Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

apartheid

(Encyclopedia)apartheid əpärtˈhīt [key] [Afrik.,=apartness], system of racial segregation peculiar to the Republic of South Africa, the legal basis of which was largely repealed in 1991–92. Despite public de...

kudu

(Encyclopedia)kudu ko͞oˈdo͞o [key], either of two oshort-haired African antelopes of genus Tragelaphus. The greater kudu, T. strepsiceros, has a reddish brown coat with thin vertical white stripes on its sides. ...

Central African Republic

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Central African Republic, republic (2020 est. pop. 4,829,767), 240,534 sq mi (622,983 sq km), central Africa. The landlocked nation is bordered b...

Kruger, Paul

(Encyclopedia)Kruger, Paul (Stephanas Johannes Paulus) kro͞oˈgər, Afrikaans stāfäˈnəs yōhäˈnəs pouˈləs krüˈgər [key], 1825–1904, South African Transvaal statesman, known as Oom Paul. As a child he...

Settle, Elkanah

(Encyclopedia)Settle, Elkanah, 1648–1724, English dramatist and poet. Thanks to the patronage of the earl of Rochester, Settle's heroic dramas for a time rivaled those of Dryden. His most successful play, the ela...

Lutyens, Sir Edwin Landseer

(Encyclopedia)Lutyens, Sir Edwin Landseer lŭˈchənz, lŭˈtyənz [key], 1869–1944, English architect. He began his career designing small houses in Surrey and later executed a series of large country establishm...

Tuskegee University

(Encyclopedia)Tuskegee University, at Tuskegee, Ala.; coeducational; chartered and opened 1881 by Booker T. Washington as Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. It became Tuskegee Institute in 1937 and adopted i...

Freetown

(Encyclopedia)Freetown, city (1995 est. pop. 519,500), capital of Sierra Leone, W Sierra Leone, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. Located on the Sierra Leone peninsula, Freetown is the nation's administrative, communic...

jackal

(Encyclopedia)jackal, name for several Old World carnivorous mammals of the genus Canis, which also includes the dog and the wolf. Jackals are found in Africa and S Asia, where they inhabit deserts, grasslands, and...

South African War

(Encyclopedia)South African War or Boer War, 1899–1902, war of the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State against Great Britain. The Boers accepted British sovereignty in exchange for a ...