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Italian East Africa
Italian East Africa former federation of the Italian colonies of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland and the kingdom of Ethiopia. The federation was formed (1936) to consolidate the administration of the three areas. During the federation's existence, efforts were made to construct road systems and to e...
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Rodolfo Graziani
Rodolfo Graziani , 1882-1955, Italian soldier and colonial administrator. After serving in World War I and in Libya (1921-33), he was made (1935) governor of Italian Somaliland. For his part in the Italo-Ethiopian War, he was promoted to marshal and served (1936-37) as viceroy of Ethiopia. Graziani ...
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Somalia
Somalia , country (2005 est. pop. 8,591,000), 246,200 sq mi (637,657 sq km), extreme E Africa. It is directly south of the Arabian peninsula across the Gulf of Aden. Somalia comprises almost the entire African coast of the Gulf of Aden and a longer stretch on the Indian Ocean. It is bounded on the N...
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Mogadishu
Mogadishu or Mogadisho , Ital. Mogadiscio, city (1990 est. pop. 1,200,000), capital of Somalia, on the Indian Ocean. It is the country's largest city, a port, and a commercial and financial center. Mogadishu has little industry except for food and beverage processing and cotton ginning. Uraniu...
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campaigns in North Africa
campaigns in North Africa series of military contests for control of North Africa during World War II. The desert war started in 1940 and for more than two years thereafter seesawed between NE Libya and NW Egypt. The almost uniformly level terrain along the coast allowed tanks and aircraft to play ...
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John Hanning Speke
John Hanning Speke , 1827-64, English explorer in Africa. He joined Sir Richard Burton in his expeditions to Somaliland (1854) and to E central Africa (1857-59). Together they discovered (1858) Lake Tanganyika; then Speke continued alone and discovered Lake Victoria, which he believed to be a source...
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Margaret Laurence
Margaret Laurence (Jean Margaret Laurence), 1926-87, Canadian novelist, b. Manitoba. She lived in Somaliland, Ghana, and England and many of her early works had an African setting. Laurence was particularly concerned with character, and her writings usually focused on women struggling to overcome t...
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aardwolf
aardwolf , carnivore of the hyena family. The aardwolf, Proteles cristatus, resembles the true hyena but is smaller and more delicate. It has less powerful teeth and jaws and five instead of four toes on its forepaws. The coat of the aardwolf is yellow-white with dark stripes; a ridge of hair ex...
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Djibouti
Djibouti , town (1995 est. pop. 383,000), capital of the Republic of Djibouti, a port on the Gulf of Tadjoura (an inlet of the Gulf of Aden). It is the nation's only sizable town and its administrative center. Its importance results from the large transit trade it enjoys as a terminus of the railroa...
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Sir Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton 1821-90, English explorer, writer, and linguist. He joined (1842) the service of the East India Company and, while stationed in India, acquired a thorough knowledge of the Persian, Afghan, Hindustani, and Arabic languages. In 1853, in various disguises, he made a famous j...
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