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river blindness

(Encyclopedia)river blindness or onchocerciasis, disease caused by the parasitic nematode worm Onchocerca volvulus. The worm larvae are transmitted by the bites of blackflies (genus Simulium) that live in fast movi...

Grand River, river, Canada

(Encyclopedia)Grand River, c.165 mi (270 km) long, rising in the highlands of the Ontario Peninsula, S Ont., Canada, and flowing S past Kitchener and Brantford, then SE to Lake Erie at Port Maitland. It is navigabl...

River Brethren

(Encyclopedia)River Brethren, name used to designate certain Christian bodies originating in 1770, during a revival movement among German settlers in E Pennsylvania. In the 1750s, Mennonite refugees from Switzerlan...

Islam in Africa

(Encyclopedia)Islam in Africa, the development of the Muslim religion on the African continent. During Muhammad's lifetime a group of Muslims escaped Meccan persecution (615) by fleeing to Ethiopia, where the Negus...

Horn of Africa

(Encyclopedia)Horn of Africa, peninsula, NE Africa, opposite the S Arabia Peninsula. Also known as the Somali Peninsula, it encompasses Somalia and E Ethiopia and is the easternmost extension of the continent, sepa...

Limpopo, province, South Africa

(Encyclopedia)Limpopo, province (2011 pop. 5,404,868), 48,554 sq mi (125,754 sq km), NE South Africa. In 1994, under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, Limpopo was created from the northern portion of the ...

German East Africa

(Encyclopedia)German East Africa, former German colony, c.370,000 sq mi (958,300 sq km), E Africa. Dar es Salaam was the capital. German influence emerged in the area in 1884 when Carl Peters, the German explorer, ...

Benin, Bight of

(Encyclopedia)Benin, Bight of, northern arm of the Gulf of Guinea, c.550 mi (885 km) wide, W Africa, between Cape Three Points, S Ghana, and the Niger River delta, SW Nigeria. The bight was an important area for sl...

Senegal, country, Africa

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Senegal sĕnĭgôlˈ, sĕnˈĭgôl [key], officially Republic of Senegal, republic (2015 est. pop. 13,975,000), 76,124 sq mi (197,161 sq km), W Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in t...

French Equatorial Africa

(Encyclopedia)French Equatorial Africa, former French federation in W central Africa. It consisted of four constituent territories: Gabon, Middle Congo (see Congo, Republic of the), Chad, and Ubangi-Shari (now the ...