Widodo, Joko
Joko Widodo (b. Mulyono, June 21, 1961, Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia), popularly known as Jokowi. An Indonesian politician and businessman who became the 7th President of Indonesia. A member of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan -- PDI-P), he was the country's first president to not have emerged from the country's political or military elite. He previously served as governor of Jakarta from 2012 to 2014 and mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012.
Widodo was born and raised in a riverside slum in Surakarta. He graduated from Gadjah Mada University in 1985, and married his wife, Iriana, a year later. He worked as a carpenter and a furniture exporter before being elected mayor of Surakarta in 2005. He achieved national prominence as mayor and was elected governor of Jakarta in 2012, with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama as his deputy.
As governor, Widodo reinvigorated local politics, introduced publicized blusukan visits (unannounced spot checks) and improved the city's bureaucracy, reducing corruption in the process. He also introduced years-late programs to improve quality of life, including universal healthcare, dredged the city's main river to reduce flooding, and inaugurated the construction of the city's subway system.
In 2014, Widodo was nominated as the PDI-P's candidate in that year's presidential election, choosing Jusuf Kalla as his running mate. Widodo was elected over his opponent Prabowo Subianto, who disputed the outcome of the election. Widodo was inaugurated on October 20, 2014. Since taking office, Widodo has focused on economic growth and infrastructure development as well as an ambitious health and education agenda. On foreign policy, his administration has emphasized protecting Indonesia's sovereignty, with the sinking of illegal foreign fishing vessels and the prioritizing and scheduling of capital punishment for drug smugglers. The latter was despite intense representations and diplomatic protests from foreign powers, including Australia and France. He was re-elected in 2019 for a second five-year term, again defeating Prabowo Subianto.
Wilopo
Wilopo (b. August 21, 1909, Purworejo, Kedu Residency, Dutch East Indies – d. June 1, 1981, Jakarta, Indonesia) was an Indonesian politician and lawyer. A capable administrator, he served as prime minister of Indonesia from 1952 to 1953. He also held various other positions during his career, including as Minister of Labor, Minister of Economic Affairs, speaker of the Constitutional Assembly, and chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council.
Born into a Muslim family in Purworejo, Wilopo attended the Rechts Hogeschool in Batavia (now Jakarta), during which time he became involved in educational and nationalist groups. After graduating, he worked as a lawyer and was active in the Indonesian nationalist movement, becoming involved in the Partindo and Gerindo political parties. During the Japanese occupation period (1942–1945), Wilopo became an official in the occupation government and was a figure in both the Putera and Suishintai organizations. Following the proclamation of Indonesian Independence in 1945, Wilopo joined the newly formed Republican government, first as an aide to Jakarta Mayor Suwiryo, then as a member of the Central Indonesian National Committee. During the Indonesian National Revolution (1945–1949), he joined the Indonesian National Party ( Partai Nasional Indonesia -- PNI) and became Junior Minister of Labor in 1947.
Following the recognition of sovereignty in the Dutch Indonesian Round Table Conference, in which he took part, Wilopo was appointed Minister of Labor by Prime Minister Mohammad Hatta in 1949. He also emerged as a leader in the Indonesian National Party (PNI) and became Minister of Economic Affairs in the Soekiman Cabinet. In 1952, following a foreign policy debacle, the Soekiman Cabinet fell and Wilopo was appointed formateur of a new cabinet by President Sukarno. He opted to form a new cabinet consisting of pro-Western technocrats with unity, a common policy orientation, and the support of the PNI and Masyumi Party, even though both parties were unenthusiastic partners.
As prime minister, Wilopo presided over a realignment of political forces as the PNI grew increasingly wary of the Masyumi, the Nahdlatul Ulama split off from the Masyumi, and the Communist Party (Partai Komunis Indonesia -- PKI) re-entered the political scene. His premiership was also marked by a succession of crises, including an economic crisis and a show of force by the Indonesian Army, who opposed his cabinet's demobilization scheme, culminating in the downfall of his cabinet over a land dispute in North Sumatra. Afterwards, Wilopo continued to serve in public office, serving as speaker of the Constitutional Assembly (1956–1959) and chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council (1968–1978).
Wilopo died in Jakarta in 1981.
Wolof
Wolof (Ouolof). Ethnic group and language of Senegal that became the principal national language of Senegal. The Wolof inhabit Senegambia in West Africa, from the river Senegal in the north to the river Gambia in the south. They form thirty-six percent of the population of Senegal and fifteen percent of the population of Gambia. The region is ethnically mixed and also includes Mandinka (Soose), Fulani (Fulbe) and Serer. The Wolof are the dominant element in the former states of Waalo (Oualo), Kahoor (Kayor), Jolof, Baol, Sin (Sine) and Saalum (Saloum) and were already occupying this portion of West Africa when the first Portuguese voyagers reached the coast in the middle of the fifteenth century.
Practically all Wolof are Muslim, with a small number of Christian Wolof found mainly in the coastal cities (Dakar, Goree, Banjul). Islam came to northern Senegal about the eleventh century, and the early Portuguese travellers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries mention that most Wolof rulers, even though they generally followed traditional ways, had religious teachers at their courts. One of the functions of such men was to provide supernatural protection against evil forces -- malicious spirits, witchcraft and the evil eye. However, Islam was slow in reaching the mass of the people, and Muslim converts often had to form separate communities of their own. It was not until the religious wars of the nineteenth century, particularly as a result of the jihad of El Hadj Omar, who was followed by such warriors as Ma Ba in southern Senegal, that widespread conversion took place. Muslim religious leaders were then engaged in a struggle both with traditional rulers, who were opposed to this new threat to their power, as well as with the French. Ironically, though the French were opposed to the expansion of Islam, the period of peace and improved communications that followed the success of the French conquest enabled religious teachers to move more freely, and Islam spread rapidly and widely. A Wolof usually belongs to one the three main brotherhoods: Tijani (brought by El Hadj Omar), to which about sixty percent of the Wolof owe allegiance; Mouridism, which includes thirty percent of the Wolof (a group founded by Ahmadou Bamba at Touba, where there is now one of the largest mosques in sub-Saharan Africa and which has become the center of an important annual pilgrimage); and Qadiri, to which about ten percent belong.
The Wolof are a Muslim people of Senegal and The Gambia who speak the Wolof language of the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
The typical rural community is small (about 100 persons). Most Wolof are farmers, growing peanuts (groundnuts) as a cash crop and millet and sorghum as staples. Many, however, live and work in Dakar and Banjul as traders, goldsmiths, tailors, carpenters, teachers, and civil servants. Traditional groups were characterized by a markedly hierarchical social stratification, including royalty, an aristocracy, a warrior class, commoners, slaves, and members of low-status artisan castes. At their head was a paramount chief.
In the past, the Wolof observed double descent; i.e., descent was traced through both the male and female lines. Islamic influence, however, has tended to make the male line dominant. A household unit may consist of a nuclear family (husband, wife, and minor children) or a polygynous family (a husband, his several wives, and their children). Other close kin, however, may sometimes be found together with the nuclear family. Wolof women are renowned for their elaborate hairstyles, abundant gold ornaments, and voluminous dresses.
The origins of the Wolof people are obscure. Archeological artifacts have been discovered in Senegal and the Gambia, such as pre-historic pottery, the 8th-century stones, and 14th-century burial mounds, but these provide no evidence that links them exclusively to the Wolof ethnic group. Their name as the Wolof first appears in the records of 15th-century Portuguese travelers.
With the Arab conquests of West Africa in last centuries of the 1st millennium CC, one theory states that the Wolof people were forced to move into north and east Senegal where over time villages and towns developed into autonomous states such as Baol, Kayor, Saloum, Dimar, Walo, and Sine the overall ruling state being that of Jolof who came together voluntarily to form the Jolof Empire. This migration likely occurred at the end of the11th century CC when the Ghana Empire fell to the Muslim armies from Sudan.
Another oral tradition tells of a legend in Walo, which starts with two villages near a lake in a dispute. A mysterious person arose from the lake to settle the dispute. The villagers detained him; he settled among them and became the one who settled disputes with sovereign authority. He was called Ndyadyane Ndyaye, and his descendants were called Ndiayes or Njie, and these led to ruling families of Wolof. The documented history, from 15th-century onwards, is a complex story of the rivalry between powerful families, wars, coups and conquests in Wolof society.
The Jolof or Wolof Empire was a medieval West African state that ruled parts of Senegal and the Gambia from approximately 1350 to 1890. While only ever consolidated into a single state structure for part of this time, the tradition of governance, caste, and culture of the Wolof dominate the history of north-central Senegal for much of the last 800 years. Its final demise at the hands of French colonial forces in the 1870s–1890s also marks the beginning of the formation of Senegal as a unified state.
By the end of the 15th century, the Wolof states of Jolof, Kayor, Baol, and Walo had become united in a federation with Jolof as the metropolitan power. The position of king was held by the Burba Wolof, and the rulers of the other component states owed loyalty and tribute payments to him. Before the Wolof people became involved in goods and slave trading with the Portuguese merchants on the coast, they had a long tradition of established trading of goods and slaves with the Western Sudanese empires and with Imamate of Futa Toro and other ethnic groups in North Africa.
Slavery had been a part of the Wolof culture since their earliest recorded history. Prior to the arrival of Europeans to regions inhabited by the Wolof, slaves there were either born into slavery or enslaved via purchase or capture in warfare. Beginning in the 16th century, Portuguese slave traders started to purchase slaves from Senegambian ports to transport to their American colonies; these slaves frequently passed through Wolof lands before arriving at the coast. As the European demand for slaves increased during the 17th and 18th centuries, the era saw a corresponding increase in Wolof slave raids with the purpose of acquiring captives to transport to the coast.
The transatlantic slave trade also led to the Wolof acquiring European firearms, which were commonly bartered for slaves at the West African coast. With these firearms, the intensity and violence of Wolof slave raids (and conflicts with other ethnic groups in general) increased. However, these slave raids eventually began to subside as European and American governments progressively outlawed their nations' involvement in the slave trade. During the New Imperialism era, the Scramble for Africa saw the majority of African territory, including lands inhabited by the Wolof, fall under European colonial rule. These new colonial regimes moved to outlaw slavery, and by the 1890's the French authorities in West Africa had largely abolished the institution. However, the social distinctions between free-born Wolof and slaves remained present during the period of colonial rule, continuing even after the decolonization of Africa in the mid-20th century, which saw the Wolof become independent from European colonial rule.
Women in Islam
Women in Islam. The revelation of Muhammad that gave rise to Islam called for a massive restructuring of the social order. In Islam’s early years this effectively improved the status of women, placing new restraints on divorce and polygamy and requiring husbands to support their wives, as well as bringing women the right to inherit and retain control of their dowries. The Qur’an still taught, nonetheless, that “men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other.” {See Sura 4:34.}
To temper the dangers of sexual attraction and also to protect women followers of the faith from insult, the Qur’an called for modesty in the form of covering one’s inner dress and ornaments in public. In time, however, and under pressure of local custom, such teachings were cited to justify demands that women be veiled from head to foot in public. In some regions, and especially among the upper social classes, women were totally secluded in the home.
Muslim popular culture also preserved strict menstrual taboos; among other prohibitions, these excluded from the mosques both menstruating women and those who had recently given birth. Menstrual taboos also closed to women some religious offices, such as that of imam, or prayer leader.
As in Christianity, and in many other new religions that challenge repressive establishments, women such as Khadija and ‘A’isha were very prominent in the early Muslim community. In later centuries, some women became prominent scholars.
Women such as the mystic poetess Rabia were important to the Sufi orders. Indeed, a number of Sufi orders even had women’s branches and convents from very early times. Even though largely restricted to the home, many women of traditional Muslim countries have elaborated their own religious networks and practices, transmitting religious instruction and holding gatherings in their homes.
The study of women in Islam investigates the role status of women within the religion of Islam. The complex relationship between women and Islam is defined by both Islamic texts and the history and culture of the Muslim world.
Sharia (Islamic law) provides for differences between women's and men's roles, rights, and obligations. Majority Muslim countries give women varying degrees of rights without regards to marriage, divorce, civil rights, legal status, dress code, and education based on different interpretations. Scholars and other commentators vary as to whether they are just and whether they are a correct interpretation of religious imperatives. Conservatives argue that differences between men and women are due to different status while liberal Muslims, Muslim feminists, and others argue in favor of other interpretations. Despite the obstacles, some women have achieved high political office in Muslim majority states.
