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Natalia Republic

The Natalia Republic was a short-lived Boer republic founded in 1839 after a Voortrekker victory against the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River. The area was previously named Natália by Portuguese sailors, due to its discovery on Christmas ("Natal" is the Portuguese word for Christmas). The republic came to an end in 1843 when British forces annexed it to form the Colony of Natal. After the British annexation of the Natalia Republic, most local Voortrekkers trekked northwest into Transorangia, later known as the Orange Free State, and the South African Republic.

European settlement and setbacks

On Christmas Day 1497 Vasco da Gama was sailing past the region now known as Transkei and named the country Terra Natalis. He next sighted the bluff at the entrance to what is now the harbour of Durban. Da Gama made no landing here, but in later years the name Natália became associated with it. Like the rest of South Africa, Natal was neglected by the Portuguese, whose nearest settlement was at Delagoa Bay. It is not proven when the clan settled in the region which was inhabited by Nguni people. A small clan living north of the Tugela River, the amaZulu, was greatly enlarged by its leader Shaka, and between 1818 and 1820 his Zulu Kingdom's military campaigns overran the area. British traders established a small settlement at Port Natal, so founding what became the town of Durban, established in 1835.

The next Europeans to settle in the country were emigrant Boers from the Cape Colony, who came by land over the passes of the Drakensberg. These Voortrekkers were led by Piet Retief. Passing through the almost deserted upper regions, Retief arrived at Port Natal in October 1837. During this journey, he chose a site for the capital of the future state that he envisioned. He went to the kraal of Shaka’s successor Dingane, ruler of the Zulu Kingdom, to obtain a cession of territory for the Boer farmers. Dingane consented on condition that the Boers recover cattle stolen by another chief. Retief managed that and, with the help of missionary the Rev Francis Owen, living at Dingane’s kraal, he drew up a deed of cession in English. Dingane and Retief signed it on 4 February 1838.

Two days later, Dingane ordered the execution of Retief and all of his party, 66 whites and 34 Khoikhoi servants. The Zulu king commanded his impis to kill all the Boers who had entered Natal. The Zulu forces crossed the Tugela River the same day, and the most advanced parties of the Boers were massacred, many at a spot near where the town of Weenen now stands, its name (meaning wailing or weeping) commemorating the event. Other of the farmers hastily laagered and were able to repulse the Zulu attacks; the assailants suffered serious loss at a fight near Bushman River. In one week after the murder of Retief, the Zulus had killed 600 Boers.

Hearing of the attack on the Boers, the British settlers at the bay sent a force to help them. Robert Biggar commanded 20 British and a following of 700 friendly Zulus and crossed the Tugela River near its mouth. On 17 April, in a desperate fight with a Zulu force, the British were overwhelmed and only four Europeans escaped to the bay. Pursued by the Zulus, the surviving inhabitants of Durban took refuge on a ship then in harbour. After the Zulus retired, fewer than a dozen Englishmen returned to live at the port; the missionaries, hunters, and other traders returned to Cape Colony.

The Boers had repelled the Zulu attacks on their laagers; joined by others from the Drakensberg, about 400 men under Hendrik Potgieter and Piet Uys advanced to attack Dingane. On 11 April, they were attacked and with difficulty cut their way out. Among those slain were Piet Uys and his son Dirk, aged 15.

Battle of Blood River
Toward the end of the year, the Boers received reinforcements. In December 460 men set out under Boer general Andries Pretorius to take on the Zulus. Andries Pretorius selected Jan Gerritze Bantjes (1817-1887) as his scribe and secretary in recording events of the campaign and coming retaliation battle with the Zulus. Bantjes documented daily in his journal the progress of the commando, from their start on 27 November 1838 until they reached their selected battle site on 15 December 1838. They avoided being led into a trap as happened on the previous attempt to attack the Zulus in April which ended in disaster. On the journey, they had small skirmishes with various kraals but the main Zulu army had not arrived yet to attack. Boer and Zulu scouts were constantly monitoring each other's whereabouts. On 9 December 1838 as Bantjes wrote in his journal, the Boers congregated under a clear sky to sing appropriate psalms and celebrate the Sabbath, taking a vow which became known as the "Day of The Vow or Covenant" that "if the Lord might give us victory, we hereby deem to found a house as a memorial of his Great Name at a place where it shall please Him", and that they also implore the help and assistance of God in accomplishing this Vow and that they write down this Day of Victory in a book and disclose this event to our very last posterities in order that this will forever be celebrated in the honour of God."

On 16 December 1838, while laagered near the Umslatos River or Hippo Pool, they were attacked by more than 10,000 Zulus. As Bantjes wrote in his journal: "Sunday, December 16 was like being newly born for us - the sky was clear, the weather fine and bright. We hardly saw the twilight of the break of day or the guards, who were still at their posts and could just make out the distant Zulus approaching. All the patrols were called back into the laager by firing alarm signals from the cannons. The enemy came forward at full speed and suddenly they had encircled the area around the laager. As it got lighter, so we could see them approaching over their predecessors who had already been shot back. Their rapid approach (though terrifying to witness due to their great numbers) was an impressive sight. The Zulus came in regiments, each captain with his men behind (as the patrols had seen them coming the day before) until they had surrounded us. I could not count them, but I was told that a captive Zulu gave the number at thirty-six regiments, each regiment calculated to be 'nine hundred to a thousand men strong. The battle now began and the cannons unleashed from each gate, such that the battle was fierce and noisy, even the discharging of small arms fire from our marksmen on all sides was like thunder. After more than two hours of fierce battle, the Commander in Chief gave orders that the gates be opened and mounted men sent to fight the enemy in fast attacks, as the enemy near constantly stormed the laager time and again, and he feared the ammunition would soon run out."

The Boers fought off the Zulu. After three hours, the Boers had killed thousands of Zulus and had fewer than a dozen of their men wounded. The Zulus withdrew in defeat, many crossing the river which had turned red with blood and thereafter known as the Battle of Blood River. Modern-day Boers still celebrate the Day of the Vow every year on 16 December.

British at Port Natal
Returning south, Pretorius and his fighters found that the British had annexed Port Natal (now Durban) on 4 December with a detachment of the 72nd Highlanders from Cape Colony. While the governor of the Cape, Major-General Sir George Napier, had invited the British emigrants from Natal to return to the colony, and stated his intention to take military possession of the port. In sanctioning the occupation of the port the British government of the day had no intention of making Natal a British colony, but wished to prevent the Boers establishing an independent republic upon the coast with a harbour through which access to the interior could be gained. After remaining at the port just over a year the Highlanders were withdrawn, on 24 December 1839.

Overthrow of Dingane
After the battle, Pretorius took advantage of dissension in the Zulu kingdom to ally himself with Mpande, brother of the Zulu king Dingane. Dingane's attempt to extend his kingdom north to compensate for losses to the Boers had failed. He was defeated by the Swazi people in 1839, leading to discontent with his rule. In exchange for cattle and territory Pretorius agreed to support Mpande's bid to overthrow Dingane. A Boer force supported Mpande's Zulu impi in the invasion. At the Battle of Maqongqo, Dingane was crushed and was put to flight with what retainers chose to follow him into exile. Pretorius took 36,000 head of cattle and proclaimed a large tract of land extending from St Lucia Bay to be part of the Natalia Republic.

Internal affairs
Meantime the Boers had founded Pietermaritzburg, named in honour of leaders Piet Retief and Gerrit Maritz. They made it their capital and the seat of their Volksraad.

Legislative power was vested in the volksraad (consisting of 24 members), while the president and executive were changed every three months. For issues of importance, a meeting was called of het publiek, that is, of all who chose to attend, to sanction or reject it. "The result," says the historian George McCall Theal, "was utter anarchy. Decisions of one day were frequently reversed the next, and every one held himself free to disobey any law that he did not approve of. ... Public opinion of the hour in each section of the community was the only force in the land."

Territorial policy
The Zulus continued to exist as a distinct and numerous people with their own dispensation within their own territory to the north and east, in the region known as Zululand.

The settlers were in loose alliance with and in quasi-supremacy over the Boer communities that had left the Cape and settled at Winburg and at Potchefstroom. They declared a free and independent state under the title of "The Republic of Port Natal and adjacent countries," and sought (September 1840) from Sir George Napier an acknowledgment of their independence by Great Britain.

Sir George did not give an answer but was friendly to the Boer farmers. He was disturbed when a commando force under Andries Pretorius attacked the Xhosa in December 1840. The national government declined to recognize Natalia's independence but proposed to trade with it if the people would accept a military force to defend against other European powers. Sir George communicated this decision to the volksraad in September 1841.

British and Dutch influences
The Boers strongly resented the contention of the British that they could not shake off British nationality, though beyond the bounds of any recognized British possession. They also wanted control of the British Natal Port (now renamed Durban). They rejected Napier's overtures.

On 2 December 1841, Napier announced his intention to resume military occupation of Port Natal, citing the Boers' attack on the Xhosa. On 21 February 1842 the settlers responded, with a document written by Jacobus Boshoff. The farmers complained about the lack of representative government, and concluded by a protest against the occupation of any part of their territory by British troops.

Soon after, an event occurred which encouraged the Boers in their opposition to Great Britain. In March 1842 a Dutch vessel sent out by Gregorius Ohrig, an Amsterdam merchant who sympathized with the farmers, reached Port Natal. Johan Arnold Smellekamp concluded a treaty with the volksraad assuring them of the protection of the Netherlands. The Natal Boers believed the Netherlands to be one of the great powers of Europe, and were firmly persuaded that its government would aid them in resisting Great Britain.

Battle of Congella
On 1 April 1842 Captain T. C. Smith with a force of 263 men left his camp at the Umgazi, on the eastern frontier of Cape Colony, and marching overland reached Durban without opposition, and encamped, on 4 May, at the base of the Berea hills. The Boers, cut off from their port, called out a commando of some 300 to 400 men under Andries Pretorius and gathered at Congella at the head of the bay. On the night of 23 May, Smith made an unsuccessful attack on the Boer camp, losing his guns and fifty men were killed or wounded. On 26 May the Boers captured the harbour and settlement, and on 31 May blockaded the British camp, the women and children being removed, on the suggestion of Pretorius, to a ship in the harbour of which the Boers had taken possession. Meantime, an old Durban resident, Dick King, had undertaken to convey tidings of the perilous position of the British force to the commandant at Grahamstown. He started on the night of 24 May, and escaping the Boer outposts rode through the dense bush, and in nine days reached his destination—a distance of 360 mi in a direct line, and nearly 600 mi by the route to be followed. This remarkable ride was accomplished with one change of mount, obtained from a missionary in Pondoland. A comparatively strong force under Colonel A. J. Cloete was at once sent by sea to Port Natal, and on 26 June, Captain Smith was relieved. The besieged had suffered greatly from lack of food. Within a fortnight Colonel Cloete received the submission of the volksraad at Pietermaritzburg. The burghers represented that they were under the protection of the Netherlands, but this plea was peremptorily rejected by the commander of the British forces.

The British government was still undecided as to its policy towards Natal. In April 1842 Lord Stanley, then Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in the second Peel Administration, wrote to Sir George Napier that the establishment of a colony in Natal would be attended with little prospect of advantage, but at the same time stated that the pretensions of the emigrants to be regarded as an independent community could not be admitted. Various measures were proposed which would but have aggravated the situation.

Annexation
Finally, in deference to the strongly urged views of Sir George Napier, Lord Stanley, in a despatch of 13 December, received in Cape Town on 23 April 1843, consented to Natal becoming a British colony. The institutions adopted were to be as far as possible in accordance with the wishes of the people, but it was a fundamental condition "that there should not be in the eye of the law any distinction or disqualification whatever, founded on mere difference of colour, origin, language or creed."

Sir George then appointed Mr Henry Cloete (a brother of Colonel Josias Cloete) a special commissioner to explain to the Natal volksraad the decision of the government. There was a considerable party of Natal Boers still strongly opposed to the British, and they were reinforced by numerous bands of Boers who came over the Drakensberg from Winburg and Potchefstroom. Commandant Jan Mocke of Winburg (who had helped to besiege Captain Smith at Durban) and others of the "war party" attempted to induce the volksraad not to submit, and a plan was formed to murder Pretorius, Boshoff and other leaders, who were now convinced that the only chance of ending the state of complete anarchy into which the country had fallen was by accepting British sovereignty.

Extent of the colony
On 8 August 1843 the Natal Volksraad unanimously agreed to the terms proposed by Lord Stanley, setting Drakensberg as the northern limit of Natal. Many of the Boers who would not acknowledge British rule trekked once more over the mountains into what became the Orange Free State and Transvaal provinces to seek their freedom and independence. At the end of 1843 there were not more than 500 Dutch families left in Natal.

Cloete, before returning to the Cape, visited Mpande and obtained from him a valuable concession. Hitherto the Tugela River from source to mouth had been the recognized frontier between Natal and Zululand. Mpande gave up to Natal all the territory between the Buffalo and Tugela rivers, which later formed Klip River county.

Aftermath
Proclaimed a British Colony of Natal in 1843, it became a part of Cape Colony in 1844, not being separated again until 1856. The power of the volksraad did not truly end until 1845, when an effective British administration was established under Martin West as lieutenant-governor. After the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the British defeated the Zulu army, and annexed Zululand to Natal in 1897. One of the four founding provinces of South Africa, it is now KwaZulu-Natal. This province is still home to the Zulu nation; native speakers of the Zulu language form 77.8% of the population. The province also has a large ethnic Indian population, as well as Boer-descended residents and ethnic British descendants.

title: Natalia Republic


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A House for Mr Biswas

A House for Mr Biswas is a 1961 novel by V. S. Naipaul, significant as Naipaul's first work to achieve acclaim worldwide. It is the story of Mohun Biswas, a Hindu Indo-Trinidadian who continually strives for success and mostly fails, who marries into the influential Tulsi family only to find himself dominated by it, and who finally sets the goal of owning his own house. It relies on some biographical elements from the experience of the author's father, and views a colonial world sharply with postcolonial perspectives.

In 1998, the Modern Library ranked A House for Mr Biswas number 72 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. In 2022, it was included on the "Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

Plot
Mohun Biswas (based on V. S. Naipaul's father, Seepersad Naipaul) is born in rural Trinidad and Tobago to Hindu Indian parents and his father is a Brahmin. His birth was considered inauspicious as he is born "in the wrong way" and with an extra finger. A pundit prophesies that the newborn child "will be a lecher and a spendthrift. Possibly a liar as well", and that he will "eat up his mother and father". The pundit advises that the boy be kept "away from trees and water. Particularly water". A few years later, Mohun leads a neighbour's calf, which he is tending, to a stream. The boy, who has never seen water "in its natural form", becomes distracted and allows the calf to wander off. Mohun then hides in fear of punishment. His father, believing his son to be in the water, drowns in an attempt to save him, thus in part fulfilling the pundit's prophecy. The family breaks up as a result of this. Mohun's sister is transferred to live with Tara and Ajodha, a well-off aunt and uncle. Mohun moves in with other family members along with his mother and two elder brothers.

The boy is withdrawn prematurely from school and apprenticed to a pundit, but is cast out on bad terms. Ajodha then puts him in the care of his alcoholic and abusive brother Bhandat, an arrangement which also ends badly. Finally, the young Mr Biswas decides to make his own fortune. He encounters a friend from his school days who helps him get into the business of sign-writing. While on the job, Mr Biswas attempts to romance a client's daughter but his advances are misinterpreted as a wedding proposal. He is drawn into a marriage which he does not have the nerve to stop and becomes a member of the Tulsi household.

Mr Biswas becomes very unhappy with his wife Shama (based on Droapatie Naipaul) and her overbearing family. The Tulsis (based on the Capildeo family), and the big decaying Hanuman House (based on Anand Bhavan aka the Lion House) where they live represent the communal way of life which is traditional throughout Asia. Mr Biswas is offered a place in this cosmos, a subordinate place to be sure, but a place that is guaranteed and from which advancement is possible. But Mr Biswas wants more than being just a gharjamai. He is, by instinct, a modern man. He wants to be the author of his own life. That is an aspiration with which the Tulsis cannot deal, and their decaying world conspires to drag him down. Despite his poor education, Mr Biswas becomes a journalist, has four children with Shama, and attempts several times to build a house that he can call his own, a house which will symbolise his independence. Mr Biswas' desperate struggle to acquire a house of his own can be linked to an individual's need to develop an authentic identity. He feels that only by having his own house he can overcome his feelings of rootlessness and alienation.

Characters

 * Mohun Biswas (based on V. S. Naipaul's father, Seepersad Naipaul)
 * Shama (based on Droapatie Naipaul), Mohun's wife
 * Raghu, Mohun's father
 * Tara, Mohun's mother's sister
 * Bhandat, Tara's brother-in-law
 * Pundit Jayaram, Mohun's cruel employer, with whom he worked as an assistant
 * Mrs. Tulsi, Shama's mother
 * Anand, Mohun's son (based on V. S. Naipaul). Anand excels in school and shows signs of talent as a writer.

Development and publication
Naipaul wrote the book based on his own experiences as a child. Writing for The New York Review of Books in 1983, he stated that, "Of all my books A House for Mr. Biswas is the one closest to me." The book took him three years to write.

Naipaul finished the final proofreading of the book in May 1961. The book was first published in London by André Deutsch in 1961. McGraw Hill published the first US edition of the book in New York in the same year.

Style and themes
A central theme of the novel is alienation. Right from his birth, Mr Biswas is alienated due to the prophecy. He grew up as a lonely child who lived in isolation. Following his marriage to Shama, the joint family of the Tulsis expected him to merge his personal identity with theirs, which he finds difficult and makes him feel trapped. They later humiliate him and he is forced to work at the estate at Green Vale, where he grows resentful of even his own children. Ultimately, this sense of alienation motivates him to search for a house, symbolising an effort to find and create his own identity.

Throughout the novel, Mr Biswas' gradual progress is indicated through the many objects he and his wife acquire over the years. Naipaul lists out detailed inventories, much like "the catalogue of ships in the Iliad or the many descriptions of rooms by Dickens".

Legacy
The novel is generally regarded as Naipaul's most significant work and is credited with launching him into international fame and renown.

Time magazine included the novel in its "All-Time 100 Novels". On 5 November 2019 BBC News listed A House for Mr Biswas on its list of the 100 most influential novels.

Adaptations
The novel was later adapted as a stage musical, with compositions by Monty Norman. One of the songs written for the play, "Good Sign, Bad Sign", was later rewritten as the "James Bond Theme", according to the documentary Inside Dr. No.

In 1980, the book was serialised by the BBC in England as part of A Book at Bedtime and broadcast on the BBC World Service in 1981.

A two-part radio dramatisation, featuring Rudolph Walker, Nitin Ganatra, Nina Wadia and Angela Wynter ran on BBC Radio Four on 26 March and 2 April 2006.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: A House for Mr Biswas


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Darrell Griffith

Darrell Steven Griffith (born June 16, 1958), also known by his nickname Dr. Dunkenstein, is an American former basketball player who spent his entire professional career with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association from 1980 to 1991. He played collegiately at the University of Louisville.

High school and college
Griffith starred at Louisville Male High School and was heavily recruited by colleges all across the country. Male defeated Lexington Henry Clay 74–59 in the 1975 Kentucky State Championship game. In fact, Griffith reportedly turned down an offer to forego college and sign with the ABA's Kentucky Colonels. He decided to attend his hometown school, the University of Louisville, much to the delight of local fans.

He did not disappoint, delivering the school's first-ever NCAA men's basketball championship in 1980. He scored 23 points in the Cardinals' 59–54 victory over UCLA in the championship game. Due to his strong performance, he was named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Griffith totaled 825 points in his senior season, setting a school record. For his efforts, he was named First Team All-American by the Associated Press and was given the Wooden Award as the best college basketball player in the nation. He left college as Louisville's all-time leading scorer with 2,333 points in his career. His jersey number, 35, was retired during ceremonies after the 1980 season.

In November 2014, Griffith was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Professional career
Utah selected Griffith with the second overall pick in the 1980 NBA draft. The Jazz had recently moved to Salt Lake City from New Orleans, and the team needed a star to replace legendary shooting guard Pete Maravich. Griffith accepted the challenge, averaging 20.6 points per game in his first season and earning the NBA's Rookie of the Year award.

For the next four seasons, Griffith teamed with small forward Adrian Dantley to form one of the highest-scoring duos in the league. With defensive support from center Mark Eaton and point guard Rickey Green, the Jazz improved dramatically, winning the Midwest Division title in 1983–84 and qualifying for the NBA playoffs for the first time ever. Individually, Griffith transformed his offensive game, adding long-distance shooting skills to his aerial acrobatics. He led the league in three-point shooting (36.1 percent) and set an NBA record for most three-pointers made in a single season (91). His new abilities earned him a new nickname: Utah's play-by-play announcer Hot Rod Hundley began calling him "The Golden Griff".

The following season (1984–85) was the best of Griffith's career. He averaged a career-high 22.6 points per game, and broke his own league record by sinking 92 three-point shots. During the year, he passed Joey Hassett as the all-time NBA leader for most career three-pointers. He also continued his high-flying ways, representing the Jazz in the 1984 and 1985 NBA Slam Dunk Contests.

However, the team changed dramatically in the mid-1980s with the emergence of Karl Malone and John Stockton as Utah's top offensive weapons. Dantley was traded away and Griffith suffered from injuries. ("Dr. Dunkenstein was paying his toll", he once said in an interview. ) He missed the entire 1985–86 season due to a stress fracture in his foot, and would lose his starting position when he returned. Griffith would need an operation on his left knee in March 1988, causing him to miss the remainder of that season. He managed to reclaim his starting spot for most of the 1988–89 season, but lost it permanently the following year. His playing time gradually decreased until his retirement in 1991. He scored 12,391 total points over the course of his 10-year professional career – all with the Jazz. The franchise recognized his contributions by retiring his jersey number 35 on December 4, 1993.

Post-basketball career
In the 2010s and 20s, Griffith returned to his alma mater as a special assistant to President James R. Ramsey and later as a university ambassador under President Neeli Bendapudi.

title: Darrell Griffith


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A Bend in the River

A Bend in the River is a 1979 novel by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul.

The novel, telling the story of Salim, a merchant in post-colonial mid-20th century Africa, is one of Naipaul's best known works and was widely praised. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1979. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked A Bend in the River #83 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. A Bend in the River has also been criticized for a perceived defence of European colonialism in Africa.

Plot
Set in an unnamed African country after independence, the book is narrated by Salim, an ethnically Indian Muslim and a shopkeeper in a small but growing city in the country's remote interior. Salim observes the rapid changes in Africa with an outsider's distance.

Salim grows up in the community of Indian traders on the east coast of Africa. Feeling insecure about his future in East Africa, he buys a business from Nazruddin in a town at "a bend in the river" in the heart of Africa. When he moves there he finds the town decrepit, a "ghost town", its former European suburb reclaimed by the bush, and many of its European vestiges ruined in a "rage" by the locals in response to their suppression and humiliation during colonial times. Old tribal distinctions have become important again. Salim trades in what people in the villages need: pencils and paper, pots and pans, other household utensils. Soon he is joined by an assistant, Metty, who comes from a family of house slaves that his family had maintained in the east. One of his steady customers is Zabeth, a "marchande" from a village and a magician too. Zabeth has a son, Ferdinand, by a man of another tribe, and asks Salim to help him get educated. Ferdinand attends the local lycée run by Father Huismans, a Belgian priest who collects African masks and is considered a "lover of Africa". Life in the town is slowly improving. Salim's decision to move there seems to be vindicated when he learns that the Indian community on the east coast is being persecuted, but he still does not feel secure. Mahesh, a fellow IndIan trader, says that the local Africans are "malins" (i.e. wicked), "because they lived with the knowledge of men as prey". A rebellion breaks out and the Indian merchants live in fear. Soon white mercenaries appear and restore order. After peace has returned Father Huismans goes on a trip. He is killed by unknown assailants and nobody cares. Afterwards his collection of African masks is denounced as an affront to African religion. An American visitor pillages most of the masks and ships them home as "the richest products of the forest".

The town now develops into a trading centre for the region. Government agencies spring up. European salesmen and visitors arrive. Salim's friends Mahesh and Shoba become successful with their new Bigburger franchise. The new army arrives, "poachers of ivory and thieves of gold". Portraits of the President, "the Big Man", are displayed everywhere. A new section of town is built, the "State Domain", to showcase the President's vision of a new Africa. Yet buildings are shoddy, the tractors at the agricultural centre never get put to work, and much of the Domain falls quickly into disrepair. Salim calls it a "hoax". The Domain is soon converted into a university and conference centre.

Salim is visited by Indar, who grew up with him on the east coast, then went to England to study and now has become a lecturer at the new institution. He takes Salim to a party in the Domain to meet Yvette and Raymond, an expatriate European couple. Raymond had been the advisor and mentor of the President. Although charismatic and admired, he finds himself outside the centre of power, his influence with the President seemingly in eclipse. Loyal to the President, he continues to write for him, hoping to be recalled to the capital.

Salim, whose experience with women has been limited to prostitutes, is intrigued by Yvette, Raymond's much younger wife. Salim and Yvette start an adulterous affair right under Raymond's eyes. But the affair ends abruptly when Salim, seized by sudden jealousy, beats her badly and sends her away.

Raymond's attempt to please the Big Man by editing a collection of his speeches is not successful. Instead the President publishes "a very small, brief book of thoughts, Maximes, two or three thoughts to each page, each thought about four or five lines long". Like others, Salim is forced to buy copies of the book for distribution. The local youth group displeases the President and is denounced in one of his propaganda speeches. As a result, unrest grows, corruption and extortion become more prevalent, and a "Liberation Army" forms underground. They reject the President, his cult of the black Madonna (modeled on the President's mother), and his vision of Africa, calling to return to the "truthful laws" of the ancestors.

Salim looks for a way out. He travels to London, where he meets Nazruddin. Nazruddin sold his business to Salim, moved to Uganda, left it because of persecution, moved then to Canada, left it because of its capitalistic rapaciousness, and finally landed in London, where he became a landlord. He bemoans the lack of security for honest businessmen: there is no safe place. Salim becomes engaged to Nazruddin's daughter, but soon returns to his place in Africa. Upon arrival he learns that his business has been expropriated under the President's new programme of "radicalization" and transferred to a local. Théotime, a "state trustee", is ignorant and lazy, and retains Salim as manager and chauffeur. Salim recognises that all is lost. He has hidden some ivory on his property, but, betrayed by Metty, is found out and put in jail. He is presented to the commissioner, Ferdinand, who has moved up in the administration after receiving training in the capital. Ferdinand tells him that there is no safety, no hope, and that everybody is in fear of his life: "We’re all going to hell, and every man knows this in his bones. We’re being killed. Nothing has any meaning." He sets Salim free and tells him to leave the country. Salim takes the last steamer before the President arrives. During the night there is a battle on the ship, as rebels try to hijack it. The attack is repelled, but the attached barge, full of Africans, is snapped loose and drifts down the river.

Latin mottos
This Latin phrase is still visible to Salim on the granite base of a ruined European monument near the dock. Later Father Huismans explains him its meaning. "He approves of the mingling of the peoples and their bonds of union", derived from Virgil's Aeneid, Book IV, line 112. Aeneas lands on the shores of Africa, falls in love with Queen Dido and wants to settle, putting his mission, the migration to Italy, in danger. The gods intervene: they do not approve of a settlement in Africa nor of the mingling of the peoples. In the motto, however, three words were altered to reverse the original meaning.

A second Latin phrase is encountered by Salim: Semper aliquod novi, the motto of the lycée. The original phrase by Pliny the Elder meant that there is always something new out of Africa (ex Africa). Huismans applied it jokingly to the unique masks and carvings with religious quality he had collected.

Comments
Naipaul is recognised as a "magnificent novelist", and A Bend in the River has been described as a "full-bodied masterpiece". Yet he has been accused of being a "neo-colonialist", and in this novel post-colonial Africa is depicted as spiralling into a kind of Hell. He has also been accused of being "infected by an ancestral communal resentment" against blacks. Jennifer Seymour Whitaker indicates that Salim's plight as an outsider, a member of the Indian community in Africa, is credibly rendered, but takes Naipaul to task for ascribing to African people a "mysterious malevolence".

Irving Howe admires Naipaul's "almost Conradian gift for tensing a story", the psychic and moral tension of the novel, and its "serious involvement with human issues". Howe rejects the notion that Naipaul is an apologist of colonialism. He contrasts the foreground space occupied by Salim with the background acts set in motion by the Big Man. The Big Man never appears but finds a voice in Raymond, the white intellectual whom the President promotes but later ignores. Howe bemoans the fact that, as he sees it, Naipaul allows "the wretchedness of his depicted scene" to become "the limit of his vision".

Selwyn Cudjoe thinks that the novel depicts "the gradual darkening of African society as it returns to its age-old condition of bush and blood" and thinks this pessimistic view indicates Naipaul's "inability to examine postcolonial societies in any depth". The novel examines "the homeless condition of the East Indian in a world he cannot call home" and shows in Salim's case his passage to free himself from "the constricting ties to his society's past".

Imraan Coovadia examines Naipaul's Latin quotations, accuses him of misquotation and manipulation, and suggests that he tries to evoke fear, disgust and condescension. Massod Raja suggests that the novel takes an essentially bourgeois perspective, Salim being interested, not in revolutionary goals, but in maintaining a profitable enterprise. He asserts that Naipaul is not a postcolonial author but a "cosmopolitan" one (as defined by Timothy Brennan), who offers an "inside view of formerly submerged peoples" for target audiences that have "metropolitan literary tastes".

In 2001, without specifically referring to this novel, the Nobel Literature Prize Committee indicated that it viewed Naipaul as Conrad's heir as the annalist of the destinies of empires in the moral sense: what they do to human beings. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad presented a dark picture of the same region at the beginning of European colonization; this type of depiction of Africa is also found recast in Naipaul's novel.

Like Conrad, who in Heart of Darkness does not name the big river, Naipaul does not name the river in this novel, nor the town at its bend, nor the country or its president. Yet there are possible identifiers. Thus the reader learns that the town is located in the heart of Africa, at the end of the navigable river, just below the cataracts, and the European colonisers had been French-speaking, perhaps Belgians. Naipaul's description has been interpreted to point to the town of Kisangani on the Congo River. A link between the "Big Man" and President Mobutu of Zaire was drawn by some reviewers. Naipaul credits his extramarital affair with Margaret Gooding for giving A Bend in the River and his later books greater fluidity, saying that these "in a way to some extent depend on her. They stopped being dry.”

title: A Bend in the River


text:
Elias Hicks

Elias Hicks (March 19, 1748 – February 27, 1830) was a traveling Quaker minister from Long Island, New York. In his ministry he promoted doctrines deemed unorthodox by many which led to lasting controversy, and caused the second major schism within the Religious Society of Friends (the first caused by George Keith in 1691). Elias Hicks was the older cousin of the painter Edward Hicks.

Early life
Elias Hicks was born in Hempstead, New York, in 1748, the son of John Hicks (1711–1789) and Martha Hicks (née Smith; 1709–1759), who were farmers. He was a carpenter by trade and in his early twenties he became a Quaker like his father.

On January 2, 1771, Hicks married a fellow Quaker, Jemima Seaman, at the Westbury Meeting House and they had eleven children, only five of whom reached adulthood. Hicks eventually became a farmer, settling on his wife's parents' farm in Jericho, New York, in what is now known as the Elias Hicks House. There he and his wife provided, as did other Jericho Quakers, free board and lodging to any traveler on the Jericho Turnpike rather than have them seek accommodation in taverns for the night.

In 1778, Hicks helped to build the Friends meeting house in Jericho, which remains a place of Quaker worship. Hicks preached actively in Quaker meeting, and by 1778 he was acknowledged as a recorded minister. Hicks was regarded as a gifted speaker with a strong voice and dramatic flair. He drew large crowds when he was said to be attending meetings, sometimes in the thousands. In November 1829, the young Walt Whitman heard Hicks preach at Morrison's Hotel in Brooklyn, and later said, "Always Elias Hicks gives the service of pointing to the fountain of all naked theology, all religion, all worship, all the truth to which you are possibly eligible—namely in yourself and your inherent relations. Others talk of Bibles, saints, churches, exhortations, vicarious atonements—the canons outside of yourself and apart from man—Elias Hicks points to the religion inside of man's very own nature. This he incessantly labors to kindle, nourish, educate, bring forward and strengthen."

Anti-slavery activism
Elias Hicks was one of the early Quaker abolitionists. In 1778 on Long Island, he joined with fellow Quakers who had begun manumitting their slaves as early as March 1776 (James Titus and Phebe Willets Mott Dodge ). The Quakers at Westbury Meeting were amongst the first in New York to do so and, gradually following their example, all Westbury Quaker slaves were freed by 1799.

In 1794, Hicks was a founder of the Charity Society of Jerico and Westbury Meetings, established to give aid to local poor African Americans and provide their children with education.

In 1811, Hicks wrote Observations on the Slavery of Africans and Their Descendants and in it he linked the moral issue of emancipation to the Quaker Peace Testimony, by stating that slavery was the product of war. He identified economic reasons for the perpetuation of slavery:

"Q. 10. By what class of the people is the slavery of the Africans and their descendants supported and encouraged? A. Principally by the purchasers and consumers of the produce of the slaves' labour; as the profits arising from the produce of their labour, is the only stimulus or inducement for making slaves."

and he advocated a consumer boycott of slave-produced goods to remove the economic reasons for their existence:

"Q. 11. What effect would it have on the slave holders and their slaves, should the people of the United States of America and the inhabitants of Great Britain, refuse to purchase or make use of any goods that are the product of Slavery? A. It would doubtless have a particular effect on the slave holders, by circumscribing their avarice, and preventing their heaping up riches, and living in a state of luxury and excess on the gain of oppression …"

Observations on the Slavery of Africans and Their Descendents gave the free produce movement its central argument. This movement promoted an embargo of all goods produced by slave labor, which were mainly cotton cloth and cane sugar, in favor of produce from the paid labor of free people. Though the free produce movement was not intended to be a religious response to slavery, most of the free produce stores were Quaker in origin, as with the first such store, that of Benjamin Lundy in Baltimore in 1826.

Hicks supported Lundy's scheme to assist the emigration of freed slaves to Haiti and in 1824, he hosted a meeting on how to facilitate this at his home in Jericho. In the late 1820s, he argued in favor of raising funds to buy slaves and settle them as free people in the American Southwest.

Hicks influenced the abolition of slavery in his home state, from the partial abolition of the 1799 Gradual Abolition Act to the 1817 Gradual Manumission in New York State Act which led to the final emancipation of all remaining slaves within the state on July 4, 1827.

Doctrinal views
Hicks ministry would be part of the first schism within Quakerism, the 1827-1828 Hicksite-Orthodox split.

The central doctrinal focus of the Hicksite-Orthodox split was the role of the Bible and Jesus Christ. Both Hicksites and Orthodox Quakers viewed their positions as continuations of the original Quakers views. Though historians such as Glen Crothers argues that the schism resulted from the Second Great Awakening in the United States leading to Orthodox Quakers adopting more Biblical views as influenced by American Evangelicals.

Elias Hicks argued that Inward Light in each individual is the primary focus of an individual’s faith over creed or doctrine, which follows George Fox and early Quaker concepts of inward light as “the presence of Christ in the heart,” God’s presence in each person, and the Holy Spirit speaking through each person. (The interchangeable use of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit is due to his and early Quaker rejection of the Trinity.)

As a consequence, the Bible was to Hicks a secondary source of faith and understanding of God, as it is written entirely and divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit. He wrote"I confirm my doctrine abundantly from their testimony: and I have always endeavored sincerely to place them [the scriptures] in their true place and station, but never dare exalt them above what they themselves declare; and as no spring can rise higher than its fountain, so likewise the Scriptures can only direct to the fountain from whence they originated - the spirit of truth: as saith the apostle, 'The things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God;' therefore when the Scriptures have directed and pointed us to this light within, or Spirit of Truth, there they must stop - it is their ultimatum - the top stone of what they can do And no other external testimony of men or books can do any more."Hicks sparked great controversy for writing in letters to his friends that the scriptures created more harm than good, because different factions of Christian’s held the Bible in too high a regard and without using the inward light as the primary source of understanding with which to interpret the Bible.

In a personal letter he wrote"For it is my candid belief, that those that hold and believe the Scriptures to be the only rule of faith and practice, to these it does much more hurt than good. And has anything tended more to divide Christendom into sects and parties than the Scriptures? and by which so many cruel and bloody wars have been promulgated [promoted]. And yet at the same time, may it not be one of the best books, if rightly used under the guidance of the Holy Spirit? But, if abused, like every other blessing, it becomes a curse. Therefore to these it always does more hurt than good; and thou knowest that these comprehend far the greatest part of Christendom!"Regarding Jesus Christ, Hicks wrote that the miracles Jesus performed were meant to prove the existence of God. He argued that Jesus was the savior of the Jewish people by replacing the law put forth by Moses. He also argued that Jesus provided the path to salvation for all people exemplified by his life, which was perfectly and entirely guided and united with the Holy Spirit through his inward light. To Hicks, Jesus divinity by being united with God and the Holy Spirit occurred at two points of Jesus’ life, his divine conception and his baptism by John the Baptist.

Regarding salvation, Hicks firstly rejected the concept of original sin. Because of this, he did not argue that the sacrifice of Jesus’ body or his blood provided salvation, nor that faith in him does so. Rather that salvation came through living as Jesus exemplified, that is, in accordance and unity with the Holy Spirit/Inward Light. Consequently Hicks implicitly refutes doctrines of salvation such as penal substitution, or predestination.

In the year 1829, "Six Queries" were proposed by Thomas Leggett, Jr., of New York, and answered by Elias Hicks. The last was as follows:

"Sixth Query. What relation has the body of Jesus to the Saviour of man? Dost thou believe that the crucifixion of the outward body of Jesus Christ was an atonement for our sins?

Hicks Answered. 'In reply to the first part of this query, I answer, I believe, in unison with our ancient Friends, that it was the garment in which he performed all his mighty works, or as Paul expressed it, 'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you,' therefore he charged them not to defile those temples. What is attributed to that body, I acknowledge and give to that body, in its place, according as the Scripture attributeth it, which is through and because of that which dwelt and acted in it.

'But that which sanctified and kept the body pure (and made all acceptable in him) was the life, holiness, and righteousness of the Spirit. 'And the same thing that kept his vessel pure, it is the same thing that cleanseth us.'

'In reply to the second part of this query, I would remark that I 'see no need of directing men to the type for the antitype, neither to the outward temple, nor yet to Jerusalem, neither to Jesus Christ or his blood [outwardly], knowing that neither the righteousness of faith, nor the word of it doth so direct.'

'The new and second covenant is dedicated with the blood, the life of Christ Jesus, which is the alone atonement unto God, by which all his people are washed, sanctified, cleansed, and redeemed to God.'"

Hicks rejected the existence of an external Devil. He never spoke of eternal Hell but he expressed the importance of the soul's union "now" in preparation for the "realms of eternity" and how the soul's condemnation is elected through our free agency, not by God's foreordination.

Hicks rejected of the notion of an outward Devil as the source of evil, but rather emphasized that it was the human 'passions' or 'propensities'. Hicks stressed that basic urges, including all sexual passions, were neither implanted by an external evil, but all were aspects of human nature as created by God. Hicks claimed, in his sermon Let Brotherly Love Continue at the Byberry Friends Meeting in 1824 that:

He gave us passions—if we may call them passions—in order that we might seek after those things which we need, and which we had a right to experience and know.

Hicks taught that all wrongdoing and suffering occurred in the world as the consequence of "an excess in the indulgence of propensities. Independent of the regulating influence of God's light."

Hicksite–Orthodox split
This first split in Quakerism was not entirely due to Hicks' ministry and internal divisions. It was, in part, also a response within Quakerism to the influences of the Second Great Awakening, the revival of Protestant evangelism that began in the 1790s as a reaction to religious skepticism, deism, and the liberal theology of Rational Christianity.

However, doctrinal tensions among Friends due to Hicks' teachings had emerged as early as 1808 and as Hicks' influence grew, prominent visiting English evangelical public Friends, including William Forster and Anna Braithwaite, were prompted to travel to New York State in the period from 1821 to 1827 to denounce his views.

Their presence severely exacerbated the differences among American Quakers, differences that had been underscored by the 1819 split between the American Unitarians and Congregationalists. The influence of Anna Braithwaite was especially strong. She visited the United States between 1823 and 1827 and published her Letters and observations relating to the controversy respecting the doctrines of Elias Hicks in 1824 in which she depicted Hicks as a radical eccentric. Hicks felt obliged to respond and in the same year published a letter to his ally in Philadelphia Meeting, Dr. Edwin Atlee, in The Misrepresentations of Anna Braithwaite. This in turn was replied to by Braithwaite in A Letter from Anna Braithwaite to Elias Hicks, On the Nature of his Doctrines in 1825. Neither party was persuaded by this exchange.

In 1819, Hicks had devoted much energy into influencing the meeting houses in Philadelphia and this was followed by years of intense organizational turmoil. Eventually, due to both external influences and constant internal strife, matters came to a head there in 1826.

After the 1826 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, at which Hicks' sermon had stressed the importance of the Inner Light before Scripture, Quaker elders decided to visit each meeting house in the city to examine the doctrinal soundness of all ministers and elders. This caused great resentment that culminated at the following Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1827. Hicks was not present when the differences between the meeting houses ended in acrimony and division, precipitated by the inability of the Meeting to reach consensus on the appointment of a new clerk required to record its discernment.

Though the initial separation was intended to be temporary, by 1828, there were two independent Quaker groupings in the city, both claiming to be the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Other yearly meetings split along similar lines during subsequent years, including those in New York, Baltimore, Ohio, and Indiana. Those who followed Hicks became termed Hicksites and his critics termed Orthodox Friends, each faction considering itself to be the true expression of the legacy of the founder of the Friends, George Fox.

The split was also based on marked socioeconomic factors with Hicksite Friends being mostly poor and rural and with Orthodox Friends being mostly urban and middle-class. Many of the rural country Friends kept to Quaker traditions of "plain speech" and "plain dress", both long-abandoned by Quakers in the towns and cities.

Both Orthodox and Hicksite factions were active in the formation of educational institutions. To wit, Orthodox Quakers founded Haverford College and Hicksites Swarthmore College.

Both the Orthodox and Hicksite Friends experienced further schisms. The main following of the Orthodox Friends followed the practices of the English Quaker Joseph John Gurney who possessed an evangelical position. As time went on, a majority of the meetings endorsed forms of worship much like those of a traditional Protestant church. Friends in line with Gurney became known as Gurneyites. Those Orthodox Friends who did not agree with the practices of the Gurneyites, lead by John Wilbur of Rhode Island, branched off to form the Wilburite branch of Conservative, Primitive and Independent yearly meetings. Those Hicksite Friends who did not agree with the lessened discipline within the Hicksite yearly meetings founded Congregational, or Progressive groups.

In 1828, the split in American Quakerism also spread to the Quaker community in Canada that had immigrated there from New York, the New England states and Pennsylvania in the 1790s. This resulted in a parallel system of Yearly Meetings in Upper Canada, as in the United States.

The eventual division between Hicksites and the evangelical Orthodox Friends in the US was both deep and long-lasting. Full reconciliation between them took decades to achieve, from the first reunified Monthly Meetings in the 1920s until finally resolved with the reunification of Baltimore Yearly Meeting in 1968.

Later life
On June 24, 1829, at the age of 81, Elias Hicks went on his final traveling ministry to western and central New York State, arriving home in Jericho on November 11, 1829. There, in January 1830, he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and on February 14, 1830, he suffered an incapacitating secondary stroke. He died some two weeks later on February 27, 1830, his dying concern being that no cotton blanket, a product of slavery, should cover him on his deathbed. Elias Hicks was interred in the Jericho Friends' Burial Ground as was earlier his wife, Jemima, who predeceased him on March 17, 1829. Samuel E. Clements a editor of the newspaper the Patriot aroused controversy when he and two friends attempted to dig up the corpse Elias Hicks to create a plaster mold of his head.

title: Elias Hicks


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Illawarra Steelers

The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level rugby league competition from 1982 until 1998. On 13 December 1980, they were the first non-Sydney based team to be admitted into the New South Wales Rugby League premiership, with the Canberra Raiders being admitted later ensuring an even number of teams in the competition for the start of their first season, 1982. Over their seventeen years in the top grade, the club received three wooden spoons, made the play-offs twice and had a total of three of its players (two New South Wales Blues and one Queensland Maroon) selected to play for the Australia national rugby league team.

Following the Super League War and the NRL's intention the reduce the number of teams, the Steelers approached the St. George Dragons part way through the 1998 season to discuss forming a joint-venture and ensure the partial survival of both clubs. On 23 September 1998, Rugby League's first joint-venture, the St. George Illawarra Dragons, were officially announced. The Steelers share in the club was privatised to Wollongong-based WIN Corporation in 2018.

Illawarra still field stand alone teams in the Tarsha Gale Cup (women's under 18's), SG Ball (under 18's) and Harold Matthews (under 16's) competitions as the Steelers.

The 23,750 capacity WIN Stadium is the Steelers home stadium.

Formation
The Illawarra Rugby League made several attempts to enter the NSWRL competition, the first major attempt was in the 1950s. It made a much more serious attempt for entry into the 1967 season but were blocked by the Country Rugby League (CRL) who used their constitution to prevent Illawarra's plans of playing in the Sydney competition. This was a crucial moment in the emergence of the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, as it was after Illawarra were blocked and the NSWRL wanted a second new club to enter with Penrith, preferably in the South of Sydney due to continued success at that time of the St George Dragons, to avoid the need for a bye that "the shire's" submission was successful.

In this unsuccessful bid, Illawarra were to be backed by the then wealthy Illawarra Leagues Club in Church Street, Wollongong. The club is the second oldest leagues club in the world. It was originally established to financially support top class rugby league and soccer in the region.

On 13 December 1980, the NSWRL voted almost unanimously for Illawarra to enter in the 1982 season. Only three dissenting votes were counted, which were the three CRL representatives present. Illawarra's organiser Bob Millward told those at the meeting that rugby league in the region depended on this bid getting the go ahead. Interest in the region had turned away from local football to the Sydney competition. The Illawarra Mercury daily newspaper was increasing its coverage of the Sydney premiership and Illawarra's inclusion was viewed as the best way of reviving the local league.

1980s
Illawarra entered the competition in 1982, with financial backing from many of the local leagues clubs. Their first captain was star fullback John Dorahy, and first coach Allan Fitzgibbon. Unfortunately, the recession hit hard and the leagues club money dried up and the Steelers were a new club in desperate financial trouble. In 1984, BHP Steel saved the club, signing on as the major sponsor. BHP stayed with the Steelers until they left the NRL at the end of the 1998 season.

Their first 8 seasons produced 3 wooden spoons, but things started to improve for the club. In the 1989 Panasonic Cup the club reached the final which was played against the Brisbane Broncos at Parramatta Stadium. The Broncos raced to a 16–0 lead and it seemed the Steelers much more fancied opponents would run away with the game. But Illawarra, inspired by eventual man-of-the-match, Great Britain international Andy Gregory, hit back. Young Illawarra Juniors such as Brett Rodwell and Rod Wishart made their mark in this game, players that would form the foundation of the club's improved performances in the early 1990s. Illawarra lost the match 22–20, however Brisbane scored a try off what appeared to be forward pass. The large Illawarra contingent at Parramatta Stadium booed the Broncos after their win, with Brisbane captain Wally Lewis gaining their ire by gesturing back. Illawarra's performance inspired Australian folk singer John Williamson to write a song about the match. The 1989 season also saw Gregory's Wigan and Great Britain teammate, Steve Hampson, playing for the Steelers.

1990s
1990 saw big improvements with the club finishing not too far away from the top five. The Steelers licensed club opened its doors thanks to the efforts of the local community and businesses. Whereas Sydney teams had huge financial support from their respective leagues clubs, Illawarra for the first time had its own small leagues club but with an enviable major sponsor (BHP Steel) and sleeve sponsor combination – The Steelers making Rugby League history as the first club to have a sleeve sponsor, with MMI Insurance getting on board.

A new coach by the name of Graham Murray turned Illawarra into an almost unbeatable force at the Wollongong Showground in 1991, losing only to the Penrith Panthers who went on to win the premiership. A crushing 44–4 win over Canterbury-Bankstown, an upset win over Manly in a Sunday match of the round as well as a big win over Brisbane, 19–2, were signs of things to come. A crucial refereeing decision by Bill Harrigan towards the end of the season in a game at Penrith Stadium put an end to their finals aspirations. Harrigan, much to his credit, apologised in the media after the game. Thus Illawarra missed out on a place in the finals by just two points, despite having a season points differential second only to eventual premiers, Penrith.

The Steelers were able to avenge their 1989 Panasonic Cup Final loss to Brisbane by beating them in the 1992 pre-season Tooheys Challenge Cup, in a try-less final at Dubbo, 4–2. This sparked their successful 1992 Winfield Cup campaign, going to within one game from the Grand Final. Illawarra's first semi-final was against future merger partner St George, beating "big-brother" 18–16. Next a loss to the Broncos 22–12 and their last chance against St George, losing 4–0. However, Illawarra were denied tries on several controversial occasions leaving the Steelers with a bitter end to their successful season.

During the 1992 season, the Steelers hosted the touring Great Britain Lions. In front of 9,500 fans at Steelers Stadium with the tourists winning a tight game 11–10, Illawarra resting several star players.

1993 was a season met by Steelers fans with high expectations, but crucial tight losses and games they were expected to win saw the side finish just outside the top 5.

1994 was better with the club putting together some great performances but three draws would end up costly, the Steelers finishing in 6th place, 2 points behind Brisbane. The club had established itself as a credible force in the Winfield Cup with many expecting a brighter future but things would soon be turned upside down.

Super League hit in 1995 and the Steelers were in for a rough ride. The good work in becoming a credible force in the competition went out the window with the sacking of Graham Murray, which is the only incident where anyone in the competition lost their job as a direct result of the Super League war. Murray was organising meetings between Illawarra players and Super League officials, as Super League had intentions of either getting the Steelers or possibly a new Illawarra club. Local club Wests Illawarra were reported in the Illawarra Mercury as being a potential Illawarra Super League club. Local league fans reacted angrily and nothing came of it. Illawarra and its supporters remained loyal to the ARL, though Steelers board member and then speaker of the House of Representatives, Dr Stephen Martin, resigned from the club citing the need to join Super League for them to survive. Martin would be proved right within three years.

1996 was another year of disappointment, with players not seeing eye-to-eye with new coach Allan McMahon. A horror 54-4 thrashing at the hands of arch-rival Brisbane Broncos was the low point. McMahon, despite signing a three-year contract, was sacked at the end of the season and was replaced the next season by former player and then reserve grade coach Andrew Farrar.

In 1997's stand-alone Australian Rugby League competition, the Steelers finished sixth, qualifying for the Finals series, only to bow out in the first week at a rain sodden and sparsely populated Parramatta Stadium. Having beaten the Gold Coast Chargers comprehensively in Wollongong in the final round, they put in shocking performance to lose to the same side they had just beaten the previous week.

1998 saw the Steelers come agonisingly close to the finals, missing out with other results going against them and a heartbreaking 1 point loss to eventual grand finalists Canterbury-Bankstown in their final match.

During season 1998, the newly established NRL administration announced the entry criteria for teams to compete from the year 2000, with clubs offered incentives to form joint ventures. A controversial aspect of the criteria for the Illawarra region was the classification of the Steelers as a Sydney club. Additionally, Newcastle, Canberra and Auckland would be given automatic entry, with Illawarra believing they too were an important regional centre that should stand alone.

Alas, with the possibility of not making the cut, Illawarra approached St George and initiated joint venture talks midway through 1998. Western Suburbs (whom Illawarra were rumoured to be merging with in the 1980s) and Cronulla both expressed interest but Steelers CEO Bob Millward claimed that the club's preferred partner was always St George. The joint venture was officially announced at the end of the season, and would be named St George Illawarra Dragons, playing 50% of their home games in Sydney and 50% in Wollongong in 1999.

The Illawarra Steelers produced some brilliant playing talent, most notably International representatives Rod Wishart and Paul McGregor. Former Steelers players Trent Barrett, Shaun Timmins and Craig Fitzgibbon have gone on to represent their country since the Steelers' final stand-alone season in 1998.

Joint venture
The Illawarra Steelers decided to form a joint venture with the St. George Dragons for the 1999 NRL season to form the St. George Illawarra Dragons. The Illawarra and St George contingents are equal stakeholders in the new club, and until 2014, half of the new team's home games were played at WIN Stadium. The Illawarra Steelers have at times provided the bulk of St George Illawarra's squad, including internationals Matt Cooper, Luke Bailey, Jason Ryles, Shaun Timmins, Trent Barrett, Brett Morris, Josh Morris and Ben Creagh.

The joint venture is often seen as a takeover. Many supporters feel that the Illawarra is not appropriately acknowledged in St George Illawarra, as the logo and main jersey were taken directly from those of St George (albeit with the addition of "Illawarra" to the bottom of the emblem). Furthermore, Illawarra fans continue to be alienated by St George supporters who still chant "St George" at games and wave banners like "Great St George Team". The media and other rugby league fans also often leave out Illawarra and continue to call the joint venture entity "St George", much to the chagrin and dismay of those from the Illawarra side. St George Illawarra has sometimes taken token steps to acknowledge Illawarra. One example of this is that, on 18 April 2004 against Penrith at WIN Stadium, St George Illawarra introduced an alternate jersey which was predominantly red (with white stripes), this being recognisably similar to the former Steelers' jersey. This replaced the "blood and bandages" jersey of red-and-white horizontal stripes, which was also a former St George jersey. St George Illawarra have since reverted to the old St George "blood and bandages" design as their alternate jersey.

While Illawarra is still somewhat represented in the National Rugby League by the St George Illawarra Dragons, the Illawarra Steelers participated as a single entity in the NSW Cup until the end of 2017 (as the Illawarra Cutters from 2012 and then Illawarra RLFC in 2017, due to a sponsorship deal with Illawarra Coal) and in the junior competitions, most notably S.G. Ball Cup and Harold Matthews Cup. The Steelers made the Harold Matthews Cup grand final in 2011, losing 13–12 to the Canterbury Bulldogs. In early 2006, WIN Television Network (originating from and headquartered in Wollongong) bought a 25% share in the St. George Illawarra club for $6.5 million (half of Illawarra's share), erasing most of the debt Illawarra owed to St. George. This formalised the strong support the network has shown for the Steelers in years gone by and ensured that Wollongong will continue to host top level rugby league. WIN Corp can only sell their stake back to the Steelers, should they wish to withdraw their involvement, thus ensuring Illawarra are always properly represented in the joint venture.

In 2008, Illawarra's debt to St George was paid off, with the 20% sale of the Steelers Club building to a Bermuda-based company owned by Illawarra billionaire (and WIN Television boss) Bruce Gordon. In 2016, Illawarra won their first and only premiership title with the 2016 against Mount Pritchard Mounties at Parramatta Stadium. This was the final game ever played at this venue.

One week later, Illawarra claimed the NRL State Championship on NRL Grand Final day with an emphatic 54–12 win over Queensland Cup winners the Burleigh Bears at Stadium Australia.

On 27 October 2017, it was announced that Illawarra would be replaced by The St George Illawarra Dragons for The 2018 Intrust Super Premiership NSW season as part of a restructure in the competition. It was the first time since 2007 that a full St George Illawarra Dragons side featured in the reserve grade competition.

The approach brought the club in line with the NRL's ‘whole of game’ strategy that also saw top-grade squads increased from 25 players to 30. Club director of rugby league pathways Ian Millward said of the change “There's obviously a lot of changes in rugby league at the moment, one of the changes we’ve made is that the reserve grade team is St George Illawarra,” Millward said. “What it gives us is a clear pathway where younger players aspire to be Dragons right through to our first grade squad. There's a clear acknowledgment for coaches, training staff and players that when they're in our environment they are a part of the St George Illawarra Dragons".

In August 2018 WIN Corporation purchased the Illawarra Steelers remaining 25% stake in the joint venture St George Illawarra Dragons club for a "commercially in confidence" sum. The St. George Dragons and the Illawarra-based WIN Corporation now have a 50% stake each. WIN Corporation has paid off the $6 million debt the St. George Illawarra Dragons owed the NRL.

Name, Emblem and Mascot
The name "Steelers" was chosen in reference to the local Port Kembla Steelworks, which was the Illawarra region's largest economy employer. (BHP, who owned the steelworks, eventually sponsored the team for most of their existence.) Other names considered were "Lions" and "Steelies". The actual 'Steelers' name came after a competition was run to choose a name. The name was chosen by Dapto High School student Roger White, who was also a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers NFL team in the United States. Roger responded to a competition published in the Illawarra Mercury Newspaper.

Their mascot from 1982 to 1998 was the legendary "Stanley, the Steel Avenger", also commonly referred to as "Stanley the Steeler". Stanley holds the dubious honour of being the only team mascot in Rugby League history to be sent from the field. In Round 20 of the 1995 season, Illawarra hosted Balmain at Steelers Stadium. A fight between players spilled over the sideline, with Stanley reaching in to separate players. The referee instantly sent Stanley off, whilst the fight ensued.

Colours
The original Steelers jersey was all scarlet with two white hooped stripes on each sleeve. The alternate design was the same colours in reverse. The club kept this design until 1995, adding a third stripe on each sleeve and three hoops around the middle of the jersey to the white alternate jersey, then adopting the same design for the scarlet jersey in 1997. The Steelers simplistic design compared well with the many "space-aged" designs of several other clubs that came and went each season throughout the Super League period and into the 2000s. For the Steelers heritage days in 2005 and 2010, the Dragons wore an Illawarra heritage jersey, which was the same as the original Steelers jumper. This move proved very popular amongst former Illawarra fans. From 2011 to 2013, the Dragons wore an alternate jersey based on the original Steelers' design.

The colours scarlet and white were automatically chosen as they were long worn by Illawarra representative teams in several sports. Local miners uniforms in the early 20th century were scarlet and some associate this with the reason for it becoming the region's sporting colours. It is also the colour of the Illawarra Flame Tree, another symbol of the region.

The Illawarra Cutters wore a kit similar to that of the club's 1980s and early 1990s design.

Many of the current NRL clubs are reverting to more simplistic jerseys, such as Illawarra's fellow 1982 entrants Canberra.

The junior Illawarra sides such as the Harold Matthews and SG Ball sides currently wear the 1980s design.

Illawarra Steelers Leagues Club
The Illawarra Steelers Leagues Club is situated in the middle of the City Beach precinct, the Steelers Club is located adjacent to WIN Entertainment Centre and WIN Stadium. It is directly across the road from the grounds Western Grandstand. Established in 1990, the club has struggled in comparison to the much larger and more popular leagues clubs in the region, such as Collegians, Dapto Leagues Club, Wests Illawarra Leagues Club, and Shellharbour Workers Club. However, after a major restructure of its operations, the Steelers Club has been trading profitably through the 2010s. Twenty percent of the club premises were sold to Bermuda-based Billionaire and owner of WIN Corp, Bruce Gordon. The sale fetched 2.6 million dollars.

Stadium
The Illawarra Steelers played all their home games at the Wollongong Showground (currently named WIN Stadium). The ground for many years was also named Steelers Stadium, which many still affectionately call the ground.

The Steelers record attendance in Wollongong was against St. George on 21 May 1993 at 17,527. The lowest crowd record was against Cronulla on 6 July 1985 at 3,433.

The Illawarra sides in lower grades still the play the bulk of home games at WIN Stadium. On rare occasions, the Illawarra Cutters move home games to WIN Jubilee Oval to coincide with NRL fixtures and to also other venues on the South Coast.

Junior Steelers
The Illawarra Steelers still field teams in the under-age NSWRL competitions of Harold Matthews Cup (U-16s) and S. G. Ball Cup (U-18s). In 2019, Illawarra won the S. G. Ball Cup defeating Manly 34–23 in the final at the new Western Sydney Stadium.

Supporters
Counted amongst the club's supporters is Olympic athlete Louise McPaul.

The Future
The Illawarra Steelers club members voted unanimously to allow the sale of 20% of the club premises to a company owned by Bermuda-based Wollongong billionaire Bruce Gordon. The sale fetched the club $2.6 million, allowing Illawarra to clear all debts to St George. Whilst the Steelers Club is improving its financial position, and now trading profitably, the club still finds itself struggling against the larger and more popular of other Leagues Clubs in Wollongong such as Collegians, The Builders Club, Wests Illawarra and Illawarra Leagues, and also Shellharbour Workers Club in Shellharbour. The Steelers were competitive with Sydney Clubs by the 1990s but Super League raised the financial bar too quickly and blew them out of the water at a crucial time in their development. Being classified as a Sydney metropolitan team during the NRL's criteria for entry into the 14 team competition for the year 2000 and measuring the club's performances through the devastating Super League period left Illawarra at a huge disadvantage compared with other non-Sydney based clubs such as Canberra, Newcastle, Melbourne and North Queensland. The only hope for Illawarra's return to the big league would be to gain the backing of a wealthy 'white knight' or consortium who can see the potential of a stand-alone Illawarra Steelers - convince the NRL and invest significant money so they can keep their local talent and achieve the potential that they started to reveal in the early 1990s.

Club

 * Biggest win: 45 – 0 against Canberra Raiders at Wollongong Showground on 25 April 1982
 * Worst defeat: 0 – 51 against Newtown Jets at Henson Park on 2 May 1982
 * Longest winning streak: 4 matches
 * 4–25 July 1993
 * 25 June – 17 July 1997
 * Longest losing streak: 11 matches, 1988
 * Largest home crowd: 17,527, against St. George Dragons at WIN Stadium, Wollongong on 21 May 1993

Individual

 * Most tries in a match: 5 by Alan McIndoe against Gold Coast Seagulls at Steelers Stadium on 4 May 1991
 * Most goals in a match: 10 by Rod Wishart against Parramatta Eels at Steelers Stadium on 16 July 1995
 * Most points in a match: 22 (1 try, 9 goals) by Rod Wishart against Western Suburbs Magpies at Steelers Stadium on 27 August 1995
 * Most tries in a season: 19 by Alan McIndoe in 1991 NSWRL season
 * Most goals in a season: 76 by John Dorahy in 1983 NSWRFL season
 * Most points in a season: 176 (11 tries, 66 goals) by Rod Wishart in 1995 ARL season
 * Most tries in club history: 68 by Rod Wishart, between 1989 and 1998
 * Most goals in club history: 386 by Rod Wishart, between 1989 and 1998
 * Most points in club history: 1,044 (68 tries, 386 goals) by Rod Wishart between 1989 and 1998
 * Most appearances: Michael Bolt 167, Brett Rodwell 156, Rod Wishart 154, Neil Piccinelli 145, Brian Hetherington 144, John Cross 137, Alan McIndoe 125, Paul McGregor 124, John Simon 120, David Walsh 114

Team of Steel
In 2006 the Illawarra Steelers celebrated their 25th anniversary and named a "Team of Steel", including the best players of the club's history.

(vc)

Representative players
Including players from the Illawarra Steelers that have represented while at the club and the years they achieved their honours, if known.

Australia

 * 🇦🇺   Alan McIndoe (1988)
 * 🇦🇺   Rod Wishart (1991–92, 1994–96)
 * 🇦🇺   Bob Lindner (1993)
 * 🇦🇺   Paul McGregor (1994–95, 1997)

New Zealand

 * 🇳🇿   Craig Smith (1998)

Great Britain

 * 🇬🇧   Andy Gregory (1989)
 * 🇬🇧   Steve Hampson (1989)

Rest of the World

 * 🇳🇿   Craig Smith (1997)

New South Wales

 * Brian Hetherington (1984, 1986)
 * Rod Wishart (1990–98)
 * Paul McGregor (1992–95, 1997–98)
 * John Simon (1992)
 * Brett Rodwell (1995)
 * Trent Barrett (1997)

Queensland

 * Alan McIndoe (1988)
 * Bob Lindner (1993)
 * Darren Fritz (1994)
 * Craig Smith (1997)

NSW Country

 * Paul Upfield (1988)
 * Ian Russell (1991)
 * Rod Wishart (1991–94, 1996)
 * Paul McGregor (1992–95, 1997)
 * John Cross (1995)
 * Brett Rodwell (1991, 1993, 1995)
 * John Simon (1992–95)

Average attendance
The Illawarra Steelers average attendances from their entry into the competition in 1982 were:

title: Illawarra Steelers


text:
Scoop (novel)

Scoop is a 1938 novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh. It is a satire of sensationalist journalism and foreign correspondents.

Summary
William Boot, a young man who lives in genteel poverty, far from the iniquities of London, contributes nature notes to Lord Copper's Daily Beast, a national daily newspaper. He is dragooned into becoming a foreign correspondent, when the editors mistake him for John Courteney Boot, a fashionable novelist and a remote cousin. He is sent to Ishmaelia, a fictional state in East Africa, to report on the crisis there.

Lord Copper believes it "a very promising little war" and proposes "to give it fullest publicity". Despite his total ineptitude, Boot accidentally gets the journalistic "scoop" of the title. When he returns, the credit goes to the other Boot and William is left to return to his bucolic pursuits, much to his relief.

Background
The novel is partly based on Waugh's experience of working for the Daily Mail, when he was sent to cover Benito Mussolini's expected invasion of Abyssinia, later known as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War (October 1935 to May 1936). When he got a scoop on the invasion, he telegraphed the story back in Latin for secrecy but they discarded it. Waugh wrote up his travels more factually in Waugh in Abyssinia (1936), which complements Scoop.

Lord Copper, the newspaper magnate, has been said to be an amalgam of Lord Northcliffe and Lord Beaverbrook: a character so fearsome that his obsequious foreign editor, Mr Salter, can never openly disagree with him, answering "Definitely, Lord Copper" and "Up to a point, Lord Copper" in place of "yes" or "no". Lord Copper's idea of the lowliest of his employees is a book reviewer. The historian A. J. P. Taylor wrote, "I have Evelyn Waugh's authority for stating that Lord Beaverbrook was not the original of Lord Copper." Bill Deedes thought that the portrait of Copper exhibited the folie de grandeur of Rothermere and Beaverbrook and included "the ghost of Rothermere's elder brother, Lord Northcliffe. Before he died tragically, deranged and attended by nurses, Northcliffe was already exhibiting some of Copper's eccentricities—his megalomania, his habit of giving ridiculous orders to underlings".

It is widely believed that Waugh based his protagonist, William Boot, on Deedes, a junior reporter who arrived in Addis Ababa aged 22, with "a quarter of a ton of baggage". In his memoir At War with Waugh, Deedes wrote that: "Waugh like most good novelists drew on more than one person for each of his characters. He drew on me for my excessive baggage—and perhaps for my naivety...." He further observed that Waugh was reluctant to acknowledge models, so that with Black Mischief's portrait of a young ruler, "Waugh insisted, as he usually did, that his portrait of Seth, Emperor of Azania, was not drawn from any real person such as Haile Selassie". According to Peter Stothard, a more direct model for Boot may have been William Beach Thomas, "a quietly successful countryside columnist and literary gent who became a calamitous Daily Mail war correspondent".

The novel is full of all but identical opposites: Lord Copper of The Beast, Lord Zinc of the Daily Brute (the Daily Mail and Daily Express); the CumReds and the White Shirts, parodies of Communists (comrades) and Black Shirts (fascists) etc.

Other models for characters (again, according to Deedes): "Jakes is drawn from John Gunther of the Chicago Daily News. In [one] excerpt, Jakes is found writing, 'The Archbishop of Canterbury who, it is well known, is behind Imperial Chemicals...' Authentic Gunther." The most recognisable figure from Fleet Street is Sir Jocelyn Hitchcock, Waugh's portrait of Sir Percival Phillips, working then for The Daily Telegraph. Mrs Stitch is partly based on Lady Diana Cooper, Mr Baldwin is a combination of Francis Rickett and Antonin Besse. Waugh's despised Oxford tutor C. R. M. F. Cruttwell makes his customary cameo appearance, as General Cruttwell.

One of the points of the novel is that even if there is little news happening, the world's media descending requires that something happen to please their editors and owners back home and so they will create news.

Reception
Christopher Hitchens, introducing the 2000 Penguin Classics edition of Scoop, said "[i]n the pages of Scoop we encounter Waugh at the mid-season point of his perfect pitch; youthful and limber and light as a feather" and noted: "The manners and mores of the press, are the recurrent motif of the book and the chief reason for its enduring magic...this world of callousness and vulgarity and philistinism...Scoop endures because it is a novel of pitiless realism; the mirror of satire held up to catch the Caliban of the press corps, as no other narrative has ever done save Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's The Front Page."

Scoop was included in The Observer's list of the 100 greatest novels of all time. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Scoop No. 75 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

Adaptations
In 1972, Scoop was made into a BBC serial: it was adapted by Barry Took, and starred Harry Worth as William Boot and James Beck as Corker.

In 1987, William Boyd adapted the novel into a two-hour TV film, Scoop. Directed by Gavin Millar, it starred Michael Maloney as William Boot and Denholm Elliott as Salter.

In 2009, the novel was serialised and broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

Legacy
Waugh includes passing mentions of Lord Copper and the Daily Beast in his later novels, Brideshead Revisited (1945) and Officers and Gentlemen (1955).

"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole", a line from one of Boot's countryside columns, has become a famous comic example of overblown prose style. It inspired the name of the environmentalist magazine Vole, which was originally titled The Questing Vole.

The fictional newspaper in Scoop served as the inspiration for the title of Tina Brown's online news source, The Daily Beast.

title: Scoop (novel)


text:
André Gregory

André William Gregory (born May 11, 1934) is a French-born American theatre director, writer and actor. He is best known for co-writing and starring in My Dinner with Andre, a 1981 comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle. Gregory studied acting at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City.

Life and career
Gregory was born in Paris, France, in 1934 to Russian Jewish parents. He studied at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Gregory directed a number of avant-garde productions developed through ensemble collaboration, the most famous of which was Alice in Wonderland (1970), based on Lewis Carroll's two classic Alice books. He founded his own theatrical company, The Manhattan Project, in 1968. In 1975 he directed Our Late Night, the first produced play by Wallace Shawn, which began a long working relationship between the two men.

Shortly afterward, Gregory's growing misgivings about the role of theatre in modern life, and what he felt was a trend toward fascism in the United States, led him to abruptly abandon theatre and leave the country. As described in the film My Dinner with Andre (1981), he traveled to Poland at director Jerzy Grotowski's invitation, where he developed a number of experimental theatrical events for private audiences. He spent several years in a variety of esoteric spiritual communities (such as Findhorn) developing an interest and practice in what could be called New Age beliefs.

Although Gregory left the theatre in 1975, he has returned several times to direct small productions, usually for invited audiences. These included a long-running workshop of Uncle Vanya (adapted by David Mamet), which was developed from 1990 to 1994 and featured Shawn and Julianne Moore. Though never publicly performed, it was released as the film Vanya on 42nd Street by Gregory and Louis Malle. He appeared as himself, directing the play featured within the film. Gregory also directed a radio production of Shawn's play, The Designated Mourner, in 2002.

He has had occasional film roles as a character actor, including John the Baptist in The Last Temptation of Christ and Reverend Spellgood in The Mosquito Coast, and as Dante, a restaurateur, alongside Rosanna Arquette, David Bowie, and Buck Henry in The Linguini Incident.

His best-known film performance was as the title character in My Dinner with Andre (1981), directed by Louis Malle, in which he and Wallace Shawn, playing characters based on themselves, have a long conversation over dinner. They discuss Gregory's spiritual sojourn in Europe and his doubts about the future of theatre and of Western civilization in general.

He appeared with Goldie Hawn in Protocol (1984). In 1988 he played the father in Some Girls, with Jennifer Connelly and Patrick Dempsey. In 1993, he performed in the movie Demolition Man with Sylvester Stallone.

Returning to theatre, Gregory directed Shawn's play Grasses of a Thousand Colors, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in May 2009. He next worked with Shawn on a new version of Ibsen's The Master Builder. This resulted in the film Fear of Falling (2013), directed by Jonathan Demme. The film was retitled A Master Builder at its opening in New York in June 2014.

In 2013, he directed Grasses of a Thousand Colors and The Designated Mourner, starring Shawn in a co-production between Theatre for a New Audience and The Public Theater in New York.

A 2013 documentary about Gregory's life, Andre Gregory: Before and After Dinner, was directed by his wife, Cindy Kleine. He and Kleine discussed it on the May 3, 2013, episode of Charlie Rose.

In May 2020, Gregory released his memoir, This Is Not My Memoir (with Todd London; Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 9780374298548).

Marriages and family
Gregory was first married to Mercedes "Chiquita" Nebelthau, a documentary filmmaker who died in 1992. They had two children together, Nicolas and Marina. In 2000, he married filmmaker Cindy Kleine.

title: André Gregory


text:
Minister responsible for Official Languages (Canada)

The minister of official languages (ministre des langues officielles) is a minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet.

The minister is responsible for administering Official Languages Act, ensuring that government services are available in both English and French, protecting minority language rights, particularly in the area of education, as well as promoting bilingualism throughout Canada.

Randy Boissonnault has served as the minister of official languages since July 2023.

Background
In 2003, the first minister responsible for Official Languages was sworn in, on the creation of the "Official Languages Branch of Intergovernmental Affairs" within the Privy Council Office. In 2006, responsibility was shifted from the Privy Council Office to the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the branch was renamed the "Official Languages Secretariat". From 2015 to 2019, the post was called Minister of Tourism, Official Languages and La Francophonie.

Sections 42 and 43 of the Official Languages Act give the minister of Canadian heritage the specific responsibility of taking measures to advance the equality of status and use of English and French in Canadian society; under section 44 of that Act, the minister must submit annual reports to Parliament on the matters relating to official languages for which the minister is responsible.


text:
Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board

The Minister responsible for the Canadian Wheat Board is the member of the Canadian Cabinet who has the responsibility of supervising and setting policy for the Canadian Wheat Board and appointing the government representatives who sit on the body.


text: Category:MU* games

title: Category:MU* games