Name	Johannesburg
Native name
Nickname	Joburg; Jozi; Egoli (''Place of Gold''); Gauteng (''Place of Gold''); Maboneng (''City of Lights'')
Settlement type
Motto	"Unity in development"
Image seal	Coat of Arms of Johannesburg.svg
Map caption	Location of Johannesburg within Gauteng
Dot x	|dot_y
Pushpin map	South Africa
Pushpin label position
Pushpin map caption	Johannesburg location within South Africa
Subdivision type	Country
Subdivision name
Subdivision type1	Province
Subdivision name1	Gauteng
Leader title	Mayor
Leader name	Parks Tau (ANC)
Leader title1
Established title	Established
Established date	1886
Established title2
Established title3
Area magnitude	1 E9
Unit pref
Area footnotes
Area total km2	1644.96
Population as of	2007
Population total	3888180
Population density km2	2364
Population metro	6267700
Timezone	SAST
Utc offset	+2
coordinates type	region:ZA_type:city(4000000)
coordinates display	inline,title
Elevation footnotes
Elevation m	1753
Postal code type
Area code	011
Website	joburg.org.za
Footnotes	}}

Johannesburg (, ) also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa. The city is one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world, and is also the world's largest city not situated on a river, lake, or coastline. It claims to be the lightning capital of the world, though this title is also claimed by others.

While Johannesburg is not one of South Africa's three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, which has the final word on interpretation of South Africa's new post-Apartheid constitution. The city is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, due to its location on the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills. Johannesburg is served by O.R. Tambo International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Africa and a gateway for international air travel to and from the rest of Southern Africa. More recently Lanseria International Airport has started international flights, and is situated conveniently on the opposite side of the metropolis.

According to the 2007 Community Survey, the population of the municipal city was 3,888,180 and the population of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area was 7,151,447. A broader definition of the Johannesburg metropolitan area, including Ekurhuleni, the West Rand, Soweto and Lenasia, has a population of 10,267,700. The municipal city's land area of is very large when compared to other cities, resulting in a moderate population density of .

Johannesburg includes Soweto, which was a separate city from the late 1970s until the 1990s. Originally an acronym for "South-Western Townships", Soweto originated as a collection of settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg populated mostly by native African workers in the gold mining industry. Eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, the apartheid regime (in power 1948–1994) separated Soweto from the rest of Johannesburg to make it a completely Black area.

The area called Lenasia is now also part of Johannesburg, and is predominantly populated by those of Indian ethnicity since the apartheid era.

The Gauteng province as a whole is growing rapidly due to mass urbanisation, which is a feature of many developing countries. According to the State of the Cities Report, the urban portion of Gauteng comprising primarily the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (the East Rand) and Tshwane (greater Pretoria) will be a polycentric urban region with a projected population of some 14.6 million people by 2015.

History

The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San tribes. By the 13th century, groups of Bantu-speaking people started moving southwards from central Africa and encroached on the indigenous San population. By the mid 18th century, the broader region was densely settled by various Sotho–Tswana communities (one linguistic branch of Bantu-speakers), whose villages, towns, chiefdoms and kingdoms stretched from what is now Botswana in the west, to present day Lesotho in the south, to the present day Pedi areas of the northern Transvaal. More specifically, the stone-walled ruins of Sotho–Tswana towns and villages are scattered around the parts of the former Transvaal in which Johannesburg is situated. The Sotho–Tswana practised farming, raised cattle, sheep and goats, and extensively mined and smelted copper, iron and tin. Moreover, from the early 1960s until his retirement, Professor Revil Mason, of the University of the Witwatersrand, explored and documented many Late Iron Age archaeological sites throughout the Johannesburg area, dating from between the 12th century and 18th century, and many of these sites contained the ruins of Sotho–Tswana mines and iron smelting furnaces, suggesting that the area was being exploited for its mineral wealth before the arrival of Europeans or the discovery of gold. The most prominent site within Johannesburg is Melville Koppies, which contains an iron smelting furnace.

Many Sotho–Tswana towns and villages in the areas around Johannesburg were destroyed and their people driven away during the wars emanating from Zululand during the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the mfecane or difaqane wars), and as a result, an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, the Ndebele (often referred to by the name the local Sotho–Tswana gave them, the Matebele), set up a kingdom to the northwest of Johannesburg around modern day Hartebeestpoort and Rustenburg, and historians believe that the Matebele kingdom dominated the Johannesburg area.

The Dutch speaking Voortrekkers arrived in the early 19th century, driving away the Matebele with the help of Sotho–Tswana allies, establishing settlements around Rustenburg and Pretoria in the early 1830s, and claiming sovereignty over what would become Johannesburg as part of the South African Republic (known informally as the Transvaal Republic). Gold was discovered in the 1880s and triggered the gold rush. Gold was initially discovered some 400 km to the east of present-day Johannesburg, in Barberton. Gold prospectors soon discovered that there were even richer gold reefs in the Witwatersrand. Gold was discovered at Langlaagte, Johannesburg in 1886.

Johannesburg was a dusty settlement some 55 km from the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) capital which was Pretoria. The town was much the same as any small prospecting settlement, but, as word spread, people flocked to the area from all other regions of the country, as well as from North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. Like many late 19th century mining towns, Johannesburg was a rough and disorganized place, populated by white miners from other continents, African tribesmen recruited to perform unskilled mine work, African women beer brewers who cooked for and sold beer to the black migrant workers, a very large number of European prostitutes, gangsters, impoverished Afrikaners, tradesmen, and Zulu "AmaWasha," Zulu men who surprisingly dominated laundry work. As the value of control of the land increased, tensions developed between the Boer government in Pretoria and the British, culminating in the Jameson Raid that ended in fiasco at Doornkop in January 1896 and the Second Boer War (1899–1902) that saw British forces under Lord Roberts occupy the city on 30 May 1900 after a series of battles to the south of its then-limits.

Fighting took place at the Gatsrand Pass (near Zakariyya Park) on 27 May, north of Vanwyksrust—today's Nancefield, Eldorado Park and Naturena—the next day, culminating in a mass infantry attack on what is now the waterworks ridge in Chiawelo and Senaoane on 29 May.

Controversy surrounds the origin of the name, as there were any number of people with the name "Johannes" who were involved in the early history of the city. The principal clerk attached to the office of the surveyor-general, Johannes Rissik, Christiaan Johannes Joubert, member of the Volksraad and the Republic's chief of mining, Paul Kruger, President of the South African Republic (ZAR). Rissik and Joubert were members of a delegation sent to England to attain mining rights for the area. Joubert had a park in the city named after him and Rissik street is today a main street where the (historically important and dilapidated, since burnt out) Post Office and City Hall are located.

Major building developments took place in the 1930s, after South Africa went off the gold standard. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Hillbrow went high-rise. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the apartheid government constructed the massive agglomeration of townships that became known as Soweto (South Western Townships). New freeways encouraged massive suburban sprawl to the north of the city. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, tower blocks (including the Carlton Centre and the Southern Life Centre) filled the skyline of the central business district. The central area of the city underwent something of a decline in the 1980s and 1990s, due to crime and when property speculators directed large amounts of capital into suburban shopping malls, decentralised office parks, and entertainment centres. Sandton City was opened in 1973, followed by Rosebank Mall in 1976, and Eastgate in 1979.

On 12 May 2008 a series of riots started in the township of Alexandra, in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg, when locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others. These riots sparked the xenophobic attacks of 2008.

Soccer City in Johannesburg hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup final.

Geography

Johannesburg is located in the eastern plateau area of South Africa known as the Highveld, at an elevation of . The former CBD is located on the south side of the prominent ridge called the Witwatersrand (Afrikaans: White Water's Ridge) and the terrain falls to the north and south. By and large the Witwatersrand marks the watershed between the Limpopo and Vaal rivers. The north and west of the city has undulating hills while the eastern parts are flatter.

Johannesburg may not be built on a river or harbour, but its streams are the source of two of southern Africa's mightiest rivers. A number of streams meander through the suburbs of Johannesburg, and form the source of two of southern Africa's primary rivers – the Limpopo and the Orange. Most of the springs from which many of these streams emanate are now covered in concrete and canalised, accounting for the fact that the names of early farms in the area often end with "fontein", meaning "spring" in Afrikaans. Braamfontein, Rietfontein, Zevenfontein, Doornfontein, Zandfontein and Randjesfontein are some examples. When the first white settlers reached the area that is now Johannesburg, they noticed the glistening rocks on the ridges, running with trickles of water, fed by the streams – giving the area its name, the Witwatersrand, "the ridge of white waters". Another explanation is that the whiteness comes from the quartzite rock, which has a particular sheen to it after rain.

Climate

Johannesburg features a Subtropical highland climate (Köppen ''Cwb''). The city enjoys a dry, sunny climate with late afternoon thundershowers in the summer months of October to April. Temperatures in Johannesburg are usually fairly mild due to the city's high altitude, with the average maximum daytime temperature in January of , dropping to an average maximum of around in June. Winter is the sunniest time of the year, with mild days and cool nights, dropping to in June and July. The temperature occasionally drops to below freezing at night, causing frost. Snow is a rare occurrence, with snowfall having been experienced in May 1956, August 1962, June 1964, September 1981 and August 2006 (light). Snow fell again on 27 June 2007, accumulating up to in the southern suburbs. Regular cold fronts pass over in winter bringing very cold southerly winds but usually clear skies. The annual average rainfall is , which is mostly concentrated in the summer months. Infrequent showers occur through the course of the winter months.

Despite the relatively dry climate, Johannesburg has over ten million trees, and it is now the biggest man-made forest in the world, followed by Graskop in Mpumalanga which is the second biggest. Many trees were originally planted in the northern areas of the city at the end of the 19th century, to provide wood for the mining industry. The areas were developed by the Randlord, Hermann Eckstein, a German immigrant, who called the forest estates Sachsenwald. The name was changed to Saxonwold, now the name of a suburb, during World War I. Early (white) residents who moved into the areas Parkhurst, Parktown, Parkview, Westcliff, Saxonwold, Houghton Estate, Illovo, Hyde Park, Dunkeld, Melrose, Inanda, Sandhurst, now collectively referred to as the Northern Suburbs, retained many of the original trees and have even expanded their forests with the encouragement of successive city councils. In recent years however, deforestation has occurred to make way for both residential and commercial redevelopment.

Cityscape

Johannesburg is one of the most modern and prosperous cities in South Africa. Due to its many different central districts Johannesburg would fall under the Multiple Nuclei Model in Human Geography terms. It is the hub of South Africa's commercial, financial, industrial, and mining undertakings. Johannesburg is part of a larger urban region. It is closely linked with several other satellite towns. Randburg and Sandton form part of the northern area. The east and west ridges spread out from central Johannesburg. The Central Business District covers an area of 6 square kilometres. It consists of closely packed skyscrapers such as the Carlton Centre, Marble Towers, Trust Bank Building, Ponte City Apartments, Southern Life Centre and 11 Diagonal Street.

Architecture

Johannesburg is home to some of Africa's tallest structures, such as the Sentech Tower, Hillbrow Tower and the Carlton Centre. The Johannesburg city skyline has most of the tallest buildings on the continent and contains most international organisations such as IBM, Absa, BHP Billiton, Willis Group, First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank. Many of the city's older buildings have been pulled down and more modern ones built in their place. North of the CBD is Hillbrow, the most densely populated residential area in southern Africa. Northwest of the CBD is Braamfontein, a secondary CBD housing many offices and business premises.

Parks and gardens

Parks and gardens in Johannesburg are maintained by Johannesburg City Parks. City Parks is also responsible for planting the city's many green trees, making Johannesburg one of the 'greenest' cities in the world. It has been estimated that there are six million trees in the city – 1.2 million on pavements and sidewalks, and a further 4.8 million in private gardens. City Parks continues to invest in planting trees, particularly those previously disadvantaged areas of Johannesburg which were not positive beneficiaries of apartheid Johannesburg's urban planning.

Johannesburg Botanical Garden, located in the suburb of Emmarentia, is a popular recreational park.

Residential areas

Johannesburg's residential areas range from luxurious, wooded suburbs, to shanty towns and squatter settlements. Alexandra, a township northeast of the city centre, is home to about 125,000 people. It was established by workers who migrated from rural areas in the late 1930s. Since the 1980s, large numbers of people have moved to Johannesburg in search of work. A lack of housing in the city has forced many to set up squatter settlements on the outskirts of the city. Most of these communities lack electricity and running water, and residents live in makeshift shacks made of scrap metal,board, and other discarded materials. In some settlements, such as Phola Park south of Johannesburg, town planners have attempted to build streets and provide residents with basic needs.

Demographics

[[File:Johannesburg dominant language map.svg|thumb|left|upright|Geographical distribution of home languages in Johannesburg ]] According to the 2001 South African National Census, the population of Johannesburg is 3,225,812 people (though including the East Rand and other suburban areas it's around 7 million), consisting of people who live in 1,006,930 formal households, of which 86% have a flush or chemical toilet, and 91% have refuse removed by the municipality at least once a week. 81% of households have access to running water, and 80% use electricity as the main source of energy. 29% of Johannesburg residents stay in informal dwellings. 66% of households are headed by one person.

Blacks account for 73% of the population, followed by whites at 16%, coloureds at 6% and Asians at 4%. 42% of the population is under the age of 24, while 6% of the population is over 60 years of age. 37% of city residents are unemployed. 91% of the unemployed are black. Women comprise 43% of the working population. 19% of economically active adults work in wholesale and retail sectors, 18% in financial, real estate and business services, 17% in community, social and personal services and 12% are in manufacturing. Only 0.7% work in mining.

32% of Johannesburg residents speak Nguni languages at home, 24% speak Sotho languages, 18% speak English, 7% speak Afrikaans and 6% speak Tshivenda. 29% of adults have graduated from [high school]. 14% have higher education (University or Technical school). 7% of residents are completely illiterate. 15% have primary education.

34% use public transportation to commute to work or school. 32% walk to work or school. 34% use private transportation to travel to work or school.

53% belong to mainstream Christian churches, 24% are not affiliated with any organised religion, 14% are members of African Independent Churches, 3% are Muslim, 1% are Jewish and 1% are Hindu.

Johannesburg has a large Latter-day Saint (or Mormon) membership, with around 48,112 members, and had the first LDS Temple built in Africa. It was dedicated in 1985 and is located in the historic suburb of Parktown.

Government

[[File:Johannesburg 2006 regions with legend.PNG|thumb|left|upright|Region A ''Diepsloot, Kya Sand'' Region B : ''Randburg, Rosebank, Emmarentia, Greenside, Melville, Northcliff, Rosebank, Parktown, Parktown North'' Region C : ''Roodepoort, Constantia Kloof, Northgate'' Region D : ''Doornkop, Soweto, Dobsonville, Protea Glen'' Region E : ''Alexandra, Wynberg, Sandton'' Region F : ''Inner City'' Region G : ''Orange Farm, Ennerdale, Lenasia'']] After apartheid era, the present day City of Johannesburg was created from 11 existing local authorities, seven of which were white and four black or coloured. The white authorities were 90% self-sufficient from property tax and other local taxes, and produced and spent ZAR 600 (USD 93) per person, while the black authorities were only 10% self-sufficient, spending R 100 (USD 15) per person.

The first post-apartheid City Council was created in 1995. The council adopted the slogan "One City, One Taxpayer" in order to highlight its primary goal of addressing unequal tax revenue distribution. To this end, revenue from wealthy, traditionally white areas would pay for services needed in poorer, black areas. The City Council was divided into four regions, each with a substantially autonomous local regional authority that was to be overseen by a central metropolitan council. Furthermore, the municipal boundaries were expanded to include wealthy satellite towns like Sandton and Randburg, poorer neighbouring townships such as Soweto and Alexandra, and informal settlements like Orange Farm.

In 1999, Johannesburg appointed a city manager in order to reshape the city's ailing financial situation. The manager, together with the Municipal Council, drew up a blueprint called "iGoli 2002". This was a three-year plan that called upon the government to sell non-core assets, restructure certain utilities, and required that all others become self-sufficient. The plan took the city from near insolvency to an operating surplus of R 153 million (USD 23.6 million).

Following the creation of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Johannesburg was divided into eleven administrative regions (which did not correspond to the areas governed by the former local authorities). In 2006, the number of administrative regions was consolidated, from eleven to seven.

Crime

After the Group Areas Act was scrapped in 1991, Johannesburg was affected by urban blight. Thousands of poor, who had been forbidden to live in the city proper, moved into the city from surrounding black townships like Soweto and many immigrants from economically beleaguered and war torn African nations flooded into South Africa. Many buildings were abandoned by landlords, especially in high-density areas, such as Hillbrow. Many corporations and institutions, including the stock exchange, moved their headquarters away from the city centre, to suburbs like Sandton.

Reviving the city centre is one of the main aims of the municipal government of Johannesburg. Drastic measures have been taken to reduce crime in the city. These measures include closed-circuit television on street corners. As of 11 December 2008, every street corner in Johannesburg central is under high-tech CCTV surveillance. The CCTV system, operated by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), is also able to detect stolen or hijacked vehicles by scanning the number plates of every vehicle travelling through the Central business district (CBD), then comparing them to the eNaTIS database. The JMPD claims that the average response time by police for crimes committed in the CBD is 60 seconds.

Crime levels in Johannesburg have dropped as the economy has stabilised and begun to grow. Between 2001 and 2006, R9-Billion (US$1.2 billion) has been invested in the city centre. Further investment of around R10-Billion (US$ 1.5 billion) is expected in the city centre alone by 2010. This excludes development directly associated with the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In an effort to prepare Johannesburg for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, local government enlisted the help of former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani to help bring down the crime rate, as the opening and closing matches of the tournament were played in the city.

Economy

Johannesburg is one of the world's leading financial centres and it is the economic and financial hub of South Africa, producing 16% of South Africa's gross domestic product, and accounts for 40% of Gauteng's economic activity. In a 2007 survey conducted by MasterCard, Johannesburg ranked 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a worldwide centre of commerce (the only city in Africa).

Mining was the foundation of the Witwatersrand's economy, but its importance is gradually declining due to dwindling reserves and service and manufacturing industries have become more significant to the city's economy. While gold mining no longer takes place within the city limits, most mining companies still have their headquarters in Johannesburg. The city's manufacturing industries extend across a range of areas and there is still a reliance on heavy industries including steel and cement plants. The service and other industries include banking, IT, real estate, transport, broadcast and print media, private health care, transport and a vibrant leisure and consumer retail market. Johannesburg has Africa's largest stock exchange, the JSE although it has moved out of the central business district. Due to its commercial role, the city is the seat of the provincial government and the site of a number of government branch offices, as well as consular offices and other institutions.

There is also a significant informal economy consisting of cash-only street traders and vendors. The level of this economic activity is difficult to track in official statistics and it supports a sector of the population including immigrants who are not in formal employment. This informal industry is arguably the largest in the world, perhaps only second to the informal sector of Beijing.

The Witwatersrand urban complex is a major consumer of water in a dry region. Its continued economic and population growth has depended on schemes to divert water from other regions of South Africa and from the highlands of Lesotho, the biggest of which is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, but additional sources will be needed early in the 21st century.

The container terminal at City Deep is known to be the largest "dry port" in the world, with some 50% of cargo that arrives through the ports of Durban and Cape Town arriving in Johannesburg. The City Deep area has been declared an IDZ (industrial development zone) by the Gauteng government.

Retail

Johannesburg's largest shopping centre is Sandton City, while Hyde Park is one of its most prestigious. Other centres include Rosebank, Eastgate, Westgate, Northgate, Southgate, The Glen Shopping Centre, Johannesburg South, Cresta and Clearwater mall. There are also plans to build a large shopping centre, known as the Zonk'Izizwe Shopping Resort, in Midrand. "Zonk'Izizwe" means "All Nations" in Zulu language, indicating that the centre will cater to the city's diverse mix of peoples and races. Also a complex named Greenstone in Modderfontein has been opened. See :Category:Shopping centres in Johannesburg.

Communications and media

The city is home to several media groups which own a number of newspaper and magazine titles. The two main print media groups are Independent Newspapers and Naspers (Media24). The electronic media is also headquartered in the greater metropolitan region. ''Beeld'' is a leading Afrikaans newspaper for the city and the country, while the ''City Press'' is a Sunday newspaper that is the third largest selling newspaper in South Africa. ''The Sowetan'' is one of a number of titles catering for the black market although in recent years it competes against newly arrived tabloids. The ''Mail & Guardian'' is an investigative liberal newspaper while ''The Citizen'' is a tabloid-style paper, and ''The Star'' is a local newspaper that mostly covers Gauteng-related issues. The ''Sunday Times'' is the most widely read national Sunday newspaper. True Love is the most widely read women's magazine, catering primarily to the up and coming middle class black female market, published by Media 24. The Times is a national newspaper that covers current issues.

Media ownership is relatively complicated with a number of cross shareholdings which have been rationalised in recent years resulting in the movement of some ownership into the hands of black shareholders. This has been accompanied by a growth in black editorship and journalism.

Johannesburg has a number of regional radio stations such as YFM, Metro FM, Phalaphala FM, Talk Radio 702, Highveld Stereo, 5FM, UJ FM and Kaya FM and Classic FM. The number of radio stations has increased in recent years as the government sold off frequencies to private companies. Johannesburg is also the headquarters of state-owned broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation and pay-broadcast network Multichoice which distributes M-Net and DStv a digital satellite service, while eTV also has a presence in the city. The city has two television towers, the Hillbrow Tower and the Sentech Tower.

Johannesburg has 4 Major Cellular Telecommunisations operators: Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, and Virgin Mobile along with the newly established 8ta mobile network launched in late 2010. Vodacom's Global Headquarters is located in Midrand. It was formed in 1994, just after the South African Elections of 1994.

Music

Kwaito is the musical genre from Johannesburg that is considered to be the post-struggle (post-apartheid) music of choice by South African youth. Some consider Kwaito to be apolitical dance music because the same lyrics are typically repeated throughout the entire song and are placed over the rhythms and beats of House music.

Kwaito has touched more than the music scene in South Africa. In recent years, it has become deeply embedded in young South African culture because it represents "the streets", street life, and the people who live there. As Grant Clark notes after his trip to Johannesburg, "Kwaito has evolved its own street style. It's not just music, it's the way you walk, talk, dance, and of course, dress."

Other than kwaito there are many other genres that have dominated the South African music industry; like house music, R&B, pop, rock, etc. Because Joburg is a place where most people are from outside of the city, there are many musical influences from all over the world.

Suburbs

Johannesburg's suburbs are the product of urban sprawl and are regionalised into north, south, east and west, and they generally have different personalities. While the Central Business District and the immediate surrounding areas were formerly desirable living areas, the spatial accommodation of the suburbs has tended to see a flight from the city and immediate surrounds. The inner city buildings have been let out to the lower income groups and illegal immigrants and as a result abandoned buildings and crime have become a feature of inner city life. The immediate city suburbs include Yeoville, a hot spot for black nightlife despite its otherwise poor reputation. The suburbs to the south of the city are mainly blue collar neighbourhoods and situated closer to some townships. The suburbs to the west have in recent years floundered with the decline of the mining industry but have in some cases experienced some revival with properties being bought up by the black middle class. The biggest sprawl lies to the east and north. The eastern suburbs are relatively prosperous and close to various industrial zones. The northern suburbs have been the recipient of most of the flight from the inner city and some residential areas have become commercialised particularly around the area of Sandton, stretching north towards Midrand, a half way point between Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria.

Traditionally the northern and northwestern suburbs have been the centre for the wealthy, containing the high-end retail shops as well as several upper-class residential areas such as Hyde Park, Sandhurst, Northcliff and Houghton, where Nelson Mandela makes his home. The northwestern area in particular is vibrant and lively, with the mostly black suburb of Sophiatown once centre of political activity and the Bohemian-flavoured Melville featuring restaurants and nightlife. Auckland Park is home to the headquarters of the South African Broadcasting Corporation, AFDA (The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance) and the University of Johannesburg.

To the southwest of the City Centre is Soweto, a mostly black urban area constructed during the apartheid regime specifically for housing African people who were then living in areas designated by the government for white settlement.

To the south of Johannesburg is Lenasia, a mostly Asian area which was constructed during the Apartheid era specifically to house Asians. It is closer to the city centre and smaller than Soweto.

Tourism

Johannesburg has not traditionally been known as a tourist destination, but the city is a transit point for connecting flights to Cape Town, Durban, and the Kruger National Park. Consequently, most international visitors to South Africa pass through Johannesburg at least once, which has led to the development of more attractions for tourists. Recent additions have centred around history museums, such as the Apartheid Museum (with related visits to Constitution Hill) and the Hector Pieterson Museum. There is also a large industry around visiting former townships, such as Soweto and Alexandra. Most visitors to Soweto see the Mandela Museum, which is located in the former home of Nelson Mandela.

Visitors can get a feeling for the layout of the city by visiting the Carlton Centre, in the south-eastern area of the CBD, which has an observation deck on the 50th floor. At 223 metres (731 ft), it is the highest office building in Africa and affords sweeping vistas of the city and surrounds. The Museum Africa covers the history of the city of Johannesburg, as well as housing a large collection of rock art. Also a large draw for tourists is Gold Reef City, a theme park which offers a depiction of mining life at the turn of the nineteenth century, including an underground mine tour; other attractions include a large amusement park and a popular Tribal Dancing show.

The city has several art museums, such as the Johannesburg Art Gallery, which featured South African and European landscape and figurative paintings. The Market Theatre complex attained notoriety in the 1970s and 1980s by staging anti-apartheid plays, and has now become a centre for modern South African playwriting. The Johannesburg Civic Theatre is South Africa's foremost "receiving house" of live entertainment—presenting world class theatre, both local and international. The Suburbs of Melville, Newtown, Parkhurst, Norwood, Rosebank and Greenside are popular for their bohemian atmosphere, street life, and many restaurants and bars.

Shopping is often popular with tourists, as the city offers a range of venues and experiences, from numerous upmarket shopping malls such as Sandton City and Nelson Mandela Square, to various markets and flea markets, such as the Oriental Plaza and the Rosebank Flea Market; the latter are popular for souvenirs and African Art. See above. (Cultural) tourists also visit the "Mai Mai Market" ("Ezinyangeni" – the place of healers; located on the eastern wing of the city centre) dedicated to traditional herbs and traditional healers.

The Cradle of Humankind a UNESCO World Heritage Site is to the northwest of the city. The Sterkfontein fossil site is famous for being the world's richest hominid site and produced the first adult ''Australopithecus africanus'' and the first near-complete skeleton of an early ''Australopithecine''. Other attractions in this area include the Lesedi Cultural Village, while Magaliesburg and the Hartbeespoort Dam are popular weekend (and holiday) destinations for Johannesburg residents. The Origins Centre Museum, see below, covers the origins of humankind in Africa, and houses an extensive collection of rock art.

Johannesburg and environs offer various options to visitors wishing to view wildlife. The Johannesburg Zoo is one of the largest in South Africa. The Lion Park nature reserve, near Lanseria, is home to over 80 lions and various other game, while the Krugersdorp Nature Reserve, a 1500 Ha Game Reserve, is a forty minute drive from the city centre. The De Wildt Cheetah Centre in the Magaliesberg runs a successful breeding program for cheetah, wild dog and other endangered species. The Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, situated in the "Cradle of Humankind" on 1200 Ha of "the typical highveld of Gauteng" also runs a breeding programme for endangered species including Bengal Tigers, Siberian Tigers and the extremely rare White lion.

Sports teams and stadiums

Johannesburg's most popular sports by participation are association football, cricket, rugby union, and running. Early each Sunday morning, tens of thousands of runners gather to take part in informal runs organised by several athletic clubs.

Football

The city has several football clubs in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the National First Division. In the PSL, the top Johannesburg teams are all fierce rivals and include Kaizer Chiefs (nicknamed ''Amakhosi''), Orlando Pirates (nicknamed the ''Buccaneers''), Moroka Swallows and Witwatersrand University (nicknamed the ''Clever Boys''). They are based at the city's Rand, Orlando, Dobsonville and Bidvest stadiums. Several large scale league and cup games are played at Soccer City the venue of the 2010 FIFA World Cup final. First Division teams include Jomo Cosmos. Katlehong City and Alexandra United, play at Alexandra and Reiger Park stadia respectively.

Cricket

Cricket is one of the more popular sports. In cricket, the Highveld Lions represent Johannesburg, the rest of Gauteng as well as the North West Province at the Wanderers Stadium which was the venue for the 2003 Cricket World Cup Final in which Australia successfully defended their title. Wanderers Stadium hosted what many cricket fans consider the greatest ever ODI match in which South Africa successfully chased down 434 runs. They take part in the first class SuperSport Series, the one-day MTN Domestic Championship and the Twenty20 Standard Bank Pro 20 Series. Johannesburg also hosted matches from and the final of the ICC World Twenty20, in which India beat Pakistan in the final.

Rugby

The Lions, formerly the Cats, represent Johannesburg, North West and Mpumalanga in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby Rugby Competition, which includes teams from South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

Transport

Johannesburg is a young and sprawling city geared towards private motorists, and lacks a convenient public transportation system. A significant number of the city's residents are dependent on the city's informal minibus taxis.

Airports

Johannesburg is served principally by OR Tambo International Airport (formerly Johannesburg International Airport and before that was known as Jan Smuts Airport) for both domestic and international flights. Lanseria Airport, located to the north-west of the city and closer to the business hub of Sandton, is used for commercial flights to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Botswana, and Sun City. Other airports include Rand Airport and Grand Central Airport. Rand Airport, located in Germiston, is a small airfield used mostly for private aircraft and the home of South African Airways's first Boeing 747 Classic, the Lebombo, which is now an aviation museum. Grand Central is located in Midrand and also caters to small, private aircraft.

Freeways

The fact that Johannesburg is not near a large navigable body of water has meant that ground transportation has been the most important method of transporting people and goods in and out of the city. One of Africa's most famous "beltways" or ring roads/orbitals is the Johannesburg Ring Road. The road is composed of three freeways that converge on the city, forming an loop around it: the N3 Eastern Bypass, which links Johannesburg with Durban; the N1 Western Bypass, which links Johannesburg with Pretoria and Cape Town; and the N12 Southern Bypass, which links Johannesburg with Witbank and Kimberley. The N3 was built exclusively with asphalt, while the N12 and N1 sections were made with concrete, hence the nickname given to the N1 Western Bypass, "The Concrete Highway". In spite of being up to 12 lanes wide in some areas, the Johannesburg Ring Road is frequently clogged with traffic. The Gillooly's Interchange, built on an old farm and the point at which the N3 Eastern Bypass and the R24 Airport Freeway intersect, is the busiest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also claimed that the N1 is the busiest road in South Africa.

Johannesburg has the most freeways connected to it. It has the N1, N3, N12, N14, N17, R21, R24 and the R59, all leading to Johannesburg. The M1 and M2 freeways were built to direct traffic towards the city centre. These two freeways are congested due to mass urbanisation.

Taxis

Johannesburg has two kinds of taxis, metered taxis and minibus taxis. Unlike many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city looking for passengers and instead must be called and ordered to a destination. The Gauteng Provincial Government has launched a new metered taxi programme in an attempt to increase use of metered taxis in the city.

The minibus "taxis" are the ''de facto'' standard and essential form of transport for the majority of the population. Since the 1980s The minibus taxi industry has been severely affected by turf wars.

Mass transit

The Metrorail Gauteng commuter rail system connects central Johannesburg to Soweto, Pretoria, and most of the satellite towns along the Witwatersrand. The railways transport huge numbers of workers everyday. However, the railway infrastructure was built in Johannesburg's infancy and covers only the older areas in the city's south. The northern areas, including the business districts of Sandton, Midrand, Randburg, and Rosebank, currently lack rail infrastructure.

Trains

A part of the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ Project, Gautrain has made provision for the creation of a rapid rail link, running north to south, between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and west to east between Sandton and Johannesburg International Airport. Construction of the Gautrain Rapid Rail started in October 2006 and will be completed by 2011. It will consist of a number of underground stations, as well as above ground stations. Stations on the northern line include Johannesburg's Park Station, Rosebank, Sandton, Midrand and Pretoria. There will also be a line from the OR Tambo International Airport travelling to Sandton.

The east-west line from the airport to Sandton opened in June 2010 in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The rail system is being designed to alleviate traffic on the N1 freeway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which records vehicle loads of up to 300,000 per day. An extensive bus feeder system is also being implemented, which will allow access to the main stations from the outer suburbs. This will be the first new railway system that has been laid in South Africa since 1977.

As of mid-2010, a high speed rail link has been proposed between Johannesburg and Durban.

Buses

Johannesburg is served by a bus fleet operated by Metrobus, a corporate unit of the City of Johannesburg. It has a fleet consisting of approximately 550 single and double-decker buses, plying 84 different routes in the city. This total includes 200 modern buses (150 double-deckers and 50 single-deckers), made by Volvo and Marcopolo/Brasa in 2002. Metrobus' fleet carries approximately 20 million passengers per annum. In addition there are a number of private bus operators, though most focus on the inter-city routes, or on bus charters for touring groups. The City's main bus terminus is situated in Gandhi Square, where passengers can also obtain information regarding the Metrobus service from the walk-in customer information desk.

PUTCO also operated bus routes in and around the city.

Education and culture

Johannesburg has a well-developed higher system of both private and public universities. Johannesburg is served by the public universities University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg.

University of Johannesburg was formed on 1 January 2005 when three separate universities and campuses—Rand Afrikaans University, Technikon Witwatersrand, and the Johannesburg campuses of Vista University—were merged. The new university offers education primarily in English and Afrikaans, although courses may be taken in any of South Africa's official languages.

The University of the Witwatersrand is one of the leading universities in Africa, and is famous as a centre of resistance to apartheid.

Private universities include Monash University, which has one of its eight campuses in Johannesburg (six of the other campuses are in Australia, while the eighth is in Malaysia), and Midrand Graduate Institute which is located in Midrand.

Johannesburg also has one of several film schools in the country, one of which has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Student Film in 2006. The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance, or AFDA for short, is situated in Auckland Park.

Johannesburg also has three teacher-training colleges and a technical college. There are numerous kindergartens, primary schools and high schools in the region. There are some libraries, art galleries and museums. One of them is MuseumAfrica, located in the CBD. Specialist museums cover subjects such as Africana, costume, design, fossils, geology, military history, medical, pharmacy, photography and transportation networks such as railways. Gold Reef City, a living museum, was originally part of the Crown Mines Complex, where gold was mined to a depth of . The Market Theatre stages plays, comedy shows, and musical performances. The Civic Theatre complex hosts drama, opera and ballet.

Public Art in Johannesburg

Johannesburg is home to an extensive portfolio of public art. A diverse and evolving city, Johannesburg boasts a vibrant art scene and a variety of works that range from sculptures to murals to pieces by internationally renowned artists like William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx’s Fire Walker. Many pieces are developed through community workshops, such as the Vilakazi Street sculptures. Others are functional, such as street furniture found in Hillbrow and the City Centre.

Museums in Johannesburg

The following is a list of some the museums in Johannesburg.

AECI Dynamite Factory Museum

The AECI Dynamite Factory Museum, housed in the 1895 residence of a mining official, records the history of explosives, with particular emphasis on their use in the mining industry. It also provides a social commentary and insight into the part played by some of the world famous figures who helped shape the destiny of southern Africa.

Adler Museum of Medicine

History of Medicine, brainchild of Dr Cyril Adler, was formally inaugurated 1962. The Museum's role was to collect and preserve for posterity all material that would illustrate the History of medicine in general and of South Africa in particular.

Apartheid museum

Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill is the home of the Constitutional Court, but also the site of Johannesburg’s notorious Old Fort Prison Complex, commonly known as Number Four, where thousands of ordinary people were brutally punished before the dawn of democracy in 1994. Many of South Africa’s leading political activists, including Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, were detained here.

Hector Peterson Museum

The Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto commemorates the 566 people who died in the student uprising that followed the events of 16 June 1976. The museum is named for Hector Peterson, a 12-year-old boy who was the first person shot dead by police on that day, and is located near a memorial to his death.

James Hall Transport Museum

The James Hall museum of Transport is the largest and most comprehensive museum of land transport in South Africa. It was established by the late Jimmie Hall together with the City of Johannesburg in February 1964.

Johannesburg Art Gallery

The Johannesburg Art Gallery is an art gallery located in Joubert Park, in the central business district of Johannesburg, South Africa. The building was designed by Edward Lutyens and consists of 15 exhibition halls and sculpture gardens. It houses collections of 17th century Dutch paintings, 18th and 19th century British and European art, 19th century South African works, a large contemporary collection of 20th century local and international art and a print cabinet containing works from the 15th century to the present.

Madiba Freedom Museum

Named after the former President Mandela's clan. The museums theme is Mzabalazo and charts South Africa's journey to democracy.

Museum Africa

Museum Africa is located in Newtown, and covers the history of both the city and the continent.

Origins Centre Museum

Located on the campus of the University of the Witwatersrand in Braamfontein, this museum contains some excellent examples of southern African rock art.

Bernberg Fashion Museum

Bernberg Fashion Museum is a primarily a museum collection, consisting of objects, and explains why and how clothing has changed and how the fashions of the past influence those of today.

South African National Museum of Military History

It is the only museum of its kind in South Africa and provides a nucleus of Museum and military history expertise in southern Africa. At the Museum you can see all types of guns, tanks, armoured cars, aircraft and naval hardware, including a midget submarine called the Molch used by the Germans in the Second World War (1939–1945).

Zoology Museum

The Zoology Museum is the only natural history museum in Johannesburg which is unusual because all the other major cities in South Africa have large public natural history museums. It has retained a unique character as the display specimens are exhibited in finely crafted teak cabinets which allow the viewer to engage directly with scores of objects at close range.

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Johannesburg's twin towns and sister cities are:

{| |- | valign="top" | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Baku, Azerbaijan Birmingham, United Kingdom Kathmandu, Nepal Kobe, Japan London, United Kingdom Mumbai, India New Delhi, India New York City, United States Sao Paulo, Brazil Windhoek, Namibia Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam |}

See also

Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

Notes

References

''Early Johannesburg, Its Buildings and People''. Hannes Meiring, Human & Rousseau. 1986. 143 pages. ISBN 0-7981-1456-8

''Gold! Gold! Gold! The Johannesburg Gold Rush''. Eric Rosenthal, AD. Donker, 1970, ISBN 0-949937-64-9

''Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis''. Sarah Nuttall. Duke University Press. 9 January 2005. 210 pages. ISBN 0-8223-6610-X.

''The Corner House: The Early History of Johannesburg''. Alan Patrick Cartwright. MacDonald. 1965. 293 pages.

External links

Government

Official website of the City of Johannesburg

Gauteng Provincial Government

Other

Gauteng Tourism Authority

Johannesburg on Birmingham's Partner City page

Johannesburg Tourism official website

Category:Johannesburg Category:Populated places in Gauteng Category:Cities in South Africa Category:Provincial capitals in South Africa Category:Populated places established in 1886

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name	Adnan Oktar
residence	Turkey
other names	Harun Yahya, Adnan Hoca
birth name	Adnan Oktar
birth date	February 02, 1956
birth place	Ankara, Turkey
known	Islamic creationism, Anti-Zionism, Anti-Masonry
occupation	Author
religion	Sunni Muslim
website	www.harunyahya.com
weight	}}

Adnan Oktar (born Ankara, February 2, 1956), also known as Harun Yahya, is an author and Islamic creationist. In 2007, he sent thousands of unsolicited copies of the ''Atlas of Creation'' advocating Islamic creationism to American scientists, members of Congress, and science museums. Oktar runs two organizations of which he is also the Honorary President: ''Bilim Araştırma Vakfı'' ("Science Research Foundation", BAV, established 1990), which promotes creationism and ''Milli Değerleri Koruma Vakfı'' ("Foundation to Protect National Values", established 1995) which claimed to promote Turkish nationalism. In the last two decades, Oktar has been involved in a number of legal cases, both as defendant and plaintiff.

Biography

Adnan Oktar was born in Ankara, Turkey on February 2, 1956. He grew up in Ankara, and lived there through his high school years where he studied the works of Islamic scholars like Said Nursi, a Muslim Kurdish scholar who wrote Risale-i Nur, an extensive Qur'anic commentary which includes a comprehensive political and religious ideology.

In 1979, Adnan Oktar came to Istanbul and entered Mimar Sinan University. These years were marked with violence and repression which led to the installation of a military junta following the coup of September 1980. The environment in Turkey was one of political and cultural instability, threatened by Cold War politics, and a clash between Kemalist secular modernisers and a rising tide of Islamic militancy. In this environment he regularly went to the Molla Mosque in Fındıklı locality, close to the academy of fine arts where he studied interior architecture, to pray regardless of threats. Edip Yuksel, who knew him during those years, described him as a "Sunni zealot."

In the early 1980s, he gathered young students around him to share his views of Islam. These students belonged to socially-active and prosperous families of Istanbul. From 1982 to 1984, a group of 20 to 30 was formed. They were joined by private high schools students who were from socially active and well-known families with had a high economic status who had become newly religious. Edip Yüksel said he presented his teachings "gently and in a modern fashion to the children of the privileged class, without intimidating them... a refined and urbanized version of Said Nursi."

In his religious teachings, he argued against Marxism, communism and materialistic philosophy. He attached special importance to refuting the Theory of Evolution and Darwinism because he felt that it had been turned into an ideology used to promote materialism and atheism, and numerous derivative ideologies. He personally funded a pamphlet entitled the ''Theory of Evolution'' which combined "mysticism with scientific rhetoric."

In 1986 he enrolled in the Philosophy Department of Istanbul University. Adnan Oktar appeared as the cover story of ''Nokta'' (The Point) magazine, reporting how he gathered with his friends and held lectures in a mosque. Many university students, mostly from Bosphorus University, one of the most prestigious universities of Turkey, started to participate. Adnan Oktar's name began to appear regularly in the press, sometimes in the headlines. Later that year he published a book titled ''Judaism and Freemasonry'' based on conspiracy theories that state offices, universities, political groups and media were influenced by a "hidden group". Adnan Oktar later qualified those remarks. (see "Conspiracy Theories" below)

Oktar was arrested, charged with promoting a theocratic revolution for which he served 19 months, though he was never formally charged. He was confined to a prison clinic, and then Bakirkoy Mental Hospital, where he was diagnosed with an obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and schizophrenia. Although doubts exist as to the accuracy of the diagnosis, and whether it was personally or politically motivated . Military doctors later declared him mentally sound, he says, but he complains that Turkish media propagated the idea that he was a lunatic. Oktar also claims he was thrown in a mental institution as punishment after the publication of his first book.

Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s, Oktar built up his community. His followers were especially active recruiting in the summer resorts along the shore of the Sea of Marmara. The social organization within the group become more hierarchical and took on a Messianic nature. Oktar says that due to the anarchy and terror in those years, he was unable to continue his studies. He had already begun working on his books, so when he left school he devoted his energy to his books.

In 1990, he founded the ''Science Research Foundation'' (SRF, or, in Turkish, ''Bilim Araştırma Vakfı'', or BAV). Oktar founded the ''Science Research Foundation'' to hold conferences and seminars for scientific activities "that target mass awareness concerning what the real underlying causes of social and political conflicts are", which he describes to be materialism and Darwinism, though some media describe the BAV as "a secretive Islamic sect" and "cult-like organization, that jealously guards the secrets of its considerable wealth". Members of the BAV are sometimes referred to as ''Adnan Hocacılar'' ("Adherents of Adnan the Hodja") by the public

In 1994 the Islamist Welfare Party (Refah Partisi), the predecessor of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), won control of the municipalities of Istanbul and Ankara. The new mayors (in Istanbul this was Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, now Turkey’s Prime Minister) sought broader support. The journalist and editor Fatih Altayli claimed that Oktar made business agreements with municipalities under the control of the Welfare party. This claim was denied by Oktar, and resulted in libel suits against Fatih Altayli with various results.

In 1995, Adnan Oktar founded ''Foundation for Protection of National Values'' (FPNV or in Turkish ''Millî Değerleri Koruma Vakfı''), through which he networks with other conservative Turkish nationalist organizations and individuals based on the ideology of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey.

In 1997, after another military intervention, the “bloodless coup” of 1997, the government of Erbakan stepped down and the Welfare Party disbanded. According to the ''New Humanist'', the current AKP government avoids political connections with Oktar and his organization.

In September 1999 Adnan Oktar was arrested and charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime (see "Legal issues" below). After a court case lasting two years the charges were dismissed.

After September 11, 2001 and the WTC attacks, Oktar published a book called ''Islam Denounces Terrorism''. Oktar spoke more of interfaith dialogue, attempting to unify believers of all stripes. Muslims, Christians and Jews should unite against the corrupting influence of Darwinism, which he held responsible for fascism, anti-Semitism and the holocaust.

Between that time and present, BAV has organized hundreds of conferences on creationism in Turkey and worldwide. He built a large publishing enterprise with publications sold though Islamic bookstore worldwide. He is considered "one of the most widely distributed authors in the Muslim world". His television show is viewed by many in the Arab world. Adnan Oktar has been preaching about the “Turkish-Islamic Union”, which would bring peace to the entire Muslim world under the leadership of Turkey.

In 2007 he sent out thousands of unsolicited copies of his ''Atlas of Creation'' advocating Islam and creationism to schools and colleges in several European countries and the USA.

The next year the 1999 case was reopened by another court (see "Legal issues" below). Adnan Oktar was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. But the verdict was appealed and in May 2010 it was overturned. During these years he engaged in numerous libel suits with various results (See "Legal Issues" below). In some cases he was successful in blocking high-profile websites in Turkey for slander (See "Blocking Internet Sites" below), including that of Richard Dawkins, as well as the complete Wordpress-site.

In 2010, Adnan Oktar was selected as one of the top fifty of ''The 500 Most Influential Muslims'' in the World by the Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre of Jordan for his dissemination of creationism in an Islamic context, and other extensively distributed publications on Islamic topics.

Writings

Oktar has written numerous books under the pen name Harun Yahya. Harun referring to the biblical Aaron and Yahya referring to the New Testament John the Baptist.

Oktar's books on faith-related topics attempt to communicate the existence and oneness of God (Allah in the Qur'an ) according to the Islamic faith, and are written with the main purpose of introducing Islam to those who are strangers to religion. Each of his books on science-related topics stresses his views on the might, sublimity, and majesty of God. These books attempt to display for non-Muslims what Oktar claims to be signs of the existence of God, and the excellence of his creation. A sub-group within this series are the series of "Books Demolishing the Lie of Evolution", a critique of the ideas of materialism, evolution, Darwinism, and atheism.

These publications argue against evolution. They assert that evolution denies the existence of God, abolishes moral values, and promotes materialism and communism. Oktar argues that Darwinism, by stressing the "survival of the fittest", has inspired racism, Nazism, communism and terrorism. A claim not unexpected in Turkey when during the political turmoil before a 1980 military coup, communist bookshops touted Darwin's works as a complement to Karl Marx.

Truman State University physicist Taner Edis, who was born in Turkey, says the secret to BAV's success is the huge popularity of the Harun Yahya books. "They're fairly lavishly produced, on good-quality paper with full-color illustrations all over the place," he says. "They're trying to compete with any sort of science publication you can find in the Western world. And in a place like Turkey, Yahya books look considerably better-published than most scientific publications.". Many of Oktar's books have been made into high-resolution videos which are freely downloadable on the Internet.

Creationism

The spread of organized Christian creationism to Islam began in the 1980s, when the Muslim minister of education in Turkey turned to the ''Institute of Creation Research'' (ICR), a Christian institution in Dallas Texas, for help in developing twofold curriculum that would teach evolution and creation side by side.

In 1990, the ''Science Research Foundation'' (BAV in Turkish) was formed in Istanbul, headed by Oktar.

Oktar for many years drew on the writings of young earth Christian creationists to develop his case against evolution. However, Islam does not require belief in Young Earth creationism, and making use of the fact that earth may have existed for billions of years, Oktar later produced material which was more similar to Intelligent Design. So similar in fact, that Harun Yahya's website was listed as an 'Islamic intelligent design' website by the Discovery Institute. However Oktar does not embrace use of the term 'Intelligent Design' due to its lack of specific mention of God, calling it 'another of Satan's snares'.

In early 1998, the BAV launched its first campaign against evolution/Darwinism. Thousands of free copies of Adnan Oktar's book, ''The Evolution Deceit'', and the booklets based on this book were distributed throughout Turkey. They regularly ran full-page ads against evolution in daily Turkish newspapers and even ran an ad in the U.S. magazine TIME. The funding of the campaigns is unknown. BAV spearheaded an effort to confront Turkish academics who taught evolutionary biology A number of faculty members were harassed, threatened and slandered in fliers, leading to legal action against BAV (see "Legal Issues" below).

In 2005, Professor Ümit Sayın summed up the effect of the BAV's campaign when he said to ''The Pitch'':

In 1998, I was able to motivate six members of the Turkish Academy of Sciences to speak out against the creationist movement. Today, it's impossible to motivate anyone. They're afraid they'll be attacked by the radical Islamists and the BAV.

In September 2008 Oktar issued a challenge offering "10 trillion Turkish lira to anyone who produces a single intermediate-form fossil demonstrating evolution". He has claimed, "Not one [fossil] belongs to strange-looking creatures in the course of development of the kind supposed by evolutionists." Dr Kevin Padian at the University of California has criticized the notion that such fossils do not exist, stating that Oktar "does not have any sense of what we know about how things change through time. If he sees a fossil crab, he says, 'It looks just like a regular crab, there's no evolution.'"

However, the reaction of scientific community is negative and dismissive.

Taner Edis has said "there is nothing new in the Yahya material: scientifically negligible arguments and outright distortions often copied from Christian anti-evolution literature, presented with a conservative Muslim emphasis" concluding it "has no scholarly standing whatsoever". According to Richard Dawkins, Oktar "doesn't know anything about zoology, doesn't know anything about biology. He knows nothing about what he is attempting to refute".

In France, scientists spoke out against the book, and American scientists are unimpressed.

The Atlas of Creation

Oktar published volume 1 of his ''Yaratılış Atlası'' (''The Atlas of Creation''), with Global Publishing, Istanbul, Turkey in October 2006. Volumes 2 and 3 followed in 2007. A dedicated website (yaratilisatlasi.com, English atlasofcreation.com) registered to Global Yayıncılık (Global Publishing), Istanbul, went online also in 2007.

At 11 x 17 inches and 12 pounds, with a bright red cover and almost 800 glossy pages, most of them lavishly illustrated, “Atlas of Creation” is according the New York Times "probably the largest and most beautiful creationist challenge yet to Darwin’s theory, which Mr. Yahya calls a feeble and perverted ideology contradicted by the Koran". Tens of thousands of copies of the book have been delivered, on an unsolicited basis, to schools, prominent researchers and research institutes throughout Europe and the United States.

However, the book has been widely criticized and dismissed by scientists.

Biologist Kevin Padian from University of California, Berkeley, said that people who had received copies were “just astounded at its size and production values and equally astonished at what a load of crap it is." adding that "[Oktar] does not really have any sense of what we know about how things change through time.”

Gerdien de Jong, one of five biologists at Utrecht University who received a copy of the book, has described its reasoning as "absurdly ridiculous"..

Biologist PZ Myers wrote: "The general pattern of the book is repetitious and predictable: the book shows a picture of a fossil and a photo of a living animal, and declares that they haven't changed a bit, therefore evolution is false. Over and over. It gets old fast, and it's usually wrong (they have changed!) and the photography, while lovely, is entirely stolen."

The Council of Europe's Committee on Culture, Science and Education wrote in its report on this book that "None of the arguments in this work are based on any scientific evidence, and the book appears more like a primitive theological treatise than the scientific refutation of the theory of evolution."

Conspiracy theories

Oktar propagates a number of conspiracy theories, beginning with his 1986 ''Yahudilik ve Masonluk'' (''Judaism and Freemasonry''). The book suggests that the principal mission of Jews and Freemasons in Turkey was to erode the spiritual, religious, and moral values of the Turkish people and, thus, make them like animals, as stated in what Oktar refers to as their use of "Distorted Torah." Oktar asserts that "the materialist standpoint, evolution theory, anti-religious and immoral lifestyles were indoctrinated to the society as a whole" by Jews and Freemasons.

Oktar's theory of a global conspiracy of Freemasonry is expounded in his book ''Global Masonluk'' (English ''Global Freemasonry'') and on his websites ''Masonluk'' and ''Global Freemasonry''. According to Oktar, Freemasonry is "the main architect of the world system based on materialist philosophy, but which keeps that true identity concealed." Oktar claims that the theory of evolution is a Masonic conspiracy initiated by the Rosicrucians.

Oktar's recent publications declare Darwinism and Materialism to be conspiracies responsible for anti-semitism and terrorism. In recent publications and interviews (since 2004), Oktar qualifies his condemnations of Zionism and Freemasonry by adding the word atheist before them, as in ''atheist Zionists'' and ''atheist Freemasons''.

According to a July 2009 interview, Oktar's position is essentially merely against atheism as he has met Christians and Jews worldwide. He stated his objectives of a religious alliance "include waging a joint intellectual and spiritual battle against the worldwide growing tide of irreligiousness, unbelief and immorality." The interviewer noted, "But even more unusual is their agreement with regard to the need to rebuild the Jewish Temple, a structure that Mr. Oktar refers to as the 'Masjid (Mosque)' or the 'Palace of Solomon.'"

Holocaust Denial and Affirmation

In 1996, BAV distributed its first book, originally published the previous year, entitled ''Soykırım Yalanı'' (''The Holocaust Lie''). The publication of ''Soykırım Yalanı'' sparked much public debate. This book claims that "what is presented as Holocaust is the death of some Jews due to the typhus plague during the war and the famine towards the end of the war caused by the defeat of the Germans."

A Turkish painter and intellectual, Bedri Baykam, published a strongly worded critique of the book in the Ankara daily newspaper ''Siyah-Beyaz'' ("Black and White"). A legal suit for slander was brought against him. During the trial in September, Baykam exposed the real author of ''The Holocaust Lie'' as Adnan Oktar. The suit was withdrawn in March 1997.

In 2001, the Stephen Roth Institute, of Tel-Aviv University, listed Oktar as a Holocaust denier due to the publication of ''The Holocaust Lie''.

Three years later the Stephen Roth Institute expressed the opinion that Adnan Oktar had increased his tolerance toward others, asserting that "he now works towards promoting inter-religious dialogue". calling upon all Muslims to have "a tolerant and friendly attitude toward other religions".

In 2006, BAV published a book affirming the Holocaust, called ''The Holocaust Violence''. ''The Holocaust Violence'' states "The Nazis subjected European Jews to indisputable and unforgivable cruelty during World War II. They humiliated, insulted and degraded millions of Jewish civilians, forcing them from their homes and enslaving them in concentration camps under inhuman conditions... Certainly the Jewish people, of whom 5.5 million died in concentration camps, were the worst victims of the Nazi barbarity."

In a 2007 interview with ''The Guardian'', Oktar denied writing ''The Holocaust Lie'', a claim that ''The Guardian'' stated was "hard to believe.". The next year in an interview with Der Spiegel, Adnan Oktar stated that "The Holocaust Lie," had been written by a member of his organization who had published his own essays using Oktar's pen-name "Harun Yahya", upon his own initiative. Oktar disclaimed the first book, and said the second book reflected his own opinions.

In 2009, Oktar expressed his views for Jews in his own words, "hatred or anger toward the line of the Prophet Abraham is completely unacceptable. The Prophet Abraham is our ancestor, and the Jews are our brothers. We want the descendants of the Prophet Abraham to live in the easiest, pleasantest and most peaceful manner. We want them to be free to perform their religious obligations, to live as they wish in the lands of their forebears and to frequently remember Allah in comfort and security." In 2009 and 2010, Oktar published several websites of Jewish interest.

Other legal issues

In addition to the slander trial over ''The Holocaust Lie'', Oktar has been involved in other cases. Although most are unrelated to creationism or religion, a BAV spokesperson says Oktar is being persecuted “because of his ideas.” Physicist Taner Edis of Truman State University, who has followed the case closely, says given the political pressures on Turkey’s justice system, that’s “not entirely implausible.”

In the summer of 1986, Oktar was arrested for his statement "I am from the nation of Abraham and Turkish ethnicity" in a newspaper interview. According to the ''New Humanist'', Oktar was arrested for promoting a theocratic revolution for which he served 19 months, though he was never formally charged.

In 1991, Oktar was arrested for possession of cocaine, which he claimed had been planted in one of the books in his library by the security forces, who, he said, also spiked his food with cocaine. He was later acquitted.

A number of faculty members who taught evolution were harassed, threatened and slandered in flyers that labeled them "Maoists". In 1999, six of the professors won a civil court case against the BAV for defamation and were each awarded $4,000.

In 1999, Oktar was arrested and charged with using threats for personal benefit and creating an organization with the intent to commit a crime. BAV's lawyers claimed there were several human rights violations during this police operation, as well as the use of violence during the arrest and afterwards. The judicial process lasted over two years, during which most of the complainants retracted their claims. As a result, cases against Oktar and other BAV members were dismissed.

The 1999 case was reopened by another court in 2008. The indictment from the prosecutor’s office, made public by ''Cumhuriyet'', claimed blackmail and extortion. Among other things, it claimed that BAV used its female members to attract young scholars from rich families with the promise of sexual favors in exchange for attending events. It was claimed that the sexual activities of thousands of people were videotaped with hidden cameras for the purpose of blackmail. Members who wanted to leave the group were threatened that the tapes would be made public. In the face of all these allegations against BAV, the Chairman of the Court announced in the hearing on February 29, 2008, that testimonies obtained through unlawful means may not be considered as evidence based on article 148 of the criminal code.

Oktar was convicted of creating an illegal organization for personal gain. He and 17 other members of his organisation were sentenced to three years in prison. Oktar appealed the verdict. In May 2010, the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction and dismissed the charges.

Blocking of Internet sites

Since 2007 Oktar has successfully had the Turkish government block public access to several websites. In April 2007, Oktar filed a libel lawsuit against the owners of Ekşi Sözlük, a virtual community similar to everything2. The court reviewed the complaint and ordered the service provider to close the site to public access. The site was temporarily suspended so the entry on Oktar could be expunged and locked. Then access to ''Süper Poligon'', a news website, was also restricted following Oktar's complaint. In August 2007, Oktar got a Turkish court to block WordPress.com in all of Turkey. His lawyers argued that blogs on WordPress.com contained libelous material on Oktar and his colleague, which WordPress.com staff was unwilling to remove.

In addition, Edip Yuksel, a Turkish writer who knew Oktar in the 1980s and is now critical of him, had his website banned in Turkey from Oktar's complaints. In addition, Yuksel wrote a Turkish-language book about Oktar called ''The Cult of the Antichrist'', but he has yet to find "a publisher willing to brave Mr. Oktar's lawyers."

On September 19, 2008, a Turkish court banned Internet users in Turkey from viewing the official Richard Dawkins Web site after Oktar claimed its contents were defamatory, blasphemous and insulting religion, arguing that his personality was violated by this site. The ban was lifted on 8th July 2011. Also in September 2008, a complaint by Oktar led to the banning of the internet site of the Union of Education and Scientific Workers (Türk Eğitim Sen). This was followed by a block of the country's third-biggest newspaper site, ''Vatan'', in October.

Television broadcasting

On March 21, 2011, Oktar started television broadcasting on A9 satellite channel where his interviews and night lectures are broadcast live.

Bibliography

thumb|128px| A Call For Unity [of Muslims, Christians and Jews]	thumb|128px|The Signs of Jesus' Second Coming
thumb|128px|Islam Denounces Terrorism	thumb|128px|Wisdom and Sound Advice from the Torah
thumb|128px|Only Love can Defeat Terrorism	thumb|128px|Islam Denounces Antisemitism

Oktar's books and brochures appear in Turkish with "Vural Yayıncılık" ("Global Publishing"), Istanbul. English translations of Oktar's books appear with "Ta-Ha Publishers", London, UK; "Global Publishing", Istanbul, Turkey; "Al-Attique Publishers", Ontario, Canada and "Goodword Books", New Delhi, India.

Publication media includes: Books, Booklets (Pamphlets), Children's Books, Journals, Documentaries, Audio Books, CD's, Posters and over a hundred websites. The total number of books and brochures published by Oktar number in the hundreds. The works are lavishly produced, on good-quality paper with full-color illustrations and sold in Islamic bookstores worldwide.

References

External links

Official Harun Yahya site

Harun Yahya: Catalog of works

Taner Edis: Harun Yahya and Islamic Creationism (2003)

Richard Dawkins on Harun Yahya's Atlas of Creation

Category:Article Feedback Pilot Category:1956 births Category:People from Ankara Category:Turkish Muslims Category:Living people Category:Turkish prisoners and detainees Category:Islamic creationists Category:Conspiracy theorists Category:Internet censorship Category:Anti-Zionism Category:Anti-Masonry

ar:عدنان أوكطار az:Harun Yəhya bn:আদনান ওকতার bs:Harun Yahya bg:Аднан Октар cs:Adnan Oktar de:Harun Yahya es:Adnan Oktar fa:هارون یحیی fr:Adnan Oktar id:Harun Yahya it:Adnan Oktar jv:Harun Yahya hu:Adnan Oktar ml:അദ്‌നാൻ ഓൿതാർ ms:Adnan Oktar nl:Harun Yahya pl:Adnan Oktar pt:Adnan Oktar ru:Аднан Октар sq:Harun Jahja sd:هارون يحيٰ so:Cadnaan Oktaar sr:Аднан Октар fi:Harun Yahya tr:Adnan Oktar

name	Guy Fawkes
alt	Black-and-white drawing
enlisted	20 May 1604
role	Explosives
captured	5 November 1605
birth date	April 13, 1570 (presumed)
birth place	York, England
death date	January 31, 1606
death place	Westminster, London, England
cause	Hanged
alias	Guido Fawkes, John Johnson
motive	Gunpowder plot, a conspiracy to assassinate King James VI & I and members of the Houses of Parliament
conviction	High treason
conviction penalty	Hanged, drawn and quartered
occupation	Soldier; Alférez
parents	Edward Fawkes, Edith (''née'' Blake or Jackson)
children	}}

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

Fawkes was born and educated in York. His father died when Fawkes was eight years old, after which his mother married a recusant Catholic. Fawkes later converted to Catholicism and left for the continent, where he fought in the Eighty Years' War on the side of Catholic Spain against Protestant Dutch reformers. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England but was unsuccessful. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England.

Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters secured the lease to an undercroft beneath the House of Lords, and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November, and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured, and eventually he broke. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the drawing and quartering that followed.

Fawkes became synonymous with the Gunpowder Plot, which has been commemorated in England since 5 November 1605. His effigy is burned on a bonfire, often accompanied by a firework display.

Early life

Childhood

Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 in Stonegate, York. He was the second of four children born to Edward Fawkes, a proctor and an advocate of the consistory court at York,|group="nb"}} and his wife, Edith. or Edith Jackson.|group="nb"}} Guy's parents were regular communicants of the Church of England, as were his paternal grandparents; his grandmother, born Ellen Harrington, was the daughter of a prominent merchant, who served as Lord Mayor of York in 1536. However, Guy's mother's family were recusant Catholics, and his cousin, Richard Cowling, became a Jesuit priest. ''Guy'' was an uncommon name in England, but may have been popular in York on account of a local notable, Sir Guy Fairfax of Steeton.

The date of Fawkes' birth is unknown, but he was baptised in the church of St. Michael le Belfrey on 16 April. As the customary gap between birth and baptism was three days, he was probably born about 13 April. In 1568, Edith had given birth to a daughter named Anne, but the child died aged about seven weeks, in November that year. She bore two more children after Guy: Anne (b. 1572), and Elizabeth (b. 1575). Both were married, in 1599 and 1594 respectively.

In 1579, when Guy was eight years old, his father died. His mother remarried several years later, to the Catholic Dionis Baynbrigge (or Denis Bainbridge) of Scotton, Harrogate. Fawkes may have become a Catholic through the Baynbrigge family's recusant tendencies, and also the Catholic branches of the Pulleyn and Percy families of Scotton, but also from his time at St. Peter's School in York. A governor of the school had spent about 20 years in prison for recusancy, and its headmaster, John Pulleyn, came from a family of noted Yorkshire recusants, the Pulleyns of Blubberhouses. In her 1915 work ''The Pulleynes of Yorkshire'', author Catharine Pullein suggested that Fawkes's Catholic education came from his Harrington relatives, who were known for harbouring priests, one of whom later accompanied Fawkes to Flanders in 1592–1593. Fawkes's fellow students included John Wright and his brother Christopher (both later involved with Fawkes in the Gunpowder plot) and Oswald Tesimond, Edward Oldcorne and Robert Middleton, who became priests (the latter executed in 1601).

After leaving school Fawkes entered the service of Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu. The Viscount took a dislike to Fawkes and after a short time dismissed him; he was subsequently employed by Anthony-Maria Browne, 2nd Viscount Montagu, who succeeded his grandfather at the age of 18. At least one source claims that Fawkes married and had a son, but no known contemporary accounts confirm this. These entries, however, appear to derive from a secondary source and not from actual parish entries.|group="nb"}}

Military career

In October 1591 Fawkes sold the estate in Clifton that he had inherited from his father. He travelled to the continent to fight in the Eighty Years War for Catholic Spain against the new Dutch Republic and, from 1595 until the Peace of Vervins in 1598, France. Although England was not by then engaged in land operations against Spain, the two countries were still at war, and the Spanish Armada of 1588 was only five years in the past. He joined Sir William Stanley, an English Catholic and veteran commander in his mid-fifties who had raised an army in Ireland to fight in Leicester's expedition to the Netherlands. Stanley had been held in high regard by Elizabeth I, but following his surrender of Deventer to the Spanish in 1587 he, and most of his troops, had switched sides to serve Spain. Fawkes became an alférez or junior officer, fought well at the siege of Calais in 1596, and by 1603 had been recommended for a captaincy. That year, he travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England. He used the occasion to adopt the Italian version of his name, Guido, and in his memorandum described James I as "a heretic", who intended "to have all of the Papist sect driven out of England." He denounced Scotland, and the King's favourites among the Scottish nobles, writing "it will not be possible to reconcile these two nations, as they are, for very long". Although he was received politely, the court of Philip III was unwilling to offer him any support.

Gunpowder Plot

In 1604 Fawkes became involved with a small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate the Protestant King James and replace him with his daughter, third in the line of succession, Princess Elizabeth. Fawkes was described by the Jesuit priest and former school friend Oswald Tesimond as "pleasant of approach and cheerful of manner, opposed to quarrels and strife ... loyal to his friends". Tesimond also claimed Fawkes was "a man highly skilled in matters of war", and that it was this mixture of piety and professionalism which endeared him to his fellow conspirators. The author Antonia Fraser describes Fawkes as "a tall, powerfully built man, with thick reddish-brown hair, a flowing moustache in the tradition of the time, and a bushy reddish-brown beard", and that he was "a man of action ... capable of intelligent argument as well as physical endurance, somewhat to the surprise of his enemies."

The first meeting of the five central conspirators took place on Sunday 20 May 1604, at an inn called the Duck and Drake, in the fashionable Strand district of London.|group="nb"}} Catesby had already proposed at an earlier meeting with Thomas Wintour and John Wright to kill the King and his government by blowing up "the Parliament House with gunpowder". Wintour, who at first objected to the plan, was convinced by Catesby to travel to the continent to seek help. Wintour met with the Constable of Castile, the exiled Welsh spy Hugh Owen, and Sir William Stanley, who said that Catesby would receive no support from Spain. Owen did, however, introduce Wintour to Fawkes, who had by then been away from England for many years, and thus was largely unknown in the country. Wintour and Fawkes were contemporaries; each was militant, and had first-hand experience of the unwillingness of the Spaniards to help. Wintour told Fawkes of their plan to "doe some whatt in Ingland if the pece with Spaine healped us nott", and thus in April 1604 the two men returned to England. Wintour's news did not surprise Catesby; despite positive noises from the Spanish authorities, he feared that "the deeds would nott answere". |title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2008-05 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/4883/ |accessdate=12 May 2010 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/4883}}|group="nb"}}

One of the conspirators, Thomas Percy was promoted in June 1604, gaining access to a house in London which belonged to John Whynniard, Keeper of the King's Wardrobe. Fawkes was installed as a caretaker and began using the pseudonym John Johnson, servant to Percy. The contemporaneous account of the prosecution (taken from Thomas Wintour's confession) claimed that the conspirators attempted to dig a tunnel from beneath Whynniard's house to Parliament, although this story may have been a government fabrication; no evidence for the existence of a tunnel was presented by the prosecution, and no trace of one has ever been found. Fawkes did not admit the existence of such a scheme until his fifth interrogation, but even then he could not locate the tunnel. If the story is true, however, by December 1604 the conspirators were busy tunnelling from their rented house to the House of Lords. They ceased their efforts when, during tunnelling, they heard a noise from above. Fawkes was sent out to investigate, and returned with the news that the tenant's widow was clearing out a nearby undercroft, directly beneath the House of Lords.

The plotters purchased the lease to the room, which also belonged to John Whynniard. Unused and filthy, it was considered an ideal hiding place for the gunpowder the plotters planned to store there. According to Fawkes, 20 barrels of gunpowder were brought in at first, followed by 16 more on 20 July. On 28 July however, the ever-present threat of the plague delayed the opening of Parliament until Tuesday, 5 November.

Overseas

In an attempt to gain foreign support, in May 1605 Fawkes travelled overseas and informed Hugh Owen of the plotters' plan. At some point during this trip his name made its way into the files of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, who employed a network of spies across Europe. One of these spies, Captain William Turner, may have been responsible. Although the information he provided to Salisbury usually amounted to no more than a vague pattern of invasion reports, and included nothing which regarded the Gunpowder Plot, on 21 April he told how Fawkes was to be brought by Tesimond to England. Fawkes was a well known Flemish mercenary, and would be introduced to "Mr Catesby" and "honourable friends of the nobility and others who would have arms and horses in readiness". Turner's report did not, however, mention Fawkes's pseudonym in England, John Johnson, and did not reach Cecil until late in November, well after the plot had been discovered.

It is uncertain when Fawkes returned to England, but he was back in London by late August 1605, when he and Wintour discovered that the gunpowder stored in the undercroft had decayed. More gunpowder was brought into the room, along with firewood to conceal it. Fawkes's final role in the plot was settled during a series of meetings in October. He was to light the fuse and then escape across the Thames. Simultaneously, a revolt in the Midlands would help to ensure the capture of Princess Elizabeth. Acts of regicide were frowned upon, and Fawkes would therefore head to the continent, where he would explain to the Catholic powers his holy duty to kill the King and his retinue.

Discovery

A few of the conspirators were concerned about fellow Catholics who would be present at Parliament during the opening. On the evening of 26 October, Lord Monteagle received an anonymous letter warning him to stay away, and to "retyre youre self into yowre contee whence yow maye expect the event in safti for ... they shall receyve a terrible blowe this parleament". Despite quickly becoming aware of the letter informed by one of Monteagle's servants the conspirators resolved to continue with their plans, as it appeared that it "was clearly thought to be a hoax". Fawkes checked the undercroft on 30 October, and reported that nothing had been disturbed. Monteagle's suspicions had been aroused however, and the letter was shown to King James. The King ordered Sir Thomas Knyvet to conduct a search of the cellars underneath Parliament, which he did in the early hours of 5 November. Fawkes had taken up his station late on the previous night, armed with a slow match and a watch given to him by Percy "becaus he should knowe howe the time went away". He was found leaving the cellar, shortly after midnight, and arrested. Inside, the barrels of gunpowder were discovered hidden under piles of firewood and coal.

Torture

Fawkes gave his name as John Johnson and was first interrogated by members of the King's Privy Chamber, where he remained defiant. When asked by one of the lords what he was doing in possession of so much gunpowder, Fawkes answered that his intention was "to blow you Scotch beggars back to your native mountains." He identified himself as a 36-year-old Catholic from Netherdale in Yorkshire, and gave his father's name as Thomas and his mother's as Edith Jackson. Wounds on his body noted by his questioners he explained as the effects of pleurisy. Fawkes admitted his intention to blow up the House of Lords, and expressed regret at his failure to do so. His steadfast manner earned him the admiration of King James, who described Fawkes as possessing "a Roman resolution".

James's admiration did not, however, prevent him from ordering on 6 November that "John Johnson" be tortured, to reveal the names of his co-conspirators. He directed that the torture be light at first, referring to the use of manacles, but more severe if necessary, authorising the use of the rack: "the gentler Tortures are to be first used unto him ''et sic per gradus ad ima tenditur'' [and so by degrees proceeding to the worst]". Fawkes was transferred to the Tower of London. The King composed a list of questions to be put to "Johnson", such as "''as to what he is'', For I can never yet hear of any man that knows him", "When and where he learned to speak French?", and "If he was a Papist, who brought him up in it?" The room in which Fawkes was interrogated subsequently became known as the Guy Fawkes Room.

Sir William Waad, Lieutenant of the Tower, supervised the torture and obtained Fawkes's confession. He searched his prisoner, and found a letter, addressed to Guy Fawkes. To Waad's surprise, "Johnson" remained silent, revealing nothing about the plot or its authors. On the night of 6 November he spoke with Waad, who reported to Salisbury "He [Johnson] told us that since he undertook this action he did every day pray to God he might perform that which might be for the advancement of the Catholic Faith and saving his own soul". According to Waad, Fawkes managed to rest through the night, despite his being warned that he would be interrogated until "I had gotton the inwards secret of his thoughts and all his complices". His composure was broken at some point during the following day.

The observer Sir Edward Hoby remarked "Since Johnson's being in the Tower, he beginneth to speak English". Fawkes revealed his true identity on 7 November, and told his interrogators that there were five people involved in the plot to kill the King. He began to reveal their names on 8 November, and told how they intended to place Princess Elizabeth on the throne. His third confession, on 9 November, implicated Francis Tresham. Following the Ridolfi plot of 1571 prisoners were made to dictate their confessions, before copying and signing them, if they still could. Although it is uncertain if he was subjected to the horrors of the rack, Fawkes's signature, little more than a scrawl, bears testament to the suffering he endured at the hands of his interrogators.

Trial and execution

The trial of eight of the plotters began on Monday 27 January 1606. Fawkes shared the barge from the Tower to Westminster Hall with seven of his co-conspirators.|group="nb"}} They were kept in the Star Chamber before being taken to Westminster Hall, where they were displayed on a purpose-built scaffold. The King and his close family, watching in secret, were among the spectators as the Lords Commissioners read out the list of charges. Fawkes was identified as Guido Fawkes, "otherwise called Guido Johnson". He pleaded not guilty, despite his apparent acceptance of guilt from the moment he was captured.

The outcome was never in doubt. The jury found all of the defendants guilty, and the Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham proclaimed them guilty of high treason. The Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that each of the condemned would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. They were to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". Their genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and their bowels and hearts removed. They would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of their bodies displayed so that they might become "prey for the fowls of the air". Fawkes's and Tresham's testimony regarding the Spanish treason was read aloud, as well as confessions related specifically to the Gunpowder Plot. The last piece of evidence offered was a conversation between Fawkes and Wintour, who had been kept in adjacent cells. The two men apparently thought they had been speaking in private, but their conversation was intercepted by a government spy. When the prisoners were allowed to speak, Fawkes explained his not guilty plea as ignorance of certain aspects of the indictment.

On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and three others Thomas Wintour, Ambrose Rookwood, and Robert Keyes were dragged from the Tower on wattled hurdles to the Old Palace Yard at Westminster, opposite the building they had attempted to destroy. His fellow plotters were hanged, drawn and quartered. Fawkes was the last to stand on the scaffold. He asked for forgiveness of the King and state, while keeping up his "crosses and idle ceremonies", and aided by the hangman began to climb the ladder to the noose. Although weakened by torture, Fawkes managed to jump from the gallows, breaking his neck in the fall and thus avoiding the agony of the latter part of his execution. His lifeless body was nevertheless quartered, and as was the custom, his body parts were then distributed to "the four corners of the kingdom", to be displayed as a warning to other would-be traitors.

Legacy

On 5 November 1605 Londoners were encouraged to celebrate the King's escape from assassination by lighting bonfires, "always provided that 'this testemonye of joy be carefull done without any danger or disorder. An Act of Parliament designated each 5 November as a day of thanksgiving for "the joyful day of deliverance", and remained in force until 1859. Although he was only one of 13 conspirators, Fawkes is today the individual most associated with the failed Plot.

In Britain, 5 November has variously been called Guy Fawkes Night, Guy Fawkes Day and Bonfire Night; the latter can be traced directly back to the original celebration of 5 November 1605. Bonfires were accompanied by fireworks from the 1650s onwards, and it became the custom to burn an effigy (usually the Pope) after 1673, when the heir presumptive, James, Duke of York made his conversion to Catholicism public. Effigies of other notable figures who have become targets for the public's ire, such as Paul Kruger and Margaret Thatcher, have also found their way onto the bonfires, although most modern effigies are of Fawkes. The "guy" is normally created by children, from old clothes, newspapers, and a mask. During the 19th century, "guy" came to mean an oddly dressed person, but in American English it lost any pejorative connotation, and was used to refer to any male person.

William Harrison Ainsworth's 1841 historical romance ''Guy Fawkes; or, The Gunpowder Treason'', portrays Fawkes in a generally sympathetic light, and transformed him in the public perception into an "acceptable fictional character". Fawkes subsequently appeared as "essentially an action hero" in children's books and penny dreadfuls such as ''The Boyhood Days of Guy Fawkes; or, The Conspirators of Old London'', published in about 1905. Fawkes is sometimes referred to as "the only man ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions".

References

;Notes

;Footnotes

;Bibliography

External links

Category:1570 births Category:1606 deaths Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Anglicanism Category:English criminals Category:16th-century criminals Category:17th-century criminals Category:English Roman Catholics Category:17th-century Roman Catholics Category:Executed English people Category:Executed Gunpowder Plotters Category:Failed assassins Category:History of Roman Catholicism in England Category:Old Peterites Category:People from York Category:Roman Catholic activists Category:Prisoners in the Tower of London Category:People of the Tudor period Category:People of the Stuart period

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honorific-prefix	The Honourable
name	Bob Marley
alt	Black and white picture of a man with long dreadlocks playing the guitar on stage.
background	solo_singer
birth name	Robert Nesta Marley
alias	Tuff Gong
birth date	February 06, 1945
birth place	Nine Mile, Saint Ann, Jamaica
death date	May 11, 1981
death place	Miami, Florida, U.S.
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, saxophone, harmonica, percussion
genre	Reggae, ska, rocksteady
occupation	Singer-songwriter, musician
years active	1962–1981
label	Studio One, Upsetter, Tuff Gong
associated acts	Bob Marley & The Wailers, Wailers Band, The Upsetters, I Threes
website
notable instruments	Gibson Les Paul Special }}

Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM (6 February 1945 – 11 May 1981) was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers (1963–1981). Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited with helping spread both Jamaican music and the Rastafari movement to a worldwide audience.

Marley's music was heavily influenced by the social issues of his homeland, and he is considered to have given voice to the specific political and cultural nexus of Jamaica. His best-known hits include "I Shot the Sheriff", "No Woman, No Cry", "Could You Be Loved", "Stir It Up", "Jamming", "Redemption Song", "One Love" and, "Three Little Birds", as well as the posthumous releases "Buffalo Soldier" and "Iron Lion Zion". The compilation album ''Legend'' (1984), released three years after his death, is reggae's best-selling album, going ten times Platinum which is also one Diamond in the U.S., and selling 25 million copies worldwide.

Early life and career

Bob Marley was born in the village of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica as Nesta Robert Marley. A Jamaican passport official would later swap his first and middle names. His father, Norval Sinclair Marley, was a white Jamaican of mixed and English descent whose family came from Essex, England. Norval was a captain in the Royal Marines, as well as a plantation overseer, when he married Cedella Booker, an Afro-Jamaican then 18 years old. Norval provided financial support for his wife and child, but seldom saw them, as he was often away on trips. In 1955, when Marley was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack at age 70. Marley faced questions about his own racial identity throughout his life. He once reflected:

I don't have prejudice against meself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.

Although Marley recognised his mixed ancestry, throughout his life and because of his beliefs, he self-identified as a black African, following the ideas of Pan-African leaders. Marley stated that his two biggest influences were the African-centered Marcus Garvey and Haile Selassie. A central theme in Bob Marley's message was the repatriation of black people to Zion, which in his view was Ethiopia, or more generally, Africa. In songs such as "Black Survivor", "Babylon System", and "Blackman Redemption", Marley sings about the struggles of blacks and Africans against oppression from the West or "Babylon".

Marley became friends with Neville "Bunny" Livingston (later known as Bunny Wailer), with whom he started to play music. He left school at the age of 14 to make music with Joe Higgs, a local singer and devout Rastafari. At a jam session with Higgs and Livingston, Marley met Peter McIntosh (later known as Peter Tosh), who had similar musical ambitions. In 1962, Marley recorded his first two singles, "Judge Not" and "One Cup of Coffee", with local music producer Leslie Kong. These songs, released on the Beverley's label under the pseudonym of Bobby Martell, attracted little attention. The songs were later re-released on the box set ''Songs of Freedom'', a posthumous collection of Marley's work.

Bob Marley & The Wailers

1963–1974

In 1963, Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, and Cherry Smith formed a ska and rocksteady group, calling themselves "The Teenagers". They later changed their name to "The Wailing Rudeboys", then to "The Wailing Wailers", at which point they were discovered by record producer Coxsone Dodd, and finally to "The Wailers". By 1966, Braithwaite, Kelso, and Smith had left The Wailers, leaving the core trio of Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh.

In 1966, Marley married Rita Anderson, and moved near his mother's residence in Wilmington, Delaware in the United States for a short time, during which he worked as a DuPont lab assistant and on the assembly line at a Chrysler plant, under the alias Donald Marley.

Though raised in the Catholic tradition, Marley became captivated by Rastafarian beliefs in the 1960s, when away from his mother's influence. Formally converted to Rastafari after returning to Jamaica, Marley began to wear his trademark dreadlocks (''see the ''religion section'' for more on Marley's religious views''). After a conflict with Dodd, Marley and his band teamed up with Lee "Scratch" Perry and his studio band, The Upsetters. Although the alliance lasted less than a year, they recorded what many consider The Wailers' finest work. Marley and Perry split after a dispute regarding the assignment of recording rights, but they would remain friends and work together again.

Between 1968 and 1972, Bob and Rita Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer re-cut some old tracks with JAD Records in Kingston and London in an attempt to commercialise The Wailers' sound. Bunny later asserted that these songs "should never be released on an album ... they were just demos for record companies to listen to". Also in 1968, Bob and Rita visited the Bronx to see Johnny Nash's songwriter Jimmy Norman. A three-day jam session with Norman and others, including Norman's co-writer Al Pyfrom, resulted in a 24-minute tape of Marley performing several of his own and Norman-Pyfrom's compositions. This tape is, according to Reggae archivist Roger Steffens, rare in that it was influenced by pop rather than reggae, as part of an effort to break Marley into the American charts. According to an article in ''The New York Times'', Marley experimented on the tape with different sounds, adopting a doo-wop style on "Stay With Me" and "the slow love song style of 1960's artists" on "Splish for My Splash". An artist yet to establish himself outside his native Jamaica, Marley lived in Ridgmount Gardens, Bloomsbury, London during 1972.

In 1972, the Wailers entered into an ill-fated deal with CBS Records and embarked on a tour with American soul singer Johnny Nash. Broke, the Wailers became stranded in London. Marley turned up at Island Records founder and producer Chris Blackwell's London office, and asked him to advance the cost of a new single. Since Jimmy Cliff, Island's top reggae star, had recently left the label, Blackwell was primed for a replacement. In Marley, Blackwell recognized the elements needed to snare the rock audience: "I was dealing with rock music, which was really rebel music. I felt that would really be the way to break Jamaican music. But you needed someone who could be that image. When Bob walked in he really was that image." Blackwell told Marley he wanted The Wailers to record a complete album (essentially unheard of at the time). When Marley told him it would take between £3,000 and £4,000, Blackwell trusted him with the greater sum. Despite their "rude boy" reputation, the Wailers returned to Kingston and honored the deal, delivering the album ''Catch A Fire''.

Primarily recorded on eight-track at Harry J's in Kingston, ''Catch A Fire'' marked the first time a reggae band had access to a state-of-the-art studio and were accorded the same care as their rock'n'roll peers. Blackwell desired to create "more of a drifting, hypnotic-type feel than a reggae rhythm", and restructured Marley's mixes and arrangements. Marley travelled to London to supervise Blackwell's overdubbing of the album, which included tempering the mix from the bass-heavy sound of Jamaican music, and omitting two tracks.

The Wailers' first major label album, ''Catch a Fire'' was released worldwide in April 1973, packaged like a rock record with a unique Zippo lighter lift-top. Initially selling 14,000 units, it didn't make Marley a star, but received a positive critical reception. It was followed later that year by ''Burnin''', which included the standout songs "Get Up, Stand Up", and "I Shot the Sheriff", which appealed to the ear of Eric Clapton. He recorded a cover of the track in 1974 which became a huge American hit, raising Marley's international profile. Many Jamaicans were not keen on the new "improved" reggae sound on ''Catch A Fire'', but the Trenchtown style of ''Burnin''' found fans across both reggae and rock audiences.

During this period, Blackwell gifted his Kingston residence and company headquarters at 56 Hope Road (then known as Island House) to Marley. Housing Tuff Gong Studios, the property became not only Marley's office, but also his home.

The Wailers were scheduled to open 17 shows for the number one black act in the States, Sly and the Family Stone. After 4 shows, the band was fired because they were more popular than the acts they were opening for. The Wailers broke up in 1974 with each of the three main members pursuing solo careers. The reason for the breakup is shrouded in conjecture; some believe that there were disagreements amongst Bunny, Peter, and Bob concerning performances, while others claim that Bunny and Peter simply preferred solo work.

1974–1981

Despite the break-up, Marley continued recording as "Bob Marley & The Wailers". His new backing band included brothers Carlton and Aston "Family Man" Barrett on drums and bass respectively, Junior Marvin and Al Anderson on lead guitar, Tyrone Downie and Earl "Wya" Lindo on keyboards, and Alvin "Seeco" Patterson on percussion. The "I Threes", consisting of Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, and Marley's wife, Rita, provided backing vocals. In 1975, Marley had his international breakthrough with his first hit outside Jamaica, "No Woman, No Cry", from the ''Natty Dread'' album. This was followed by his breakthrough album in the United States, ''Rastaman Vibration'' (1976), which spent four weeks on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. On 3 December 1976, two days before "Smile Jamaica", a free concert organised by the Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley in an attempt to ease tension between two warring political groups, Marley, his wife, and manager Don Taylor were wounded in an assault by unknown gunmen inside Marley's home. Taylor and Marley's wife sustained serious injuries, but later made full recoveries. Bob Marley received minor wounds in the chest and arm. The shooting was thought to have been politically motivated, as many felt the concert was really a support rally for Manley. Nonetheless, the concert proceeded, and an injured Marley performed as scheduled, two days after the attempt. When asked why, Marley responded, "The people who are trying to make this world worse aren’t taking a day off. How can I?" The members of the group Zap Pow, which had no radical religious or political beliefs, played as Bob Marley's backup band before a festival crowd of 80,000 while members of The Wailers were still missing or in hiding.

Marley left Jamaica at the end of 1976, and after a month-long "recovery and writing" sojourn at the site of Chris Blackwell's Compass Point Studios in Nassau, Bahamas, arrived in England, where he spent two years in self-imposed exile. Whilst there he recorded the albums ''Exodus'' and ''Kaya''. ''Exodus'' stayed on the British album charts for 56 consecutive weeks. It included four UK hit singles: "Exodus", "Waiting in Vain", "Jamming", and "One Love" (a rendition of Curtis Mayfield's hit, "People Get Ready"). During his time in London, he was arrested and received a conviction for possession of a small quantity of cannabis. In 1978, Marley returned to Jamaica and performed at another political concert, the One Love Peace Concert, again in an effort to calm warring parties. Near the end of the performance, by Marley's request, Michael Manley (leader of then-ruling People's National Party) and his political rival Edward Seaga (leader of the opposing Jamaica Labour Party), joined each other on stage and shook hands.

Under the name Bob Marley and the Wailers eleven albums were released, four live albums and seven studio albums. The releases included ''Babylon by Bus'', a double live album with thirteen tracks, were released in 1978 and received critical acclaim. This album, and specifically the final track "Jamming" with the audience in a frenzy, captured the intensity of Marley's live performances.

''Survival'', a defiant and politically charged album, was released in 1979. Tracks such as "Zimbabwe", "Africa Unite", "Wake Up and Live", and "Survival" reflected Marley's support for the struggles of Africans. His appearance at the Amandla Festival in Boston in July 1979 showed his strong opposition to South African apartheid, which he already had shown in his song "War" in 1976. In early 1980, he was invited to perform at the 17 April celebration of Zimbabwe's Independence Day. ''Uprising'' (1980) was Bob Marley's final studio album, and is one of his most religious productions; it includes "Redemption Song" and "Forever Loving Jah". ''Confrontation'', released posthumously in 1983, contained unreleased material recorded during Marley's lifetime, including the hit "Buffalo Soldier" and new mixes of singles previously only available in Jamaica.

Personal life

Religion

Bob Marley was a member of the Rastafari movement, whose culture was a key element in the development of reggae. Bob Marley became an ardent proponent of Rastafari, taking their music out of the socially deprived areas of Jamaica and onto the international music scene. He once gave the following response, which was typical, to a question put to him during a recorded interview:

Interviewer: "Can you tell the people what it means being a Rastafarian?"

Bob: "I would say to the people, Be still, and know that His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the Almighty. Now, the Bible seh so, Babylon newspaper seh so, and I and I the children seh so. Yunno? So I don't see how much more reveal our people want. Wha' dem want? a white God, well God come black. True true." Observant of the Rastafari practice Ital, a diet that shuns meat, Marley was a vegetarian. According to his biographers, he affiliated with the Twelve Tribes Mansion. He was in the denomination known as "Tribe of Joseph", because he was born in February (each of the twelve sects being composed of members born in a different month). He signified this in his album liner notes, quoting the portion from ''Genesis'' that includes Jacob's blessing to his son Joseph. Marley was baptised by the Archbishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Kingston, Jamaica, on 4 November 1980.

Family

Bob Marley had a number of children: three with his wife Rita, two adopted from Rita's previous relationships, and several others with different women. The Bob Marley official website acknowledges eleven children.

Those listed on the official site are: # Sharon, born 23 November 1964, to Rita in previous relationship # Cedella born 23 August 1967, to Rita # David "Ziggy", born 17 October 1968, to Rita # Stephen, born 20 April 1972, to Rita # Robert "Robbie", born 16 May 1972, to Pat Williams # Rohan, born 19 May 1972, to Janet Hunt # Karen, born 1973 to Janet Bowen # Stephanie, born 17 August 1974; according to Cedella Booker she was the daughter of Rita and a man called Ital with whom Rita had an affair; nonetheless she was acknowledged as Bob's daughter # Julian, born 4 June 1975, to Lucy Pounder # Ky-Mani, born 26 February 1976, to Anita Belnavis # Damian, born 21 July 1978, to Cindy Breakspeare

Makeda was born on 30 May 1981, to Yvette Crichton, after Marley's death. Meredith Dixon's book lists her as Marley's child, but she is not listed as such on the Bob Marley official website.

Various websites, for example, also list Imani Carole, born 22 May 1963 to Cheryl Murray; but she does not appear on the official Bob Marley website.

Final years and death

In July 1977, Marley was found to have a type of malignant melanoma under the nail of one of his toes. Contrary to urban legend, this lesion was not primarily caused by an injury during a football match in that year, but was instead a symptom of the already existing cancer. Marley turned down doctors' advice to have his toe amputated, citing his religious beliefs. Despite his illness, he continued touring and was in the process of scheduling a world tour in 1980. The intention was for Inner Circle to be his opening act on the tour but after their lead singer Jacob Miller died in Jamaica in March 1980 after returning from a scouting mission in Brazil this was no longer mentioned.

The album ''Uprising'' was released in May 1980 (produced by Chris Blackwell), on which "Redemption Song" is particularly considered to be about Marley coming to terms with his mortality. The band completed a major tour of Europe, where they played their biggest concert, to a hundred thousand people in Milan. After the tour Marley went to America, where he performed two shows at Madison Square Garden as part of the Uprising Tour.

The final concert of Bob Marley's career was held September 23, 1980 at the Stanley Theater (now called The Benedum Center For The Performing Arts) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The audio recording of that concert is now available on CD, vinyl, and digital music services.

Shortly after, Marley's health deteriorated and he became very ill; the cancer had spread throughout his body. The rest of the tour was cancelled and Marley sought treatment at the Bavarian clinic of Josef Issels, where he received a controversial type of cancer therapy (Issels treatment) partly based on avoidance of certain foods, drinks, and other substances. After fighting the cancer without success for eight months, Marley boarded a plane for his home in Jamaica.

While flying home from Germany to Jamaica, Marley's vital functions worsened. After landing in Miami, Florida, he was taken to the hospital for immediate medical attention. He died at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami (now University of Miami Hospital) on the morning of May 11, 1981, at the age of 36. The spread of melanoma to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son Ziggy were "Money can't buy life". Marley received a state funeral in Jamaica on 21 May 1981, which combined elements of Ethiopian Orthodoxy and Rastafari tradition. He was buried in a chapel near his birthplace with his red Gibson Les Paul (some accounts say it was a Fender Stratocaster).

On 21 May 1981, Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga delivered the final funeral eulogy to Marley, declaring:

Legacy

In 1999 ''Time'' magazine chose Bob Marley & The Wailers' ''Exodus'' as the greatest album of the 20th century. In 2001, he was posthumously awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and a feature-length documentary about his life, ''Rebel Music'', won various awards at the Grammys. With contributions from Rita, The Wailers, and Marley's lovers and children, it also tells much of the story in his own words. A statue was inaugurated, next to the national stadium on Arthur Wint Drive in Kingston to commemorate him. In 2006, the State of New York renamed a portion of Church Avenue from Remsen Avenue to East 98th Street in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn "Bob Marley Boulevard". In 2008, a statue of Marley was inaugurated in Banatski Sokolac, Serbia.

Internationally, Marley’s message also continues to reverberate amongst various indigenous communities. For instance, the Aboriginal people of Australia continue to burn a sacred flame to honor his memory in Sydney’s Victoria Park, while members of the Native American Hopi and Havasupai tribe revere his work. There are also many tributes to Bob Marley throughout India, including restaurants, hotels, and cultural festivals.

Marley has also evolved into a global symbol, which has been endlessly merchandised through a variety of mediums. In light of this, author Dave Thompson in his book ''Reggae and Caribbean Music'', laments what he perceives to be the commercialized pacification of Marley's more militant edge, stating:

Film adaptation(s)

In February 2008, director Martin Scorsese announced his intention to produce a documentary movie on Marley. The film was set to be released on 6 February 2010, on what would have been Marley's 65th birthday. Recently, however, Scorsese dropped out due to scheduling problems. He is being replaced by Jonathan Demme.

In March 2008, The Weinstein Company announced its plans to produce a biopic of Bob Marley, based on the book ''No Woman No Cry: My Life With Bob Marley'' by Rita Marley. Rudy Langlais will produce the script by Lizzie Borden and Rita Marley will be executive producer.

Discography

''The Wailing Wailers'' (1965)

''The Best of The Wailers'' (1970)

''Soul Rebels'' (1970)

''Soul Revolution'' (1971)

''Catch a Fire'' (1973)

''Burnin''' (1973)

''Natty Dread'' (1974)

''Rastaman Vibration'' (1976)

''Exodus'' (1977)

''Kaya'' (1978)

''Survival'' (1979)

''Uprising'' (1980)

''Confrontation'' (1983)

Awards and honors

1976: Band of the Year (''Rolling Stone'').

June 1978: Awarded the Peace Medal of the Third World from the United Nations.

February 1981: Awarded Jamaica's third highest honour, the Jamaican Order of Merit.

March 1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1999: Album of the Century for ''Exodus'' by ''Time Magazine''.

February 2001: A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

February 2001: Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

2004: ''Rolling Stone'' ranked him No.11 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

"One Love" named song of the millennium by BBC.

Voted as one of the greatest lyricists of all time by a BBC poll. 2006: A blue plaque was unveiled at his first UK residence in Ridgmount Gardens, London, dedicated to him by Nubian Jak community trust and supported by Her Majesty's Foreign Office. 2010: "Catch a Fire" inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (Reggae Album).

References

Further reading

Farley, Christopher (2007). ''Before the Legend: The Rise of Bob Marley'', Amistad Press ISBN 0060539925

Goldman, Vivien (2006). ''The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century'', Aurum Press ISBN 1845132106

Marley, Rita; Jones, Hettie (2004) ''No Woman No Cry: My Life with Bob Marley'' Hyperion Books ISBN 0786887559

Masouri, John (2007) ''Wailing Blues: The Story of Bob Marley's "Wailers"'' Wise Publications ISBN 1846096898

External links

The Bob Marley Foundation

Online Home of the Marleys

Bob Marley at ''Rolling Stone''

Marley Elected one of the Greatest Songwriters BBC News, 23 May 2001

Showcase: Bob Marley by James Estrin, ''The New York Times'', 18 May 2009

Interview with Heather Marley in Bob Marley Magazine

Extensive discography

Category:1945 births Category:1981 deaths Category:Anti-apartheid activists Category:Attempted assassination survivors Category:Cancer deaths in Florida Category:Cannabis culture Category:Converts to Christianity Category:Converts to the Rastafari movement Category:Deaths from skin cancer Category:English-language singers Category:Ethiopian Orthodox Christians Category:Former Roman Catholics Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Jamaican expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Jamaican expatriates in the United States Category:Jamaican male singers Category:Jamaican people of English descent Category:Jamaican Rastafarians Category:Jamaican reggae singers Category:Jamaican songwriters Category:Jamaican vegetarians B Category:Pan-Africanism Category:Performers of Rastafarian music Category:People from Saint Ann Parish Category:People from Wilmington, Delaware Category:Resonator guitarists Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Shooting survivors Category:The Wailers members

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