Niger River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4180 km (over 2500 miles). It runs in a crescent through Guinea, Mali, Niger, on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria, discharging through a massive delta, known as the Niger Delta of the Oil Rivers, into the Gulf of Guinea. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and the Congo River (also known as the Zaïre River). Its main tributary is the Benue River.
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[edit] Etymology
The origin of the name Niger is not certain. On early European maps it applied only to the middle reaches of the river, in modern Mali, while Quorra or Kworra was used for the lower reaches in modern Nigeria. The name Niger was extended to cover the entire river on maps once Europeans realized that these were one and the same.
A good possibility for a source is the Tuareg phrase gher n gheren "river of rivers", shortened to ngher, a local name used along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu.
It is often assumed, without evidence, that Niger derives from the Latin word for "black", niger, but it would have been more likely for the Portuguese explorers who first wrote this name on their maps to have used the Portuguese word, negro, as they did elsewhere in the world. In any case the Niger is not a blackwater river, which was the motivation for all other rivers that were called black. (See Rio Negro.) Some have rationalized that 'black' may have referred to the color of the people living on the river, but this did not happen to any other river in Africa. Therefore it would seem that the similarity between the name Niger and the Latin word niger is either coincidence, or that knowledge of Latin influenced the spelling of an indigenous name like ngher.
It is worth mentioning that the Tabula Peutingeriana records a Flumen Girin ("River Girin") with the remark Hoc flumen quidam Grin vocant, alii Nilum appellant dicint enim sub terra Etyopium in Nilum ire Lacum, "This river which some are naming Grin is called Nile by others and is thought to flow under the ground of Ethiopia [i.e. Africa] into the Nile Lake".
The nations of Nigeria and Niger are named after the river. The people who live along it have a variety of names for it, such as Jeliba or Joliba "great river" in Manding, Isa Ber "big river" in Songhay, and Oya, a Yoruba River Niger goddess.
[edit] Geography
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Information and a map of the Niger's watershed
- Map of the Niger River basin at Water Resources eAtlas
- Niger Currents: Exploring life and technology along the Niger River
[edit] International law and the River Niger
- Bibliography on Water Resources and International Law See Niger River. Peace Palace Libray
- Fabio Spadi, "The ICJ Judgment in the Benin-Niger Border Dispute: the interplay of titles and ‘effectivités’ under the uti possidetis juris principle", Leiden Journal of International Law(2005) 4, pp. 777-794.
[edit] Pictures
Pictures of the Niger River in Malibm:Jeliba be:Рака Нігер bg:Нигер (река) ca:Riu Níger cs:Niger (řeka) cy:Afon Niger da:Niger (flod) de:Niger (Fluss) et:Nigeri jõgi el:Νίγηρας ποταμός es:Río Níger eo:Niĝero (rivero) eu:Niger ibaia fa:رودخانه نیجر fr:Niger (fleuve) gl:Río Níxer id:Sungai Niger is:Nígerfljót it:Niger (fiume) he:ניז'ר (נהר) sw:Niger (mto) lt:Nigeris (upė) ln:Nizer (ebale) hu:Niger (folyó) nl:Niger (rivier) ja:ニジェール川 no:Niger (elv) nn:Elva Niger oc:Nigèr (fluvi) nds:Nigerstroom pl:Niger (rzeka) pt:Rio Níger ru:Нигер (река) simple:Niger River sk:Niger (rieka) sl:Niger (reka) sr:Нигер (река) sh:Rijeka Niger fi:Niger (joki) sv:Niger (flod) tr:Nijer Nehri uk:Нігер (річка) vec:Fiume Niger zh:尼日尔河
