire for colonization, conquest, or trade. See also space explorati...

mallow

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Rose mallow, Hibiscus moscheutos mallow, common name for members of the Malvaceae, a family of herbs and shrubs distributed over most of the world and especially abundant in the American tropi...

basenji

(Encyclopedia)basenji bəsĕnˈjē [key], breed of medium-sized hound whose origins can be traced back several thousand years to Africa and the courts of the Egyptian pharaohs. It stands about 17 in. (43.2 cm) high...

Rhodesian ridgeback

(Encyclopedia)Rhodesian ridgeback, sometimes called the African lion hound, breed of large, muscular hound developed in South Africa in the 16th and 17th cent. It stands from 24 to 27 in. (61.0–68.6 cm) high at t...

Browse by Subject