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Parakou

(Encyclopedia)Parakou pârˌəko͞oˈ [key], town (1992 pop. 103,577), central Benin. It is the trade center for a cotton, grain, and livestock-raising area. Located at the head of the railroad from Cotonou, it is ...

El Dorado, legendary country of South America

(Encyclopedia)El Dorado ĕlˈdəräˈdō, –rāˈ– [key] [Span.,=the gilded man], legendary country of the Golden Man sought by adventurers in South America. The legend supposedly originated in a custom of the C...

Malawi

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Malawi məläˈwē [key], officially Republic of Malawi, republic (2015 est. pop. 17,574,000), 45,200 sq mi (117,068 sq km), E central Africa. It borders on Zambia in the west, on Tanzania in t...

Agadez

(Encyclopedia)Agadez ägädĕsˈ [key], town, W central Niger, in the Aïr Massif. Agadez is a trade center visited by Tuareg pastoral nomads. Leather and silver handicrafts are ...

Afroasiatic languages

(Encyclopedia)Afroasiatic languages hămˈĭtō-səmĭtˈĭk [key], family of languages spoken by more than 250 million people in N Africa; much of the Sahara; parts of E, central, and W Africa; and W Asia (especia...

bushbuck

(Encyclopedia)bushbuck, either of two small, delicate, spiral-horned antelopes of sub-Saharan Africa, the imbabala (Tragelaphus sylvaticus) and the kéwel (T. scriptus), formerly classified as a single species. Bus...

Ramaphosa, Cyril

(Encyclopedia)Ramaphosa, Cyril (Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa), 1952–, South African political leader, b. Johannesburg. A lawyer, he became involved in the antiapartheid Black Consciousness Movement while a university...

Diourbel

(Encyclopedia)Diourbel dyo͝orbĕlˈ [key], town (1988 pop. 76,548), W Senegal, on the railroad from Dakar to the Niger River in Mali. The market for a peanut-growing region, it produces peanut oil as well as bever...

Sierra Leone

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Sierra Leone sēĕrˈə lēōˈnē, lēōnˈ; sērˈə lēōn [key], officially Republic of Sierra Leone, republic (2015 est. pop. 5,879,000), 27,699 sq mi (71,740 sq km), W Africa. It is borde...

Mopti

(Encyclopedia)Mopti môpˈtē [key], city (1993 pop. 75,000), central Mali, a port at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers. The city is built on three islets linked by dikes; one dike, 8 mi (12.9 km) long, c...