Roland Oliver (born 1923) is Emeritus Professor of African history at the University of London. Throughout a long career he was an eminent researcher, writer, teacher, administrator and organiser, who had a profound effect on the development of African Studies in the United Kingdom.
Biography [link]
Following his undergraduate and doctoral studies at the University of Cambridge between 1941 and 1948, Roland Oliver joined the staff of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, where he was successively Lecturer, Reader and Professor until his retirement in 1986. His appointment as a Lecturer in African history marked the beginnings of the contemporary academic field of African history. The African History Seminar that he founded and chaired at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) became the most important venue for the advancement of the academic discipline of African history anywhere in the world, and has profoundly influenced all subsequent scholarship on the subject.
He travelled extensively throughout Africa in 1949-50 and 1957-58 and has visited the continent almost every year since then. In 1953, 1957 and 1961 he organised international conferences on African history and archaeology, which did much to establish the subject as an academic discipline.
He was a founding editor, with John Fage, in 1960 of the Journal of African History and, again with John Fage, in 1960 of the Cambridge History of Africa which appeared in eight volumes between 1975 and 1986.
In 1963, he carried out a survey of 250 working Africanist academics in the United Kingdom and founded the African Studies Association itself.
Oliver has been Visiting Professor at the University of Brussels (1961), Northwestern University (1962), and Harvard University (1967). From 1979 to 1993 he was president of the British Institute in Eastern Africa.
The Cambridge History of Africa, and his influential Oxford History of East Africa, were produced in a decade between the late 1970s and late 1980s. These histories recognised and celebrated the long, rich history of Africa, which for the first half of the 20th Century was previously thought by historians to have only a history "created" by white travellers, administrators and settlers.
In 1989, Oliver was awarded the Distinguished Africanist Award of the African Studies Association of the UK and in 1993 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
Books [link]
- The Missionary Factor in East Africa, 1952.
- Sir Harry Johnston and the Scramble for Africa, 1957.
- A Short History of Africa (with John Fage), 1962, 6th edition 1988.
- Africa since 1800 (with Anthony Atmore) 1967.
- Africa in the Iron Age (with Brian Fagan) 1975.
- The African Middle Ages (with Anthony Atmore) 1981.
- The African Experience: From Olduvai Gorge to the 21st Century, 1991, Revised 1999.
- In the Realms of Gold: Pioneering in African History, 1997.
External links [link]
https://wn.com/Roland_Oliver
Roland
Roland (Frankish: Hruodland) (died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the Matter of France. The historical Roland was military governor of the Breton March, responsible for defending Francia's frontier against the Bretons. His only historical attestation is in Einhard's Vita Karoli Magni, which notes he was part of the Frankish rearguard killed by rebellious Basques in Iberia at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass.
The story of Roland's death at Roncevaux Pass was embellished in later medieval and Renaissance literature. He became the chief paladin of the emperor Charlemagne and a central figure in the legendary material surrounding him, collectively known as the Matter of France. The first and most famous of these epic treatments was the Old French Chanson de Roland of the eleventh century.
Two masterpieces of Italian Renaissance poetry, the Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso, are even further detached from history than the earlier Chansons. Roland is poetically associated with his sword Durendal, his horse Veillantif, and his oliphant horn.
Borderlands (video game)
Borderlands is an action role-playing first-person shooter video game that was developed by Gearbox Software for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is the first game in the Borderlands series. The game was released worldwide in October 2009, with the Mac OS X version of being released on December 3, 2010 by Feral Interactive.
A sequel, Borderlands 2, was released worldwide in September 2012.
Gameplay
Borderlands includes character-building elements found in role-playing games, leading Gearbox to call the game a "role-playing shooter". At the start of the game, players select one of four characters, each with a unique special skill and with proficiencies with certain weapons. The four characters are: Roland the Soldier, Mordecai the Hunter, Lilith the Siren, and Brick the Berserker. From then on, players take on missions assigned through non-player characters or from bounty boards, each typically rewarding the player with experience points, money, and sometimes a reward item. Players earn experience by killing both human and non-human foes and completing in-game challenges (such as getting a certain number of kills using a specific type of weapon). As they gain levels from experience growth, players can then allocate skill points into a skill tree that features three distinct specializations of the base character; for example, Mordecai can become specialized in sniping, gunslinging with revolvers, or using his pet Bloodwing to assist in kills and health boosting. Players can distribute points among any of the specializations, and can also spend a small amount of in-game money to redistribute their skill points.
Roland (train)
The Roland was an express train that ran in Germany. For part of its existence, it was also an international train. Introduced in 1939, suspended during World War II, and reintroduced in 1952, it was operated in Germany by the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft (DRG), the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Bahn (DB), respectively.
When running internationally, the train was also operated by the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS); between 1969 and 1979 its operators included the Italian State Railways (FS).
The train was named after the statue of Roland that was erected in the market square (Rathausplatz) of Bremen, Germany, in 1404 and has since become a symbol of that city. The Roland depicted in the statue was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne.
Over the years, the termini, route, classification and formation (consist) of the Roland varied significantly. However, in view of the train's name the route always included Bremen Hbf, in Bremen. When introduced in 1939, the Roland was a Fernschnellzug (FD). After its post-war revival in 1952, it ran as a Schnellzug (D). After about 1956, it was a first-class-only F-Zug.
