Dwarf planets are objects with sufficient mass to assume a roughly spherical shape but yet too small to get picked for the starting lineup in the solar tee-ball match. There are currently four planets designated as dwarf planets. Before 2006 they were also known as minor planets, planetoids and (my favorite) subplanets.

  

Although there are currently only four designated dwarf planets, there are at least 41 known objects which may qualify when we get around to it. And when the Kuiper belt is fully-explored, there may turn out to be another 200. Beyond that there may be another 2000 subplanets in our solar system.
Ceres is named after the Roman goddess of cereals (a word which is itself derived from her name) and motherly love. She was both the sister and wife of Jupiter. Her worship was adopted by the Romans in 496 BCE, during a particularly severe famine. Her followers were mostly plebes who controlled the grain game in antiquity. For some reason, their rites included tying burning sticks to fox's tails.

The original name for the planetoid was Ceres Ferdinandea but that got shot down as not everyone was so keen on brown-nosing Spanish royalty. The dwarf planet is the smallest of the currently designated subplanets. It was actually discovered way back in 1801 by Giuseppie Piazzi who wrote, "since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet." Even further back, Johann Elert Bode, in 1768, had suggested that there may be a planet between Mars and Earth. And lo, Ceres is situated within the asteroid belt. It's actually the largest  object in the belt --making up a third of the belt's mass. Its surface is made up of water ice (more than the total amount of water found on Earth), carbonate and clay. The weather on Ceres isn't that bad, reaching -38 degrees Celsius, which is warmer than some Midwestern winters I've experienced.

During the Colonial era, cinematic images of Africa and its people were entirely the work of Western filmmakers. The Tarzan movies, African Queen, King Solomon's Mines and others were usually filmed on soundstages half a world away from Africa and made little to no effort toward authenticity, instead trading in exoticism aimed primarily at exploiting Western tastes.



Senegal gained its independence from France in 1960. Like most West African countries, Senegal is highly diverse. The Wolof, Peul, Halpulaaren, Serer, Lebou, Jola, Mandinka, Moors, Soninke and Bassari are all long established in the country. There are also substantial populations of French, Mauritanians, Lebanese and Vietnamese. Three years after independence, the first Senegalese film was made by Ousmane Sembene titled Borrom sarret, which would set the standards for a uniquely African cinematic language that would establish Senegal as the capital of African Cinema.



The Filmmakers:

  

Ousmane Sembène, as the first sub-Saharan director to make a film in Africa, is universally recognized as the "Father of African film." Son of a Wolof fisherman, he attended both Islamic and a French-run school until he was kicked out. After fighting in World War II, he illegally immigrated to France and became a member of several Communist groups. His creative career began as a writer. His first novel, Le Docker Noir (published in 1956), was based on his own encounters with racism as a dock worker in Marseille. In the novel, a black dock worker with literary aspirations writes a novel which is stolen by a white woman and published as her own. He confronts her, accidentally kills her, is tried and executed.  After a two more novels, Semebene, driven by his desire to affect social change, decided that he could reach larger audiences through film rather than critically-lauded, mostly unread novels. He adapted and developed cinematic techniques that would influence most West African filmmakers who followed (with the notable exception of the prolific, commercial Nollywood scene of Nigeria).

  
 

These chaps have the right idea! 

  



   

Some "Cut & Run" types think it's ok to celebrate such other July 4th holidays such as:

Filipino - American Friendship Day
Day of Agwe - Haiti
Birthday of Queen Sonja - Norway
Commemoration of Jewish Genocide - Latvia
Family Day - Lesotho
Fisherman's Day - Marshall Islands
Independence Day - Rwanda
King's Day - Tonga