title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: In April 1907, Rimsky-Korsakov conducted a pair of concerts in Paris, hosted by impresario Sergei Diaghilev, which featured music of the Russian nationalist school. The concerts were hugely successful in popularizing Russian classical music of this kind in Europe, Rimsky-Korsakov's in particular. The following year, his opera "Sadko" was produced at the Paris Opéra and "The Snow Maiden" at the Opéra-Comique. He also had the opportunity to hear more recent music by European composers. He hissed unabashedly when he heard Richard Strauss's opera "Salome", and told Diaghilev after hearing Claude Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande", "Don't make me listen to all these horrors or I shall end up liking them!" Hearing these works led him to appreciate his place in the world of classical music. He admitted that he was a "convinced kuchkist" (after "kuchka", the shortened Russian term for The Five) and that his works belonged to an era that musical trends had left behind.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Beginning around 1890, Rimsky-Korsakov suffered from angina. While this ailment initially wore him down gradually, the stresses concurrent with the 1905 Revolution and its aftermath greatly accelerated its progress. After December 1907, his illness became severe, and he could not work.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: In 1908, he died at his Lubensk estate near Luga (modern day Plyussky District of Pskov Oblast), and was interred in Tikhvin Cemetery at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery in Saint Petersburg, next to Borodin, Glinka, Mussorgsky and Stasov.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov followed the musical ideals espoused by The Five. He employed Orthodox liturgical themes in the "Russian Easter Festival Overture", folk song in "Capriccio Espagnol" and orientalism in "Scheherazade", possibly his best known work. He proved a prolific composer but also a perpetually self-critical one. He revised every orchestral work up to and including his Third Symphony—some, like "Antar" and "Sadko", more than once. These revisions range from minor changes of tempo, phrasing and instrumental detail to wholesale transposition and complete recomposition.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov was open about the influences in his music, telling Vasily Yastrebtsev, "Study Liszt and Balakirev more closely, and you'll see that a great deal in me is not mine". He followed Balakirev in his use of the whole tone scale, treatment of folk songs and musical orientalism and Liszt for harmonic adventurousness. (The violin melody used to portray Scheherazade is very closely related to its counterpart in Balakirev's symphonic poem "Tamara", while the "Russian Easter Overtures" follows the design and plan of Balakirev's Second Overture on Russian Themes.)


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Nevertheless, while he took Glinka and Liszt as his harmonic models, his use of whole tone and octatonic scales do demonstrate his originality. He developed both these compositional devices for the "fantastic" sections of his operas, which depicted magical or supernatural characters and events.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov maintained an interest in harmonic experiments and continued exploring new idioms throughout his career. He tempered this interest with an abhorrence of excess and kept his tendency to experiment under constant control. The more radical his harmonies became, the more he attempted to control them with strict rules—applying his "musical conscience", as he called it. In this sense, he was both a progressive and a conservative composer. The whole tone and octatonic scales were both considered adventurous in the Western classical tradition, and Rimsky-Korsakov's use of them made his harmonies seem radical. Conversely, his care about how or when in a composition he used these scales made him seem conservative compared with later composers like Igor Stravinsky, though they were often building on Rimsky-Korsakov's work.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: While Rimsky-Korsakov is best known in the West for his orchestral works, his operas are more complex, offering a wider variety of orchestral effects than in his instrumental works and fine vocal writing. Excerpts and suites from them have proved as popular in the West as the purely orchestral works. The best-known of these excerpts is probably "Flight of the Bumblebee" from "The Tale of Tsar Saltan," which has often been heard by itself in orchestral programs, and in countless arrangements and transcriptions, most famously in a piano version made by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Other selections familiar to listeners in the West are "Dance of the Tumblers" from "The Snow Maiden", "Procession of the Nobles" from "Mlada", and "Song of the Indian Guest" (or, less accurately, "Song of India") from "Sadko", as well as suites from "The Golden Cockerel" and "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya".


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Of this range, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in 1902, "In every new work of mine I am trying to do something that is new for me. On the one hand, I am pushed on by the thought that in this way, [my music] will retain freshness and interest, but at the same time I am prompted by my pride to think that many facets, devices, moods and styles, if not all, should be within my reach."


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: American music critic and journalist Harold C. Schonberg wrote that the operas "open up a delightful new world, the world of the Russian East, the world of supernaturalism and the exotic, the world of Slavic pantheism and vanished races. Genuine poetry suffuses them, and they are scored with brilliance and resource." According to some critics Rimsky-Korsakov's music in these works lacks dramatic power, a seemingly fatal flaw in an operatic composer. This may have been conscious, as he repeatedly stated in his writing that he felt operas were first and foremost musical works rather than mainly dramatic ones. Ironically, the operas succeed dramatically in most cases by being deliberately non-theatrical.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: The purely orchestral works fall into two categories. The best-known ones in the West, and perhaps the finest in overall quality, are mainly programmatic in nature — in other words, the musical content and how it is handled in the piece is determined by the plot or characters in a story, the action in a painting or events reported through another non-musical source. The second category of works is more academic, such as his First and Third Symphonies and his Sinfonietta. In these, Rimsky-Korsakov still employed folk themes but subjected them to abstract rules of musical composition.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Program music came naturally to Rimsky-Korsakov. To him, "even a folk theme has a program of sorts." He composed the majority of his orchestral works in this genre at two periods of his career—at the beginning, with "Sadko" and "Antar" (also known as his Second Symphony, Op. 9), and in the 1880s, with "Scheherazade", "Capriccio Espagnol" and the "Russian Easter Overture". Despite the gap between these two periods, the composer's overall approach and the way he used his musical themes remained consistent. Both "Antar" and "Scheherazade" use a robust "Russian" theme to portray the male protagonists (the title character in "Antar"; the sultan in "Scheherazade") and a more sinuous "Eastern" theme for the female ones (the peri Gul-Nazar in "Antar" and the title character in "Scheherazade").


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Where Rimsky-Korsakov changed between these two sets of works was in orchestration. While his pieces were always celebrated for their imaginative use of instrumental forces, the sparser textures of "Sadko" and "Antar" pale compared to the luxuriance of the more popular works of the 1880s. While a principle of highlighting "primary hues" of instrumental color remained in place, it was augmented in the later works by a sophisticated cachet of orchestral effects, some gleaned from other composers including Wagner, but many invented by himself.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: As a result, these works resemble brightly colored mosaics, striking in their own right and often scored with a juxtaposition of pure orchestral groups. The final "tutti" of "Scheherazade" is a prime example of this scoring. The theme is assigned to trombones playing in unison, and is accompanied by a combination of string patterns. Meanwhile, another pattern alternates with chromatic scales in the woodwinds and a third pattern of rhythms is played by percussion.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov's non-program music, though well-crafted, does not rise to the same level of inspiration as his programmatic works; he needed fantasy to bring out the best in him. The First Symphony follows the outlines of Schumann's Fourth extremely closely, and is slighter in its thematic material than his later compositions. The Third Symphony and Sinfonietta each contain a series of variations on less-than-the-best music that can lead to tedium.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov composed dozens of art songs, arrangements of folk songs, chamber and piano music. While the piano music is relatively unimportant, many of the art songs possess a delicate beauty. While they yield in overt lyricism to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, otherwise they reserve their place in the standard repertory of Russian singers.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov also wrote a body of choral works, both secular and for Russian Orthodox Church service. The latter include settings of portions of the "Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" (despite his own atheism).


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: The critic Vladimir Stasov, who along with Balakirev had founded The Five, wrote in 1882, "Beginning with Glinka, all the best Russian musicians have been very skeptical of book learning and have never approached it with the servility and the superstitious reverence with which it is approached to this day in many parts of Europe." This statement was not true for Glinka, who studied Western music theory assiduously with Siegfried Dehn in Berlin before he composed his opera "A Life for the Tsar". It was true for Balakirev, who "opposed academicism with tremendous vigor," and it was true initially for Rimsky-Korsakov, who had been imbued by Balakirev and Stasov with the same attitude.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: One point Stasov omitted purposely, which would have disproved his statement completely, was that at the time he wrote it, Rimsky-Korsakov had been pouring his "book learning" into students at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory for over a decade. Beginning with his three years of self-imposed study, Rimsky-Korsakov had drawn closer to Tchaikovsky and further away from the rest of The Five, while the rest of The Five had drawn back from him and Stasov had branded him a "renegade". Richard Taruskin wrote, "The older he became, the greater was the irony with which Rimsky-Korsakov looked back on his kuchkist days." When the young Semyon Kruglikov was considering a future in composition, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the future critic,


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: About a talent for composition ... I can say nothing as yet. You have tried your powers too little ... Yes, one can study on one's own. Sometimes one needs advice, but one must study ... All of us, that is, I myself and Borodin, and Balakirev, and especially Cui and Mussorgsky, did disdain these things. I consider myself lucky that I bethought myself in time and forced myself to work. As for Balakirev, owing to his insufficient technique he writes little; Borodin, with difficulty; Cui, carelessly; and Mussorgsky, sloppily and often incoherently.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Taruskin points out this statement, which Rimsky-Korsakov wrote while Borodin and Mussorgsky were still alive, as proof of his estrangement from the rest of The Five and an indication of the kind of teacher he eventually became. By the time he instructed Liadov and Glazunov, "their training hardly differed from [Tchaikovsky's]. An ideal of the strictest professionalism was instilled in them from the beginning." By the time Borodin died in 1887, the era of autodidactism for Russian composers had effectively ended. Every Russian who aspired to write classical music attended a conservatory and received the same formal education. "There was no more 'Moscow', no 'St. Petersburg'." Taruskin writes; "at last all Russia was one. Moreover, by century's end, the theory and composition faculties of Rubinstein's Conservatory were entirely in the hands of representatives of the New Russian School. Viewed against the background of Stasov's predictions, there could scarcely be any greater irony."


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov taught theory and composition to 250 students over his 35-year tenure at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, "enough to people a whole 'school' of composers". This does not include pupils at the two other schools where he taught, including Glazunov, or those he taught privately at his home, such as Igor Stravinsky. Apart from Glazunov and Stravinsky, students who later found fame included Anatoly Lyadov, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, Alexander Spendiaryan, Sergei Prokofiev, Ottorino Respighi, Witold Maliszewski, Mykola Lysenko, Artur Kapp, and Konstanty Gorski. Other students included the music critic and musicologist Alexander Ossovsky, and the composer Lazare Saminsky.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov felt talented students needed little formal dictated instruction. His teaching method included distinct steps: show the students everything needed in harmony and counterpoint; direct them in understanding the forms of composition; give them a year or two of systematic study in the development of technique, exercises in free composition and orchestration; instill a good knowledge of the piano. Once these were properly completed, studies would be over. He carried this attitude into his conservatory classes. Conductor Nikolai Malko remembered that Rimsky-Korsakov began the first class of the term by saying, "I will speak, and you will listen. Then I will speak less, and you will start to work. And finally I will not speak at all, and you will work." Malko added that his class followed exactly this pattern. "Rimsky-Korsakov explained everything so clearly and simply that all we had to do was to do our work well."


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov's editing of works by The Five is significant. It was a practical extension of the collaborative atmosphere of The Five during the 1860s and 1870s, when they heard each other's compositions in progress and worked on them together, and was an effort to save works that would otherwise either have languished unheard or become lost entirely. This work included the completion of Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", which Rimsky-Korsakov undertook with the help of Glazunov after Borodin's death, and the orchestration of passages from César Cui's "William Ratcliff" for its first production in 1869. He also completely orchestrated the opera "The Stone Guest by "Alexander Dargomyzhsky three times—in 1869–70, 1892 and 1902. While not a member of The Five himself, Dargomyzhsky was closely associated with the group and shared their musical philosophy.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Musicologist Francis Maes wrote that while Rimsky-Korsakov's efforts are laudable, they are also controversial. It was generally assumed that with "Prince Igor", Rimsky-Korsakov edited and orchestrated the existing fragments of the opera while Glazunov composed and added missing parts, including most of the third act and the overture. This was exactly what Rimsky-Korsakov stated in his memoirs. Both Maes and Richard Taruskin cite an analysis of Borodin's manuscripts by musicologist Pavel Lamm, which showed that Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov discarded nearly 20 percent of Borodin's score. According to Maes, the result is more a collaborative effort by all three composers than a true representation of Borodin's intent. Lamm stated that because of the extremely chaotic state of Borodin's manuscripts, a modern alternative to Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov's edition would be extremely difficult to complete.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: More debatable, according to Maes, is Rimsky-Korsakov's editing of Mussorgsky's works. After Mussorgsky's death in 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov revised and completed several of Mussorgsky's works for publication and performance, helping to spread Mussorgsky's works throughout Russia and to the West. Maes, in reviewing Mussorgsky's scores, wrote that Rimsky-Korsakov allowed his "musical conscience" to dictate his editing, and he changed or removed what he considered musical over-experimentation or poor form. Because of this, Rimsky-Korsakov has been accused of pedantry in "correcting", among other things, matters of harmony. Rimsky-Korsakov may have foreseen questions over his efforts when he wrote,


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: If Mussorgsky's compositions are destined to live unfaded for fifty years after their author's death (when all his works will become the property of any and every publisher), such an archeologically accurate edition will always be possible, as the manuscripts went to the Public Library on leaving me. For the present, though, there was need of an edition for performances, for practical artistic purposes, for making his colossal talent known, and not for the mere studying of his personality and artistic sins.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Maes stated that time proved Rimsky-Korsakov correct when it came to posterity's re-evaluation of Mussorgsky's work. Mussorgsky's musical style, once considered unpolished, is now admired for its originality. While Rimsky-Korsakov's arrangement of "Night on Bald Mountain" is still the version generally performed, Rimsky-Korsakov's other revisions, like his version of "Boris Godunov", have been replaced by Mussorgsky's original.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov may have saved the most personal side of his creativity for his approach to Russian folklore. Folklorism as practiced by Balakirev and the other members of The Five had been based largely on the "protyazhnaya" dance song. "Protyazhnaya" literally meant "drawn-out song", or melismatically elaborated lyric song. The characteristics of this song exhibit extreme rhythmic flexibility, an asymmetrical phrase structure and tonal ambiguity. After composing "May Night", Rimsky-Korsakov was increasingly drawn to "calendar songs", which were written for specific ritual occasions. The ties to folk culture was what interested him most in folk music, even in his days with The Five; these songs formed a part of rural customs, echoed old Slavic paganism and the pantheistic world of folk rites. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote that his interest in these songs was heightened by his study of them while compiling his folk song collections. He wrote that he "was captivated by the poetic side of the cult of sun-worship, and sought its survivals and echoes in both the tunes and the words of the songs. The pictures of the ancient pagan period and spirit loomed before me, as it then seemed, with great clarity, luring me on with the charm of antiquity. These occupations subsequently had a great influence in the direction of my own activity as a composer".


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov's interest in pantheism was whetted by the folkloristic studies of Alexander Afanasyev. That author's standard work, "The Poetic Outlook on Nature by the Slavs", became Rimsky-Korsakov's pantheistic bible. The composer first applied Afanasyev's ideas in "May Night", in which he helped fill out Gogol's story by using folk dances and calendar songs. He went further down this path in "The Snow Maiden", where he made extensive use of seasonal calendar songs and "khorovodi" (ceremonial dances) in the folk tradition.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Musicologists and Slavicists have long recognized that Rimsky-Korsakov was an ecumenical artist whose folklore-inspired operas take up such issues as the relationship between paganism and Christianity and the seventeenth-century schism in the Orthodox Church.


title: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

text: Rimsky-Korsakov's autobiography and his books on harmony and orchestration have been translated into English and published. Two books he started in 1892 but left unfinished were a comprehensive text on Russian music and a manuscript, now lost, on an unknown subject.


title: Lucas Wong

text: Wong Yuk-hei (; born 25 January 1999), better known mononymously as Lucas (), is a Hong Kong rapper, singer, and model based in South Korea. He is a member of the South Korean boy group NCT, its Chinese sub-unit WayV and rotational sub-unit NCT U, as well as the supergroup SuperM. In China, he has appeared as a regular cast member of the seventh and ninth season of the popular variety show "Keep Running".


title: Lucas Wong

text: Lucas was born on 25 January 1999 in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, to a Chinese father with Teochew ancestry and a Thai mother. He has one younger brother and attended Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' Yow Kam Yuen College.


title: Lucas Wong

text: Lucas helped run a Thai restaurant in Hong Kong owned by his parents. He visited Thailand often, at least once a year, to rest and visit his mother's family.


title: Lucas Wong

text: In late 2015, Lucas was scouted by SM Entertainment after passing a Global Audition in Hong Kong. As an SM trainee, Lucas received training in modelling before switching to idol preparations and learning singing, rapping, and dancing. On 5 April 2017, he was introduced as a member of SM Rookies, a pre-debut training team of young trainees. On 7 April 2017, Lucas made an appearance in NCT member Ten's "Dream In A Dream" music video. Lucas, whose mother tongue is Cantonese, studied Korean and Mandarin in preparation for his debut.


title: Lucas Wong

text: In January 2018, SM Entertainment unveiled NCT 2018, a project group for the expansive boy group NCT. Lucas, together with Kun and Jungwoo, were the group's newest members. The trio were introduced in SM's "NCT 2018 Yearbook #1" on 30 January 2018. Lucas officially made his debut with NCT on 14 March with their debut studio album "NCT 2018 Empathy". Lucas recorded three songs for the album as part of the sub-unit NCT U, including title tracks "Boss," "Yestoday" (both as NCT U), and "Black on Black" (as NCT 2018). To promote the album, Lucas appeared on Korean variety shows "Real Man 300" and "Law of the Jungle in Last Indian Ocean" as a regular cast member.


title: Lucas Wong

text: Lucas was featured on Taeyeon's "All Night Long," a track recorded for her EP "Something New", released in June 2018. The song peaked at number 72 on the Gaon Digital Chart.


title: Lucas Wong

text: Lucas made his runway debut at Seoul Fashion Week in 2018, walking for fashion streetwear brand KYE, Charm's, and Kappa.


title: Lucas Wong

text: In November 2018, SM Entertainment released the digital single "Coffee Break" by Jonah Nilsson and Lucas featuring Richard Bona for its SM Station 3 project. In December 2018, Lucas was announced as part of NCT's China-based unit WayV, managed by SM Entertainment subsidiary Label V. The seven-member unit officially debuted on 17 January 2019 with their debut single album "The Vision". Its lead single "Regular" was the Mandarin version of "Regular" by NCT 127. The following month, Lucas joined the cast of Chinese variety show "Keep Running" as a fixed cast member for its seventh season.


title: Lucas Wong

text: On 7 August 2019, Lucas was announced as a member of SuperM, a K-pop supergroup created by SM Entertainment in collaboration with Capitol Records. The group's promotions began in October, aimed at the American market. SuperM's self-titled debut EP was released on 4 October 2019 with lead single "Jopping". On 5 October, Lucas held his first concert with SuperM at the Capitol Records Building in Los Angeles, preceding a world tour with stops in North America and planned stops in Europe and Asia.


title: Lucas Wong

text: In October 2020, Lucas returned to perform with NCT for the first time since "Black on Black" in 2018 for the second group-wide project, NCT 2020, featuring all 23 members. He participated in the album "Resonance Pt. 1" on the songs "Make A Wish (Birthday Song)" and its English version, "Faded In My Last Song", and "Volcano" by NCT U, as well as "Nectar" by WayV. He also participated in the all-members single "Resonance".


title: Lucas Wong

text: On 10 March 2021, WayV released their third EP, "Kick Back", with the lead single of the same name. The album became the group's first number one album on Gaon Album Chart.


title: Lucas Wong

text: On 25 August 2021, Lucas was scheduled to release the single "Jalapeño" alongside fellow WayV member Hendery. However, following controversy arising from his alleged past relationships, SM Entertainment and Label V announced that the release, as well as its promotions, had been postponed. Lucas also announced that he would temporarily halt his activities with WayV.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Gadde Rajendra Prasad (born 19 July 1956) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Telugu films. He is a recipient of four Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Awards, three SIIMA Awards, and three Santosham Film Awards.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Prasad made his debut in 1977 with "Sneham" and gained recognition with "Manchu Pallaki" (1982). He then went on to be starred in several successful comedy films such as "Rendu Rellu Aaru" (1986), "Ladies Tailor" (1986), "Aha Naa-Pellanta!" (1987), "Appula Appa Rao" (1991), and "Mayalodu" (1993). He received Nandi Award for Best Actor for "Erra Mandaram" (1991) and "Aa Naluguru" (2004). He has also received an Honorary doctorate from Andhra University. In 2012, he starred in the medical thriller "Dream", for which he won the Royal Reel Award at the Canada International Film Festival.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: He is fondly called "Nata Kireeti" and he has been honored with the title "Hasya Kireeti" by the Telugu Alliances of Canada, held at Mississauga. He was also honored to walk the green carpet at the IIFA film festival held in 2009, marking his performance in the English-language film, "Quick Gun Murugun".


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Prasad was born into a middle-class family to Gadde Venkata Narayana and Manikyamba from dondapadu, Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh. His father was a teacher. Prasad completed his graduation with a diploma in Ceramic Engineering before entering the film industry. He joined a company but had to resign from the job because he was too young. After witnessing the shooting of the film "Tatamma Kala", he aspired to join the industry, and upon the suggestion of N.T.R and N. Trivikrama Rao he joined an acting school.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Prasad is married to Vijaya Chamundeswari. She is the daughter of Rama Prabha. They have a son and a daughter.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Prasad made his debut as an actor on the silver screen with the film "Sneham" (1977), directed by Bapu. Initially, he worked as a dubbing artist and played many supporting roles. He played a supporting role in the film "Ramarajyamlo Bheemaraju", starring Krishna, which fetched him a chance in 14 films.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: He was identified by director Vamsy to play a lead role in his film, "Preminchu Pelladu". He rose to fame with Vamsy's "Ladies Tailor". He continued to act in supporting roles while also playing lead roles. In a career of over 35 years, he acted in more than 200 Telugu films and few Tamil films. Prasad has been called a "great comedy actor" and is fondly called the "King of Comedy" and "Natakireeti" in Andhra Pradesh.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: His collaboration with the director Jandhyala in "Aha Naa Pellanta" established him as an overnight star. He also made successful collaborations with directors Vamsy, E. V. V. Satyanarayana, S. V. Krishna Reddy and Relangi Narasimha Rao. Notably, Relangi made 32 films (out of 70 as a director) with Prasad.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: One major role which garnered him a lot of accolades was in the movie "Aa Naluguru," for which he won the State Nandi Award for the second time in his career. Critically acclaimed films such as "Mee Sreyobhilashi" and "Onamalu" made him one of the most promising actors in Telugu film industry. He acted as Lord Hanuman in the blockbuster multi-star film "Devullu".


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: In 2009, Prasad played the titular role in the English-language film, "Quick Gun Murugun". The film was screened at the London Film Festival, the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, the New York Asian Film Festival and at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: He played remarkable characters as supporting artist in films such as "Julai", "Aagadu", "S/O Satyamurthy", "Srimanthudu" and "Nannaku Prematho" as well as elderly characters in films like "Dagudumoota Dandakore".


title: Rajendra Prasad (actor)

text: Telugu people who emigrated abroad would take Prasad's movies along with them, such was the popularity and impact of his films on at least two generations of Telugu people. The then prime minister P. V. Narasimha Rao too was a huge fan of Prasad.


title: Pollyanna

text: Pollyanna is a 1913 novel by American author Eleanor H. Porter, considered a classic of children's literature. The book's success led to Porter's soon writing a sequel, "Pollyanna Grows Up" (1915). Eleven more "Pollyanna" sequels, known as "Glad Books", were later published, most of them written by Elizabeth Borton or Harriet Lummis Smith. Further sequels followed, including "Pollyanna Plays the Game" by Colleen L. Reece, published in 1997. Due to the book's fame, "Pollyanna" has become a byword for someone who like the title character has an unfailingly optimistic outlook; a subconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle. Despite the current common use of the term to mean "excessively cheerful", Pollyanna and her father played the glad game as a method of coping with the real difficulties and sorrows that, along with luck and joy, shape every life.


title: Pollyanna

text: "Pollyanna" has been adapted for film several times. Some of the best known are the 1920 version starring Mary Pickford, and Disney's 1960 version starring child actress Hayley Mills, who won a special Oscar for the role.


title: Pollyanna

text: The title character is Pollyanna Whittier, an eleven-year-old orphan who goes to live in the fictional town of Beldingsville, Vermont, with her wealthy but stern and cold spinster Aunt Polly Harrington, who does not want to take in Pollyanna but feels it as her duty to her late sister Jennifer. Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she calls "The Glad Game", an optimistic and positive attitude she learned from her father. The game consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how bleak it may be. It originated in an incident one Christmas when Pollyanna, who was hoping for a doll in the missionary barrel, found only a pair of crutches inside. Making the game up on the spot, Pollyanna's father taught her to look at the good side of things—in this case, to be glad about the crutches because she did not need to use them.


title: Pollyanna

text: With this philosophy, and her own sunny personality and sincere, sympathetic soul, Pollyanna brings so much gladness to her aunt's dispirited New England town that she transforms it into a pleasant place to live. The Glad Game shields her from her aunt's stern attitude: when Aunt Polly puts her in a stuffy attic room without carpets or pictures, she exults at the beautiful view from the high window; when she tries to "punish" her niece for being late to dinner by sentencing her to a meal of bread and milk in the kitchen with the servant Nancy, Pollyanna thanks her rapturously because she likes bread and milk, and she likes Nancy.


title: Pollyanna

text: Soon Pollyanna teaches some of Beldingsville's most troubled inhabitants to "play the game" as well, from Mrs. Snow, a querulous invalid, to Mr. Pendleton, a miserly bachelor who lives all alone in a cluttered mansion. Aunt Polly, too—finding herself helpless before Pollyanna's buoyant refusal to be downcast—gradually begins to thaw, although she resists the Glad Game longer than anyone else.


title: Pollyanna

text: Eventually, however, even Pollyanna's robust optimism is put to the test when she is struck by a car and loses the use of her legs. At first, she does not realize the seriousness of her situation, but her spirits plummet when she is told what happened to her. After that, she lies in bed, unable to find anything to be glad about. Then the townspeople begin calling at Aunt Polly's house, eager to let Pollyanna know how much her encouragement has improved their lives; and Pollyanna decides she can still be glad that she at least had her legs. The novel ends with Aunt Polly marrying her former lover Dr. Chilton and Pollyanna being sent to a hospital, where she learns to walk again and is able to appreciate the use of her legs far more as a result of being temporarily disabled and unable to walk well.


title: Pollyanna

text: The quote "When you look for the bad in mankind expecting to find it, you surely will" appears in the 1960 Disney version, where it is attributed to Abraham Lincoln. However, the original quote ("When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it") is actually from the book, where it appears without attribution.


title: Pollyanna

text: As a result of the novel's success, the adjective "Pollyannaish" and the noun "Pollyannaism" became popular terms for a personality type characterised by irrepressible optimism evident in the face of even the most adverse or discouraging of circumstances. It is sometimes used pejoratively, referring to someone whose optimism is excessive to the point of naïveté or refusing to accept the facts of an unfortunate situation. This pejorative use can be heard in the introduction of the 1930 George and Ira Gershwin song "But Not For Me": "I never want to hear from any cheerful pollyannas/who tell me fate supplies a mate/that's all bananas" (performed by Judy Garland in the 1943 movie "Girl Crazy").


title: Pollyanna

text: The word "pollyanna" may also be used colloquially to denote a holiday gift exchange more typically known as Secret Santa, especially in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas.


title: Pollyanna

text: "Pollyanna" is still available in reprint editions. At the height of her popularity, Pollyanna was known as "The Glad Girl", and Parker Brothers even created "The Glad Game", a board game. "The Glad Game", a type of Parcheesi, was made and sold from 1915 to 1967 in various versions, similar to the popular UK board game "Ludo". The board game was later licensed by Parker Brothers but has been discontinued for many years. A Broadway adaptation was mounted in 1916 titled "Pollyanna Whittier, The Glad Girl". Helen Hayes was the star.


title: Pollyanna

text: Author Jerome (Jerry) Griswold analysed Pollyanna together with juvenile 'heroes' in several well-known children's books, e.g., "Little Lord Fauntleroy", "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (both also portrayed by Pickford on film) and "The Secret Garden" from the era known as the Golden Age of Children's Books (approximately the American Civil War to World War I). With reference to the "Theory of the Three Lives of the Child Hero", he posits that, in "Pollyanna", clear oedipal tensions exist, albeit in disguised or projected forms, in the relationships between the child, her Aunt and the principal male adult characters, which are only resolved by the Aunt marrying Dr. Chilton at the end of the story. He calls "Pollyanna" 'a complex novel replete with disguises' and sees Pollyanna, not as a naïve child but, rather, as a gifted individual with the ability to direct her extreme optimism and good-naturedness (for the good) towards the manipulating of the negative, worldly, cynical or disillusioned emotions of the adults that inhabit her life.


title: Pollyanna

text: "Glad Clubs" appear to have been popular for a while; however, it is questionable if they were ever more than a publicity gimmick. Glad Clubs may have been simply a means to popularize "The Glad Game" as a method for coping with the vicissitudes of life such as loss, disappointment, and distress. Nevertheless, at least one "glad club" existed as recently as 2008, in Denver, Colorado.


title: Pollyanna

text: In 2002 the citizens of Littleton, New Hampshire unveiled a bronze statue in honor of Eleanor H. Porter, author of the Pollyanna books and one of the town's most famous residents. The statue depicts a smiling Pollyanna, arms flung wide in greeting. Littleton also hosts a festival known as "The Official Pollyanna Glad Day" every summer.


title: Pollyanna

text: The celebrated American science fiction writer Ray Bradbury described himself as "Janus, the two-faced god who is half Pollyanna and half Cassandra, warning of the future and perhaps living too much in the past—a combination of both".


title: Pollyanna

text: In a 1973 State of the Union message to Congress Richard M. Nixon wrote, "I believe there is always a sensible middle ground between the Cassandras and the Pollyannas. We must take our stand upon that ground."


title: Pollyanna

text: The video game series "Mother" (marketed in the U.S. as "EarthBound") and "Super Smash Bros." series feature a song in every game (except "Super Smash Bros." for the Nintendo 64 and 3DS) entitled "Pollyanna (I Believe in You)". The song was also labelled "Mother 2" in "Brawl" and "Melee", before being altered to use the song's existing standard title. The song is a reference to the novel; a lyrical version produced and released on a soundtrack CD reinforces the reference in the lyrics.


title: Pollyanna

text: In 1915, Catherine Chisholm Cushing published "Pollyanna: The Glad Girl", a four-act comedy which was produced with great success in Philadelphia starring Patricia Collinge as Pollyanna. A critic at the time wrote that: "Mrs. Cushing has slashed and sliced and revised and twisted the story of Pollyanna and her infectious gladness until it has become swift-moving, intensely dramatic and very real." In 1918 and 1919 the play toured the U.S. and Canada with 19-year-old Viola Harper (nee Harpman) in the title role.


title: Pollyanna

text: The 1920 American silent melodrama/comedy film "Pollyanna" starred Mary Pickford and was directed by Paul Powell. It was Pickford's first motion picture for United Artists. It became a major success and would be regarded as one of Pickford's most defining pictures. The film grossed $1.1 million (approximately $ today).


title: Pollyanna

text: A Walt Disney film, "Pollyanna", was released in 1960, starring English actress Hayley Mills in the title role (which made her a Hollywood star and led to a Disney contract). The 1960 film was shot at the McDonald Mansion (aka Mableton Mansion) on McDonald Avenue in what was then the small town of Santa Rosa, California. The Pendergast castle was filmed at Stags’ Leap Winery. It was directed by David Swift.


title: Pollyanna

text: The film was a major hit for the Disney Studios. It also marked the last film appearance of Hollywood actor Adolphe Menjou, who played the hermit-like Mr. Pendergast, who is eventually brought out of his shell by Pollyanna and her friend Jimmy.


title: Pollyanna

text: The film was not very faithful to the novel. One marked difference from the book (and the 1920 silent version with Mary Pickford) was the treatment of Pollyanna's accident. Originally, she is paralyzed when she is hit by a car, while in the Disney film, the accident occurs because she is sneaking home from a local festival she has been forbidden to attend, and falls when she tries to re-enter her room by climbing the tree outside her bedroom window. The characters have been altered; in the book Aunt Polly does not run the town (named "Harrington" in the movie and "Beldingsville" in the book) and is hardly as ruthless or controlling. The idea of the orphanage and the bazaar with Dr. Chilton and the townsfolk opposing the charity of the rich are not found in the novel. The movie gives Jimmy Bean a far bigger role than the book does. Mr. Pendergast (Mr. Pendleton in the book) also has a more prominent role. The ending has been altered slightly: it is never made clear whether or not she is able to walk again (unlike the original book, the film never had a sequel).


title: Pollyanna

text: The Turkish musical drama comedy film "Hayat Sevince Güzel" (literally: "Loving makes life beautiful"), is loosely based on "Pollyanna". The film stars Turkish actress Zeynep Degirmencioglu.


title: Pollyanna

text: The name of Pollyanna was changed to "Ayşecik" to cash in on Değirmencioğlu's status in Turkish pop culture with her signature and title role of Ayşecik in the Ayşecik film franchise. This was a common practice in her career as she frequently played the character Ayşecik in other Turkish adaptations of existing films, such as "The Wizard of Oz".


title: Pollyanna

text: The plot of the film is consistent with the Disney adaptation, but certain key features are different, such as the addition of musical numbers and the absence of the prisms. This adaptation does, however, follow the Disney version by having Ayşecik fall from a tree (instead of being hit by a motorcar). Also, Ayse'nin Teyzesi (based on Aunt Polly) is considerably younger in this adaptation, and Ayşecik is about 16, whereas Pollyanna is 11 in the original novel.


title: Pollyanna

text: The BBC produced a six-part TV serial in 1973 starring Colyton Grammar School pupil Elizabeth Archard as Pollyanna and Elaine Stritch as Aunt Polly. This ran in the Sunday tea-time slot, which often featured reasonably faithful adaptations of classic novels aimed at a family audience, although in this instance it did follow the Disney film (and not the original novel) by having Pollyanna injured in a fall from a tree.


title: Pollyanna

text: Nippon Animation of Japan released "Ai Shoujo Pollyanna Monogatari" ("The Story of Pollyanna, Girl of Love"), a fifty-one episode anime television series that made up the 1986 installment of the studio's "World Masterpiece Theater", and had famous singer Mitsuko Horie playing the role of Pollyanna.


title: Pollyanna

text: There was also a modernized made-for-TV musical version made by Disney (originally airing on NBC) in mid-November 1989 with an African-American cast entitled "Polly", which later had a sequel ("Polly: Coming Home").


title: Pollyanna

text: A 2003 Carlton Television TV film version of "Pollyanna" starring Amanda Burton as Aunt Polly and Georgina Terry as Pollyanna is very faithful to the book, with one or two minor differences that do not affect the accuracy of the plot. It uses the original characterizations and storylines, but takes place in an English village rather than Vermont (only the scenery and accents show this—the town is still called Beldingsville). Like the book, it ends with Aunt Polly and Dr. Chilton married and Pollyanna walking, but the scene is the actual wedding with Pollyanna back for a visit rather than a letter as in the book.


title: Pollyanna

text: A 2018 Brazilian telenovela version of "Pollyanna" called "As Aventuras de Poliana" ("The Adventures of Poliana") premiered on SBT on May 16. The telenovela stars Sophia Valverde as Poliana. It is directed by Reynaldo Boury.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Viktor Volodymyrovych Medvedchuk (, ; born 7 August 1954) is a Ukrainian lawyer, business oligarch, and politician who is since September 2022 living in exile after being handed over to Russia in a prisoner exchange. Medvedchuk is a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician and a personal friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Prior to being deported from Ukraine Medvedchuk had been elected as People's Deputy of Ukraine on 29 August 2019. He served as the chairman of the pro-Russian political organization "Ukrainian Choice" from 2018 to 2022. He is an opponent of Ukraine joining the European Union.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: From 1997 to 2002 Medvedchuk had already been a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament). Medvedchuk served between 2002 and 2005 as chief of staff to former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma. After this he was absent from national politics until 2018. In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of the political party "For Life", which later merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and six constituency seats. As he placed third on the 2019 election list of Opposition Platform — For Life, Medvedchuk was elected to the Verkhovna Rada.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to alleged financing of terrorism. On 11 May 2021, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine accused Medvedchuk of treason and attempted looting of national resources in Crimea (which had been annexed by Russia but remains internationally recognised as Ukrainian). Medvedchuk's house arrest started on 13 May 2021. Medvedchuk escaped this house arrest on 28 February 2022, four days after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and went missing. On 8 March 2022 he was removed from the post of co-chairman of Opposition Platform — For Life. On 12 April 2022 Medvedchuk was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On 21 September 2022, Medvedchuk (together with other 55 Russian prisoners of war) was exchanged for 215 Ukrainian POWs from the Siege of Mariupol.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk's father, Volodymyr Medvedchuk, avoided being drafted into the Red Army during World War II due to his suffering from Pott disease. During Nazi Germany's occupation of Ukraine, he worked for the German administration in a labor camp from April 1942 to November 1943. The section provided enforced deportation of the local able-bodied Ukrainian youth to work in Nazi Germany. Volodymyr Medvedchuk was arrested by SMERSH on 7 August 1954 and sentenced to eight years of imprisonment and four of exile in Siberia "for participation in Ukrainian nationalistic activities."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Viktor was born in Pochet, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russian SFSR. He has claimed that his father was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. According to his Soviet court indictment, Volodymyr Medvedchuk had "joined the counter-revolutionary organization of Ukrainian nationalists" in April 1942. In July 1995, Ukraine's military prosecutor's office reviewed the case of Volodymyr Medvedchuk and decided to rehabilitate him "In accordance with Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine of 17 April 1991 On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression in Ukraine."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In the mid-1960s, the Medvedchuks returned to the Ukrainian SSR, settling in Kornyn, Zhytomyr Oblast. In 1971, Medvedchuk graduated from high school in Borova, Fastiv Raion (Kyiv Oblast). In November 1971, Medvedchuk found a job as sorter at the Kiev Railroad Post office factory producing periodicals. According to Dmytro Chobit, by the start of 1972 he was an overstaffed "militsiya" (the police of the Soviet Union) worker at the Motovylivka station (located in Borova).


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In the summer of 1972, Medvedchuk successfully passed an entrance exam to the Law School of KSU Shevchenko (now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv). However he was not admitted. On 12 September 1972, he was enrolled in the university by the Rector's order #445, based on the authorization from the Ministry of the Interior of the Ukrainian SSR. According to Dmytro Chobot, Medvedchuk was allowed to study at the university only thanks to a special recommendation from by the police.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: After graduation, he tried to enroll at the Higher School of Militsiya, but was rejected due to his family history. He graduated from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv in 1978 as a lawyer.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 1979, Medvedchuk became a member of the Shevchenkivska Legal Consultation of the Kyiv City Collegiate of Attorneys.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 1979, Medvedchuk was the lawyer for repressed poet Yuriy Lytvyn. In his last word in court on 17 December 1979, Lytvyn described Medvedchuk's work as a lawyer: "The passivity of my lawyer Medvedchuk in defense is not due to his professional profanity, but to the instructions he received from above and his subordination: he does not dare reveal the mechanism according to which provocations were implemented against me." Lytvyn was convicted and died in prison. According to official documents, in 1979 Medvedchuk appealed the verdict against Lytvyn issued by the Vasylkiv court and referred to the incompleteness of the investigation carried out in the case to request the Kyiv Regional Court to annull the verdict and send the case for a new trial.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 1980, Medvedchuk was appointed as a defence lawyer in the trial of dissident poet Vasyl Stus. According to the testimony of people close to Stus (his wife and friend Yevgeny Sverstyuk), Stus refused to be defended by Medvedchuk, because "he immediately felt that Medvedchuk was an aggressive Komsomol type person, he didn't protect him, he didn't want to understand him, and, in fact, he was not interested in his business." Nevertheless, Medvedchuk remained Stus's lawyer despite the protests of his client.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: According to the "Chronicle of Current Events", Medvedchuk's plea at the Stus trial was as follows: "The lawyer said in his speech that all of Stus's crimes deserve to be punished, but he asks to pay attention to the fact that Stus, working in 1979–1980 at the enterprises of Kiev, fulfilled the norm; in addition, he underwent a severe stomach operation." According to Ukrainian lawyers Roman Titikalo and Ilya Kotin, Medvedchuk seems to have recognized the guilt of his client Stus during the court case. In doing so, Medvedchuk violated his professional duty as lawyer since he seemed to refuse to defend Stus, which grossly violated Stus's right to defense in court.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Stus died after he declared a hunger strike on 4 September 1985 in Perm-36, a Soviet forced labor camp for political prisoners. In a 2018 interview with "The Independent", Medvedchuk claimed he could not have operated differently: "Stus denounced the Soviet government, and didn't consider it to be legitimate. Everyone decides their own fate. Stus admitted he agitated against the Soviet government. He was found guilty by the laws of the time. When the laws changed, the case was dropped. Unfortunately, he died."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 1985, he was a lawyer at the trial of poet Mikola Kuntsevich. According to Kuntsevich's memoirs, Medvedchuk "poured more dirt on him than the prosecutor." After Medvedchuk asked the court to dismiss one of Kuntsevich's motions, he challenged him and repeated the challenge several times, but each time the court dismissed it. In his last word, Medvedchuk said: "I completely agree with a comrade prosecutor in determining the sentence. But, for reasons incomprehensible to me, comrade prosecutor forgot that the defendant had not yet left one year and nine months from the previous term. I consider it necessary to add this period to the new punishment." This request was granted by the court.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk founded a successful legal company, BIM, in the early 1990s. From 1990 to 1997, he was the president of the Bar Association of Ukraine.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 1994, Medvedchuk became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Ukraine (united). He served as chairman from 1998 until two days after the 26 March 2006 parliamentary election.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk first entered the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) in 1997 by winning a by-election in the 171th District (in the Zakarpattia Oblast). Elected back into the Verkhovna Rada in 1998 he was elected Second Deputy Chairman in July 1998. In 2002, he was reelected to the Verkhovna Rada, Medvedchuk was the First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada from February 2000 until December 2001 when he was dismissed for abuse of power, biased treatment of the Verkhovna Rada's agenda and procedural violations.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: From June 2002 until January 2005, Medvedchuk served as head of President Leonid Kuchma's presidential administration. As such, he was a leading target for criticism by the opposition, including Viktor Yushchenko who often spoke out bitterly against Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk was considered the main behind-the-scenes man of then-Prime Minister and pro-Kuchma presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych in the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election, which was nicknamed the "battle of three Viktors" after them and their main opponent Yushchenko.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In one instance, Medvedchuk paid a "huge amount of money" to the Ukrainian National Assembly – Ukrainian People's Self-Defence leader Eduard Kovalenko to hold a march supporting Yushchenko against his wishes. The march included Nazi-like flags and symbols, and Kovalenko used a Nazi salute in his support speech. The move was meant to discredit the democratic candidate (Yushchenko) in the eyes of Western observers.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In the 2006 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Medvedchuk was placed third on the election list of the Opposition Bloc "Ne Tak".<ref name="chesnopolitician69769/">Small biography on Viktor Medvedchuk, Civil movement "Chesno" </ref> This alliance failed to win parliamentary representation, with 1.01% of the total votes. Medvedchuk did not take part in elections again until 2019.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In November 2008, Medvedchuk became a member of the Supreme Council of Justice. "Focus" evaluated Medvedchuk's assets in 2008 to be worth $460 million and labeled him the 57th richest man of Ukraine.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 21 March 2012, he stated he would be "returning to public politics not for the sake of the elections, as I strongly believe that all things that take place are not the result of elections, but the result of our mistakes during elections". In a September/October 2013 poll by Razumkov Centre, a party led by Medvedchuk would score 0.9% of the votes during elections.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: A December 2013 poll by the Sociological group "RATING" gave it 0.7% and predicted that Medvedchuk's result in the first round ballot of the next (Ukrainian) presidential election would be 0.9%. During 2013, Ukrainian experts have argued that Medvedchuk attempts to influence public opinion have failed.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk is chairman of the pro-Russian political organization "Ukrainian Choice". In 2013, he began publicly attacking the European Union, at one point comparing it to the Nazi Third Reich.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk was an open and bitter critic of the Euromaidan protest campaign of November 2013–February 2014 (initially aimed at reverting the second Azarov government decision to suspend preparations for signing an Association Agreement and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with the European Union). On 30 November, he condemned a series of protests, known as "Euromaidan" that supported closer ties between Ukraine and the EU. After one of his December 2013 meetings with Russia's president Vladimir Putin, Medvedchuk publicly promised to "deal with" pro-European protesters in Ukraine.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Activists of Euromaidan alleged that Medvedchuk was among the masterminds of 25 December 2013 attempted murder of Ukrainian journalist Tetiana Chornovol. They call him a "perpetrator" and link his name to the all bloody events of the government strike against the Euromaidan. Considering all Medvedchuk's recent activity directed to push Ukraine into the economic union with Russia, the Euromaidan activists came to one of the Medvedchuks' villas to protest.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: The same day, Medvedchuk claimed that he was "ready for the war" with the Ukrainian opposition parties. The next day, the "Ukrayinska Pravda" newspaper published an investigative article on Medvedchuk's allegedly illegal takeover a government property back in 2004, while Head of Administration for the Ukrainian President. The source of the information is named as Mykhailo Chechetov (the state property chief at the time) who has been "forced" (by his own words) to help Medvedchuk in that deal.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 8 January 2014, Medvedchuk won a slander lawsuit against Oksana Zabuzhko. In an interview with Radio Liberty the writer had accused Medvedchuk of involvement in the provocations against Euromaidan on 30 November – 1 December (Medvedchuk had demanded a token amount of ₴0.25 as a compensation).


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk stated on 9 January 2014 that "The absence of the translation of the text of the [EU] Association Agreement, the provision of excessive asymmetric privileges to European manufacturers – all this indicates that the EU was preparing to turn the Ukrainian economy into its raw material appendage". He also believed that because "the current team" leading Ukraine response to "interference in Ukraine's internal affairs by EU and U.S. diplomats inspire serious doubt that the current team is able to protect Ukraine's economic interests". "Therefore, before the adoption by the Ukrainian people of the direct decision on the choice of the vector of external integration any actions by the authorities on lobbying this policy are only political speculation, which has nothing to do with the will of the people and the protection of the economic interests of our country".


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 17 March 2014 the United States placed Medvedchuk on its sanction list to punish him for his alleged role during the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Since the March 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia, Crimea is under dispute by Russia and Ukraine. In an August 2016 interview with Radio Svoboda, Medvedchuk stated that from a legal point of view, Crimea is part of Ukraine, "but de facto, unfortunately, it belongs to Russia."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In the same interview, Medvedchuk accused the Ukrainian authorities of "pushing the peninsula away, pushing its inhabitants away" which allegedly prompted them to agree to the annexation. He also stated that Ukraine "If the Ukrainian government wanted to return Crimea" should restore the electricity and water supply to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal and should stop its economic blockade (of Crimea). Allegedly, if this would happen "There would be no cessation of rail, freight and passenger traffic."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk was present at negotiations with the armed separatist in the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces on 21 June 2014 to discuss President Petro Poroshenko's peace plan although it was unclear whom he represented there. In May 2021 Medvedchuk claimed he was first authorized for these negotiations by acting Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, and later by President Poroshenko. This was immediately denied by Turchynov.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 24 June 2014, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) informed the OSCE that Medvedchuk was appointed their representative in the negotiations with the Ukrainian Government. On 8 July 2014, self-proclaimed Prime Minister of the Donetsk People's Republic Alexander Borodai stated that Medvedchuk "has no right to represent either the Donetsk People's Republic or the Luhansk People's Republic" and that he was a "mediator in the negotiations". About the negotiations, Medvedchuk wrote on his Facebook page on 28 June 2014, "Hope that a compromise will be found has appeared and we'll manage to find a way of the present situation, retaining the territorial integrity of Ukraine and restoring peace".


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 8 July 2014, it was reported that Medvedchuk would not be involved in further negotiations with the separatists. However, in December 2014, he officially received the status of a negotiator from Ukraine on the exchange of prisoners with the separatists. He became Ukraine's special representative for humanitarian affairs in the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine on 5 June 2015. In June 2021 Petro Poroshenko claimed that Medvedchuk had been involved in the prisoner exchange negotiations on the insistence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In an August 2016 interview with Radio Free Europe, Medvedchuk urged the Ukrainian authorities to "reach a consensus" directly with the militant leadership ("DPR" and "LPR"), because, according to him, "there is no other way to return these territories".<ref name="7118613/Medvedchuk"> Medvedchuk: De jure Crimea is Ukraine, but de facto Russia, Ukrayinska Pravda (24 August 2016).</ref>


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In a 2018 interview with "The Independent", Medvedchuk claimed that the United States was interfering in the affairs of what he called the "brotherly" nations Ukraine and Russia. He claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin wanted peace in Donbas and that Putin would do everything to protect eastern Ukrainians from repressions from Ukraine's "party of war". He admitted that Russia was illegally arming separatist forces but said that the United States, NATO and the EU were doing "the same" by providing weapons to Ukraine.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In November 2018, Medvedchuk was elected chairman of the political council of (the political party) "For life". In December 2018, this party merged into the Opposition Platform — For Life party. In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, the party won 37 seats on the nationwide party list and 6 constituency seats. In this election, Medvedchuk was placed third on the election list of "Opposition Platform — For Life" and thus elected to the Verkhovna Rada.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In October 2020, the Kyiv Court of Appeals overturned the decision of a lower court to ban the distribution of the book "The case of Vasyl Stus" as demanded by Medvedchuk. This non-fiction book details the criminal case of Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus who was imprisoned by the Soviet Union. Medvedchuk was the defence lawyer in the trial of Stus.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 19 February 2021, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine included Medvedchuk and his wife, Oksana Marchenko, on the Ukrainian sanctions list, due to the financing of terrorism. It was claimed he was channeling money from his Russia-based refinery to the separatists of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic in eastern Ukraine.<ref name="media/31133538">Ratings, Russia, Reforms: What Is Driving The Ukrainian President's Moves Against Medvedchuk?, Radio Free Europe (4 March 2020)</ref> Medvedchuk has denied the accusations. The sanctions froze the assets of Medvedchuk and his wife for three years and prevented them from doing business in Ukraine (most of Medvedchuk's assets were registered under his wife's name). Ukrainian authorities announced that an oil pipeline that was reportedly controlled by Medvedchuk which transports Russian oil products to Europe would be nationalised.<ref name="medvedchuk/31112119">Ukrainian President Signs Decree Imposing Sanctions Against Medvedchuk, Others With Ties To Kremlin, Radio Free Europe (19 February 2021)</ref>


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 11 May 2021, Medvedchuk and fellow Opposition Platform — For Life lawmaker Taras Kozak were named as suspects for alleged high treason and the illegal exploitation of natural resources in Ukraine's Russian-annexed Crimea. Three days later Medvedchuk was put under house arrest and fitted with an electronic tracking device. On 14 May 2021 Russian authorities began the process of liquidating the Russian company Novye Proekty which was allegedly used by Medvedchuk for his alleged illegal exploitations in Crimea.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 2021, (ex-President of Ukraine) Petro Poroshenko was named as a co-suspect in the criminal case against Medvedchuk. Medvedchuk's house arrest was prolonged four times, which means that Medvedchuk was supposed to spend at least 10 months under house arrest, even though Ukrainian law allows for a maximum of six months' house arrest.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk and his business partner Kozak have money in Belarusian banks, which are controlled by business associates of President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, Aliaksei Aleksin and Mikalai Varabei. They also have common business interests.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In May 2021, Ukrainian media published recorded audio in which Medvedchuk congratulated the leader of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin on Victory Day and wished him further "victories". In addition, Medvedchuk stated that he was impressed by a military parade in Donetsk.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: During a massive build-up of Russian troops around Ukraine's borders in the first weeks of 2022, Medvedchuk was one of two people (the other one being Oleg Tsaryov) identified by the United States intelligence community as a possible Kremlin-supported choice to lead a pro-Russia puppet Ukrainian government. In January 2022, Medvedchuk was placed under sanctions by the United States, accusing him of involvement in a plot to set up a collaborator government in the wake of a Russian invasion.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On the opening day of the invasion, 24 February 2022, some analysts expected that Putin may have wanted to install Medvedchuk as president of Ukraine if Russian forces captured Kyiv.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk escaped house arrest on 27 February 2022. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs claimed that Medvedchuk had fled house arrest, while his lawyer claimed that he had been "evacuated to a safe place in Kyiv", after alleged threats had been made to his personal safety.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 8 March 2022, Medvedchuk was deprived of the post of co-chairman of the political party Opposition Platform — For Life.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Although Medvedchuk's whereabouts were still unknown on 18 March 2022, on that date an investigating judge granted the prosecutor's request to impose an in absentia precautionary measure.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 12 April 2022, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested Medvedchuk in "a lightning-fast and dangerous multi-level special operation", claiming they had foiled an attempt by Russia to get him out of the country. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a photo of Medvedchuk in handcuffs wearing a Ukrainian military uniform. Zelenskyy suggested exchanging Medvedchuk for Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Russia, but on 13 April Russian officials refused this offer.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 16 April 2022, the Lychakivskyi District court of Lviv sent Medvedchuk into custody without the possibility of bail and on 3 August, the court extended his term of detention without setting any bail within the period of pre-trial investigation.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 18 April 2022 Medvedchuk released an appeal to the Presidents of Russia and Ukraine to be exchanged for Ukrainian troops and civilians who were trapped in the Siege of Mariupol. The following day Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated that Medvedchuk's appeal "has been seen, and there is no reaction [from the Kremlin] for the time being."


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 21 September 2022, as part of a prisoner swap, Ukraine handed over Medvedchuk and 55 Russian prisoners of war to Russia per the Security Service of Ukraine; Russia in turn handed over 215 POWs, including 188 members from the Azov Regiment (including survivors of the Siege of Azovstal), members of the 36th Marine Brigade, National Policemen, Border Guards and an agent of the Security Service. Also freed were foreign volunteers serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner, Brahim Saadoun — who were condemned to death by a tribunal set by the Donetsk People's Republic. The swap was brokered by Saudi Arabia. In the swap it was agreed that the five leaders of the Azov Regiment who were released as part of the prisoner exchange will remain in Turkey until the end of the war. The swap caused controversy in Russia among hardliners and pro-war supporters, as Russian officials had previously been against the exchange of Azov Regiment members, with State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in June calling them "Nazi criminals" who must be brought to justice, the Embassy of Russia in the United Kingdom tweeted in July that the fighters should be hanged adding “They deserve a humiliating death.” and the Russian government designating it as a terrorist group in August, allowing for harsher punishments for captured fighters under Russian law.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Since Medvedchuk was never convicted, and a conviction is the only (logical) reason for the termination of his office as a People's Deputy of Ukraine, Medvedchuk will technically stay a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) until the next Ukrainian parliamentary election.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk has been married three times. He is divorced from Marina Lebedeva and Natalya Gavrilyuk. He is currently married to Oksana Marchenko, a well-known TV presenter in Ukraine. He has two daughters: Irina (born 1982) with Gavrilyuk, and Daryna (born 2004) with Marchenko. Russian president Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Daryna.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In the 2019 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Medvedchuk's brother Serhiy lost as an Opposition Platform — For Life candidate in single-seat constituency 105 (Luhansk Oblast).


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Five days before the 24 February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, left for Belarus. She later published a video from Moscow.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In 2008 the Ukrainian magazine Focus estimated Medvedchuk's wealth at $460 million. His investments included energy, resources and media.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: On 13 March 2022, Ukrainian media reported that Medvedchuk had in his possession a replica of a Pullman dining car. Allegedly this wagon had been a birthday present from his wife Oksana Marchenko.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: Medvedchuk's $200M 93-meter yacht, the "Royal Romance", was seized in the Croatian port of Rijeka in March 2022.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In July 2022, Medvedchuk's Bell 427 helicopter and a Gulfstream G650 business jet was seized and handed over to the Ukrainian Army, as part of the ongoing investigation on him for abuse of power and embezzlement.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In Ukraine, Medvedchuk is considered an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has frequently been referred to as "a personal friend of Putin". The two first met in 2003, during Medvedchuk's tenure as Head of Ukraine's Presidential Administration. In 2004, Putin became godfather to Medvedchuk's youngest daughter Darya. According to Medvedchuk, this was at request of his wife, TV presenter Oksana Marchenko, and that she had asked him to persuade Putin to accept.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In an August 2016 "Radio Svoboda" interview, Medvedchuk stated that his relationship with Putin was helping him to "help the interests of (Ukraine)." In a 2018 interview with "The Independent", Medvedchuk claimed that he used his relationship with Putin to help prisoner exchanges in the War in Donbass. He stated that, unlike Putin, he sees Ukraine and Russia as two separate "Slavic nations, with intertwined histories, religion. I tell him this all the time. I don't think it's one nation. You simply can't say this." In the 2018 interview, he claimed he "often" discussed Ukraine with Putin.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In his 2015 book "All the Kremlin's Men", Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar claimed that Putin believed that no question involving Ukraine could be solved without Medvedchuk.


title: Viktor Medvedchuk

text: In a 2019 interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone, Putin did acknowledge that he was godfather to Medvedchuk's daughter. Putin described their relationship as "I would not say that we are very close but we know each other well."


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: The history of external colonisation of Africa can be dated back from ancient, medieval, or modern history, depending on how the term colonisation is defined.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Ancient Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Malays all established colonies on the African continent, some of which endured centuries. In popular parlance, discussions of colonialism in Africa usually focus on the European conquests of the New Imperialism and the Scramble for Africa (1884-1914) era, followed by gradual decolonisation after World War II. The principal powers involved in the modern colonisation of Africa are Britain, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Italy. In nearly all African countries today, the language used in government and media is the one imposed by a recent colonial power, though most people speak their native African languages.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: North Africa experienced colonisation from Europe and Western Asia in the early historical period, particularly Greeks and Phoenicians.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Under Egypt's Pharaoh Amasis (570–526 BC) a Greek mercantile colony was established at Naucratis, some 50 miles from the later Alexandria. Greeks colonised Cyrenaica around the same time. There was an attempt in 513 BC to establish a Greek colony between Cyrene and Carthage, which resulted in the combined local and Carthaginian expulsion two years later of the Greek colonists. Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) founded Alexandria during his conquest of Egypt. This became one of the major cities of Hellenistic and Roman times, a trading and cultural centre as well as a military headquarters and communications hub.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Phoenicians established several colonies along the coast of North Africa. Some of these were founded relatively early. Utica, for example, was founded c. 1100 BC. Carthage, which means New City, has a traditional foundation date of 814 BC. It was established in what is now Tunisia and became a major power in the Mediterranean by the 4th century BC. The Carthaginians sent out expeditions to explore and establish colonies along Africa's Atlantic coast. A surviving account of such is that of Hanno, around 425 BC.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Carthage encountered and struggled with the Romans. After the third and final war between them, the Third Punic War (150–146 BC), Rome completely destroyed Carthage. Scullard mentions plans by such as Gaius Gracchus in the late 2nd century BC, Julius Caesar and Augustus in the mid- and late 1st century BC to establish a new Roman colony near the same site. This was established and under Augustus served as the capital city of African continent Roman province of Africa. Gothic Vandals briefly established a kingdom there in the 5th century, which shortly thereafter fell to the Romans again, this time the Byzantines. The whole of Roman/Byzantine North Africa eventually fell to the Arabs in the 7th century. Arabs introduced the Arabic language and Islam in the early Medieval period, while the Malay people introduced varieties of their language to Madagascar even earlier.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: The oldest modern city founded by Europeans on the African continent is Cape Town, which was founded by the Dutch East India Company in 1652, as a halfway stop for passing European ships sailing to the east.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Early European expeditions by the Portuguese concentrated on colonising previously uninhabited islands such as the Cape Verde Islands and São Tomé Island, or establishing coastal forts as a base for trade. The Spanish also established possessions of the Canary Islands off the West African Coast, and Equatorial Guinea, Ceuta and Melilla on the African mainland before 1830.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Established empires—notably Britain, France, Spain and Portugal—had already claimed coastal areas but had not penetrated deeply inland. Europeans controlled one tenth of Africa, primarily along the Mediterranean and in the far south. A significant early proponent of colonising inland was King Leopold of Belgium, who oppressed the Congo Basin as his own private domain until 1908. The 1885 Berlin Conference, initiated by Otto von Bismarck to establish international guidelines and avoiding violent disputes among European Powers, formalized the "New Imperialism". This allowed the imperialists to move inland, with relatively few disputes among themselves. The only serious threat of inter-Imperial violence came in the Fashoda Incident of 1898 between Britain and France; It was settled without significant military violence between the colonising countries. Between 1870 and 1914 Europe acquired almost 23,000,000 sq. km —one-fifth of the land area of the globe—to its overseas colonial possessions.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Imperialism generated self-esteem across Europe. The Allies of World War I and World War II made extensive use of African labour and soldiers during the wars. In terms of administrative styles, "[t]he French, the Portuguese, the Germans and the Belgians exercised a highly centralised type of administration called 'direct rule.'" The British by contrast sought to rule by identifying local power holders and encouraging or forcing them to administer for the British Empire. This was indirect rule. France ruled from Paris, appointing chiefs individually without considering traditional criteria, but rather loyalty to France. France established two large colonial federations in Africa, French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa. France appointed the state officials, passed laws and had to approve any measures passed by colonial assemblies.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Local groups in German East Africa resisted German enforced labour and taxation. In the Abushiri revolt, the Germans were almost driven out of the area in 1888. A decade later the colony seemed conquered, though, "It had been a long-drawn-out struggle and inland administration centres were in reality little more than a series of small military fortresses." In 1905, the Germans were astonished by the widely supported Maji Maji Rebellion. This resistance was at first successful. However, within a year, the insurrection was suppressed by reinforcing troops armed with machine guns. German attempts to seize control in Southwest Africa also produced ardent resistance, which was very forcefully repressed leading to the Herero and Namaqua Genocide.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: King Leopold II of Belgium called his vast private colony the Congo Free State. His barbaric treatment of the Africans sparked a strong international protest and the European powers forced him to relinquish control of the colony to the Belgian Parliament.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Vincent Khapoya notes the significant attention colonial powers paid to the economics of colonisation. This included: acquisition of land, often enforced labour, the introduction of cash crops, sometimes even to the neglect of food crops, changing inter-African trading patterns of pre-colonial times, the introduction of labourers from India, etc. and the continuation of Africa as a source of raw materials for European industry. Colonial powers later focused on abolishing slavery, developing infrastructure, and improving health and education.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Khapoya notes the significant resistance of powers faced to their domination in Africa. Technical superiority enabled conquest and control. Pro-independence Africans recognised the value of European education in dealing with Europeans in Africa. Some Africans established their own churches. Africans also noticed the unequal evidence of gratitude they received for their efforts to support Imperialist countries during the world wars. While European-imposed borders did not correspond to traditional territories, such new territories provided entities to focus efforts by movements for increased political voice up to independence. Among local groups so concerned were professionals such as lawyers and doctors, the petite bourgeoisie (clerks, teachers, small merchants), urban workers, cash crop farmers, peasant farmers, etc. Trade unions and other initially non-political associations evolved into political movements.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: While the British sought to follow a process of gradual transfer of power and thus independence, the French policy of assimilation faced some resentment, especially in North Africa. The granting of independence in March 1956 to Morocco and Tunisia allowed a concentration on Algeria where there was a long (1954–62) and bloody armed struggle to achieve independence. When President Charles de Gaulle held a referendum in 1958 on the issue, only Guinea voted for outright independence. Nevertheless, in 1959 France amended the constitution to allow other colonies this option.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Farmers in British East Africa were upset by attempts to take their land and to impose agricultural methods against their wishes and experience. In Tanganyika, Julius Nyerere exerted influence not only among Africans, united by the common Swahili language, but also on some white leaders whose disproportionate voice under a racially weighted constitution was significant. He became the leader of an independent Tanganyika in 1961. In Kenya, whites had evicted African tenant farmers in the 1930s; since the 1940s there has been conflict, which intensified in 1952. By 1955, Britain had suppressed the revolt, and by 1960 Britain accepted the principle of African majority rule. Kenya became independent three years later.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: The main period of decolonisation in Africa began after World War II. Growing independence movements, indigenous political parties and trade unions coupled with pressure from within the imperialist powers and from the United States and the Soviet Union ensured the decolonisation of the majority of the continent by 1980. Some areas (in particular South Africa and Namibia) retain a large population of European descent. Only the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are still governed by a European country. While the islands of Réunion and Mayotte, Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan Da Cunha, the Canary Islands and Madeira all remain under either French, British, Spanish, or Portuguese control, the latter two of which were never part of any African polity and have overwhelmingly European populations.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: The theory of colonialism addresses the problems and consequences of the colonisation of a country, and there has been much research conducted exploring these concepts.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Guyanese historian and activist Walter Rodney proposes in his book "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" that Africa was pillaged and plundered by the West through economic exploitation. Using a Marxist analysis, he opines that as Europe was being developed, Africa was being underdeveloped via resource extraction. He concludes that the structure of present-day Africa and Europe can, through a comparative analysis be traced to the Atlantic slave trade and colonialism. He includes a gendered analysis and states the rights of African women were further diminished during colonialism.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Mahmood Mamdani wrote his book "Citizen and Subject" in 1996. The main point of his argument is that the colonial state in Africa took the form of a bifurcated state, "two forms of power under a single hegemonic authority". The colonial state in Africa was divided into two. One state for the colonial European population and one state for the indigenous population. The colonial power was mainly in urban towns and cities and were served by elected governments. The indigenous power was found in rural villages and were ruled by tribal authority, which seemed to be more in keeping with their history and tradition. Mamdani mentions that in urban areas, native institutions were not recognised. The natives, who were portrayed as uncivilised by the Europeans, were excluded from the rights of citizenship. The division of the colonial state created a racial segregation between the European 'citizen' and African 'subject', and a division between institutions of government.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Achille Mbembe is a Cameroonian historian, political theorist, and philosopher who has written and theorized extensively on life in the colony and postcolony. His 2000 book "On the Postcolony" critically examines postcolonial life in Africa and is a prolific work within the field of postcolonialism. It is through this examination of the postcolony that Mbembe reveals the modes through which power was exerted in colonial Africa. He reminds the reader that colonial powers demanded use of African bodies in particularly violent ways for the purpose of labor as well as the shaping of subservient colonised identities.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: By comparing power in the colony and postcolony, Mbembe demonstrates that violence in the colony was exerted on African bodies largely for labor and submission. European colonial powers sought natural resources in African colonies and needed the requisite labor force to extract them and simultaneously build the colonial city around these industries. Because Europeans viewed native bodies as degenerate and in need of taming, violence was necessary to create a submissive laborer. Colonisers viewed this violence as necessary and good because it shaped the African into a productive worker. They had the simultaneous goals of utilizing the raw labor and shaping the identity and character of the African. By beating into the African a docile nature, colonisers ultimately shaped and enforced the way Africans could move through colonial spaces. The African’s day-to-day life then became a show of submission done through exercises like public works projects and military conscription.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Mbembe contrasts colonial violence with that of the postcolony. Mbembe demonstrates that violence in the postcolony is cruder and more generally for the purpose of demonstrating raw power. Expressions of excess and exaggeration characterize this violence. Mbembe's theorization of violence in the colony illuminates the unequal relationship between the coloniser and colonised and reminds us of the violence inflicted on African bodies throughout the process of colonisation. It cannot be understood nor should be taught without the context of this violence.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Stephanie Terreni Brown is an academic in the field of colonialism. In her 2014 paper she examines how sanitation and dirt is used in colonial narratives through the example of Kampala.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Brown describes abjection as the process whereby one group others or dehumanizes another. Those who are deemed abject are often avoided by others and seen as inferior.  Abjectivication is continually used as a mechanism to dominate a group of people and control them. In the case of colonialism, she argues that it is used by the west to dominate over and control the indigenous population of Africa.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Abjectivication through discourses of dirt and sanitation are used to draw distinctions between the Western governing figures and the local population. Dirt being seen as something out of place, whilst cleanliness being attributed to the “in group”, the colonisers, and dirt being paralleled with the indigenous people. The reactions of disgust and displeasure to dirt and uncleanliness are often linked social norms and the wider cultural context, shaping the way in which Africa is still thought of today.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Brown discusses how the colonial authorities were only concerned with constructing a working sewage system to cater for the colonials and were not concerned with the Ugandan population. This rhetoric of sanitation is important because it is seen as a key part of modernity and being civilised. The lack of sanitation and proper sewage systems symbolize that Africans are savages and uncivilised, playing a central role in how the west justified the case of the civilising process. Brown refers to this process of abjectification using discourses of dirt as a physical and material legacy of colonialism that is still very much present in Kampala and other African cities today.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Critical theory on the colonisation of Africa is largely unified in a condemnation of imperial activities. Postcolonial theory has been derived from this anti-colonial/anti-imperial concept and writers such as Mbembe, Mamdani and Brown, and many more, have used it as a narrative for their work on the colonisation of Africa.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: Postcolonial geographers are consistent with the notion that colonialism, although maybe not in such clear-cut forms, is still concurrent today. Both Mbembe, Mamdani and Brown’s theories have a consistent theme of the indigenous Africans having been treated as uncivilised, second class citizens and that in many former colonial cities this has continued into the present day with a switch from race to wealth divide.


title: Colonisation of Africa

text: "On the Postcolony" has faced criticism from academics such as Meredith Terreta for focusing too much on specific African nations such as Cameroon. Echoes of this criticism can also be found when looking at the work of Mamdani with his theories questioned for generalising across an Africa that, in reality, was colonised in very different ways, by fundamentally different European imperial ideologies.


title: Brandon Scott Jones

text: Brandon Scott Jones (born June 6, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his role as Captain Isaac Higgintoot in the CBS series "Ghosts" and as Donny in the Warner Bros./Netflix film "Isn't It Romantic".


title: Brandon Scott Jones

text: Jones was born in Bel Air, Maryland, and studied at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts in New York City. He is a regular performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York and Los Angeles. In 2015, Jones was named one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch. In 2021, he received his breakthrough role as Captain Isaac Higgintoot on the supernatural sitcom "Ghosts" on CBS, for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. The following year, he co-wrote and starred in the film "Senior Year".


title: Josh Sargent

text: Joshua Thomas Sargent (born February 20, 2000) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a forward or winger for EFL Championship club Norwich City and the United States national team. In May 2017, at the age of 17, he became the youngest U.S. player to score at the FIFA U-20 World Cup.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Sargent was born in O'Fallon, Missouri, to Jeff and Liane Sargent, both of whom played college-level soccer. Sargent joined the Scott Gallagher Soccer Club at eight years old. He attended St. Dominic for part of his high school years before moving to Florida to join the U.S. residency program. He was ranked as the No. 2 high school soccer player in the country.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Sargent played for Scott Gallagher Missouri, a U.S. Soccer Development Academy club from St. Louis, Missouri. After his impressive performance at the 2016 Nike International Friendlies, he spent two weeks training with Sporting Kansas City in the summer of 2016 and the MLS club acquired the player's acquisition rights, as St. Louis is in Sporting Kansas City's homegrown player territory. In October of the same year, Sargent spent a week-long training spell with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. In January 2017, after being called for the United States U20 team, he trained with German club FC Schalke 04.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On September 20, 2017, Werder Bremen announced that Sargent would join the club on January 1, 2018, and then sign a professional contract on his 18th birthday, per FIFA rules. He played with the club's under-23 squad in a friendly match and signed his contract on February 20, 2018, making him eligible to join the first team for the 2018–19 season.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On December 7, 2018, Sargent made his debut for the Werder Bremen first team, coming on as a substitute in the 76th minute in a match against Fortuna Düsseldorf. He scored with his first touch of the match in the 78th minute, the fastest goal by a debutant in club history.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On August 9, 2021, Sargent left Werder Bremen to join Premier League club Norwich City on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee, reported as in the region of €9.5 million. Five days later, he made his debut in a 3–0 home defeat against Liverpool after coming on as a substitute at 77th minute in place of his former Werder Bremen teammate Milot Rashica. He scored his first two goals for the club on August 24, in an emphatic 6–0 victory over Bournemouth in the second round of the EFL Cup.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On January 21, 2022, Sargent scored his first league goals of the season, one of them a scorpion-kick, in a 3–0 win over fellow Premier League relegation battlers Watford.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Sargent remained at Norwich following their relegation. Sargent scored his first goal of the season in Norwich's first league win of the season against Huddersfield Town. Three days later, he notched a brace in a 2–0 win against Millwall.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Sargent first appeared in a United States under-14 camp in 2013. In the same year, he was called for the United States under-15.


title: Josh Sargent

text: In 2015, he joined the Under-17 MNT Residency Program in Bradenton, Florida. He was a key part of the team that won the 2016 Nike International Friendlies, scoring four goals and notching two assists in three matches. On April 17, 2017, Sargent was included by coach John Hackworth in the 20-man squad chosen to represent United States at the 2017 CONCACAF U-17 Championship. He scored five goals in the tournament, including two goals in a victory over Mexico. He led the United States as they reached the final and qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Only two days later, Sargent was surprisingly included by coach Tab Ramos in the 21-man squad called to represent United States at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup. On May 22, the Americans debuted in the tournament against Ecuador. Sargent started the match and scored two goals, helping his team to tie the match and becoming the youngest American player to ever score in an under-20 World Cup. Sargent is the second American player, after Freddy Adu, to play in both the under-17 and under-20 World Cups in the same year.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On June 1, 2017, after scoring against New Zealand, Sargent joined Jozy Altidore, Eddie Johnson and Taylor Twellman, becoming one of the United States's all-time leading goalscorers at the under-20 World Cup.


title: Josh Sargent

text: On November 7, 2017, Sargent received his first senior call up for a friendly against Portugal. He thus became the only American player ever to appear in an under-17, under-20, and senior camp in the same calendar year. On May 28, 2018, Sargent earned his first cap for the senior team in a friendly against Bolivia and scored his first international goal. He became the fourth-youngest player to score for the United States, until Timothy Weah, two days younger than Sargent, scored his first goal minutes later.


title: Josh Sargent

text: Josh Sargent is married to Kirsten Lepping. They were engaged in August 2020. Sargent has one daughter who was born on January 13, 2022.


title: Jay Lethal

text: Jamar Shipman (born April 29, 1985), better known by the ring name Jay Lethal, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW).


title: Jay Lethal

text: Dubbed "The Franchise" of Ring of Honor, Lethal is a two-time ROH World Champion, and holds the record for most combined days with the ROH World Championship in company history. He was also a record-setting two-time and longest reigning ROH World Television Champion, holding the title for 567 days, and the only man to hold the World Television Championship and the World Championship at the same time, and a former ROH World Tag Team Champion with Jonathan Gresham. Lethal is recognized by ROH as a Grand Slam Champion, and is the only man to have held the ROH World, World Tag Team, World Television and Pure championships. In 2020, he was selected by Ring of Honor as their "Wrestler of the Decade" (2010s).


title: Jay Lethal

text: He is also known for his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), where he was a six-time TNA X Division Champion and a former TNA World Tag Team Champion with Consequences Creed as The Lethal Consequences. Between ROH and TNA (now Impact Wrestling), Lethal has won 13 total championships.


title: Jay Lethal

text: Jamar Shipman was born on April 29, 1985, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He is the middle child of Ronald and Shirley Shipman, with two brothers and two sisters. In July 2001, aged 16, Shipman won a contest held by Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) which entitled the winner to a lifetime of free training in the JAPW professional wrestling school. He spent six months training there, at the end of which the school closed down. He then began training under Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) alumni Mikey Whipwreck and Dan Maff.