|
Rain Queens
Queen Modjadji, or the Rain Queen, is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, a people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall. She is known as a mystical and historic figure who brought rain to her allies and drought to her enemies. She is not a ruler as such, but a powerful rainmaker and a traditional healer (ngaka). , the title is in dispute between two claimants. The traditional installation of Prince Lekukela Modjadji as the king of the Balobedu took place in October 2022 at Khetlhakoni Royal Palace in Modjadjiskloof outside Tzaneen in Limpopo. Princess Masalanabo, who was expected to be the next Rain Queen, is intended by the faction of the Modjadji Royal Council that installed him to now take a position reserved for her and become the Khadikholo (great aunt) of Balobedu. The other claimant is Lekukela's sister, who is known to loyalists as Masalanabo II Modjadji VII. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini; and it encloses Lesotho. Covering an area of , the country has Demographics of South Africa, a population of over 64 million people. Pretoria is the administrative capital, while Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament of South Africa, Parliament, is the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein is regarded as the judicial capital. The largest, most populous city is Johannesburg, followed by Cape Town and Durban. Cradle of Humankind, Archaeological findings suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa about 2.5 million years ago, and modern humans inhabited the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainmaking (ritual)
Rainmaking is a weather modification ritual that attempts to invoke rain. It is based on the belief that humans can influence nature, Spirit (animating force), spirits, or the Ancestor worship, ancestors who withhold or bring rain. Among the best known examples of weather modification rituals are North American rain dances, historically performed by many Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes, particularly in the Southwestern United States. Some of these weather modification rituals are still implemented today. American Rainmakers Julia M. Buttree (the wife of Ernest Thompson Seton) describes the rain dance of the Zuni people, Zuni, along with other Native American dances, in her book ''The Rhythm of the Redman''. Feathers and turquoise, or other blue items, are worn during the ceremony to symbolize wind and rain respectively. Details on how best to perform the Rain Dance have been passed down by oral tradition. In an early sort of meteorology, Native Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stipend
A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work performed; instead it represents a payment that enables somebody to be exempt partly or wholly from waged or salaried employment in order to undertake a role that is normally unpaid or voluntary, or which cannot be measured in terms of a task (e.g. members of the clergy). A paid judge in an English or Welsh magistrates' court (England and Wales), magistrates' court was formerly termed a "stipendiary magistrate", as distinct from the unpaid "lay magistrates". In 2000, these were respectively renamed "district judge (magistrates courts), district judge" and "Magistrate (England and Wales), magistrate". Stipends are usually lower than would be expected as a permanent salary for similar work. This is because the stipend is complemented by other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil List
A civil list is a list of individuals to whom money is paid by the government, typically for service to the state or as honorary pensions. It is a term especially associated with the United Kingdom, and its former colonies and dominions. It was originally defined as expenses supporting the British monarchy. United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, the Civil List was, until 2011, the annual grant that covered some expenses associated with the Sovereign performing their official duties, including those for staff salaries, state visits, public engagements, ceremonial functions and the upkeep of the Royal Households. The cost of transport and security for the royal family, together with property maintenance and other sundry expenses, were covered by separate grants from individual government departments. The Civil List was abolished under the ''Sovereign Grant Act 2011''. History Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the expenses relating to the support of the mon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apartheid
Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an authoritarian political culture based on ''baasskap'' ( 'boss-ship' or 'boss-hood'), which ensured that South Africa was dominated politically, socially, and economically by the nation's minority White South Africans, white population. Under this minoritarianism, minoritarian system, white citizens held the highest status, followed by Indian South Africans, Indians, Coloureds and Ethnic groups in South Africa#Black South Africans, black Africans, in that order. The economic legacy and social effects of apartheid continue to the present day, particularly Inequality in post-apartheid South Africa, inequality. Broadly speaking, apartheid was delineated into ''petty apartheid'', which entailed the segregation of public facilities and social ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the first elected in a Universal suffrage, fully representative democratic election. Presidency of Nelson Mandela, His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by fostering racial Conflict resolution, reconciliation. Ideologically an African nationalist and African socialism, socialist, he served as the president of the African National Congress (ANC) party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa people, Xhosa, Mandela was born into the Thembu people, Thembu royal family in Mvezo, South Africa. He studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and Afr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mokope Modjadji
Mokope Modjadji V (27 April 193728 June 2001) was the fifth Rain Queen of the Balobedu Nation in the Limpopo Province of South Africa from 1981 until her death in 2001. Life Mokope Modjadji was very traditional in her role as Rain Queen. She lived in seclusion in the Royal Compound in Khetlhakone Village and followed all the customs the Rain Queens were expected to follow. Mokope Modjadji met and became good friends with the then President of South Africa Nelson Mandela in 1994. Mandela could speak to Mokope only through the traditional intermediary. Later they became better friends and Mandela bought the Rain Queen a Japanese car to help her travel up the steep roads to her Royal Compound. He was then able to meet her in person and when asked about the Rain Queen Mandela said that, just like Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modjadji Cycad
''Encephalartos transvenosus'' is a palm-like cycad in the family Zamiaceae, with a localized distribution in Limpopo, South Africa. Its common names, Modjadji's cycad or Modjadji's palm, allude to the female dynasty of the Lobedu people, the Rain Queens, whose hereditary name is Modjadji. The queen resides near a valley (of late a nature reserve) which is densely forested with these cycads, which they protected and hold sacred. The species name ''transvenosus'' refers to the fine network of veins between the main veins. These can be seen when the leaf is held up to the light. Description The cycad can reach a height of twelve meters with a thick trunk marked by a net-like pattern. It has shiny, spiny leaves arranged in a nearly straight pattern, each leaf reaching up to two and a half meters in length. The leaflets are wide, with the middle ones reaching about three centimeters in width, slightly curved, and with small teeth along the edges. The tree produces two to four large ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tropical Rain Belt
Rainfall and the tropical climate dominate the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year, roughly following the solar equator. The tropical rain belt is an area of active rain that is positioned mostly around the tropics. Mechanism The reason the rain belt is situated near the tropics can be attributed to the fact that the Sun's radiation is strongest near the equator, which is located in the middle of the tropics. This solar radiation generates large amounts of heat near the equator. This causes the air at ground level in the tropics to warm up. Because hot air is less dense than cold air, the hot air rises into the upper levels of the atmosphere, cooling as it rises. However, cooler air cannot hold as much moisture as hot air, so when the air rises and cools, its water condenses, forming clouds which cause rain in the form of thunderstorms and rain showers. Location The tropical rain belt is located along the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cycad
Cycads are seed plants that typically have a stout and woody (ligneous) trunk (botany), trunk with a crown (botany), crown of large, hard, stiff, evergreen and (usually) pinnate leaves. The species are dioecious, that is, individual plants of a species are either male or female. Cycads vary in size from having trunks only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow slowly and have long lifespans. Because of their superficial resemblance to Arecaceae, palms or ferns, they are sometimes mistaken for them, but they are not closely related to either group. Cycads are gymnosperms (naked-seeded), meaning their fertilization, unfertilized seeds are open to the air to be directly fertilized by pollination, as contrasted with angiosperms, which have enclosed seeds with more complex fertilization arrangements. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a specific beetle, and more rarely a thrips or a moth. Both male and female cycads bear cones (strobilus, stro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
