40 Fun Facts About Niger River

The Niger River rises only 240 km from the Atlantic, then flows away from the sea toward which desert?

The Sahara is where the river heads first; it turns back toward the ocean only after a sharp right-hand bend deep in Mali.

The Great Mosque of Djenné, in the Niger River's inland delta, is the world's largest building made of what?

Mud brick, or adobe, needs constant care, so the whole community of Djenné re-plasters the mosque by hand at a yearly festival.

Which fabled desert-edge trading city stands about 15 km north of the Niger River's main channel?

Timbuktu was once linked to its river port, Kabara, by a canal that silted up and was dug out again in 2007.

Geologists say the Niger River's odd course, heading inland before doubling back to the sea, arose in which way?

Two ancient rivers joined up when the lower one eroded upstream and captured the upper one, which had drained into a now-dry lake.

Camel caravans hauled which mineral across the desert to Niger River ports, where it was exchanged for gold?

Salt came in slabs from desert mines such as Taoudenni, and camel caravans were still hauling them south well into the 1900s.

Which staple grain was domesticated in West Africa's Niger River region, separately from its Asian relative?

Rice of the African species was first grown in West Africa around 3,000 years ago and is one of only two domesticated species of the grain.

From Roman times until the 1800s, geographers wrongly believed the Niger River flowed into which other river?

The Nile seemed the obvious match because both rivers flood every summer, and the myth survived even eyewitness visits to the Niger.

A UNESCO-listed national park in West Africa is named after a Niger River meander shaped like which letter?

W National Park wraps around a double bend in the river and has been a World Heritage Site since 1996.

Which resource, first found in commercial quantities at Oloibiri in 1956, is extracted across the Niger Delta?

Petroleum from the Oloibiri field, discovered by Shell Darcy, made up Nigeria's first export cargo in February 1958.

Which ruler of the Mali Empire on the upper Niger River took a vast supply of gold on hajj in 1324?

Mansa Musa befriended officials in Cairo on the way, and what they told Arab historians is much of what is known about him today.

The Niger River begins in the highlands of which West African country, close to its border with Sierra Leone?

Guinea holds the source, and from there the river runs about 4,180 km, making it the third-longest in Africa.

Which capital of Mali lies on the Niger River beside the rapids dividing its upper and middle valleys?

Bamako spreads across the river's floodplain, which hampers development along the waterfront and along the tributaries that cross the city.

Which capital of the Republic of Niger takes its entire municipal water supply from the Niger River?

Niamey lies mostly on the river's left bank and hosts the headquarters of the nine-nation Niger Basin Authority.

Which Scottish explorer became the first European known to reach the middle Niger River, in July 1796?

Mungo Park got there after escaping four months of captivity with nothing but his horse and a pocket compass.

The Bozo people of Mali, nicknamed the masters of the Niger River, are famous for which livelihood?

Fishing so defines the Bozo that their totem is a bull whose horns stand for their pirogues and whose body is the river itself.

Which large aquatic mammal lives in the Niger River as far inland as the delta lakes of central Mali?

The African manatee travels far up West Africa's rivers, and some have died in the turbines of hydroelectric dams on the Niger.

The Niger River's unusual route, which baffled geographers for two centuries, is often likened to which shape?

A boomerang fits because the river heads north-east from its source, bends on the desert's edge and then swings south-east to the ocean.

The Niger River's inland delta lies in which semi-arid belt that runs along the southern fringe of the desert?

The Sahel is hot and dry for most of the year, yet the delta's flood draws hundreds of thousands of wintering ducks and waders.

Which starchy tuber, still a West African staple, was domesticated in the Niger River region?

Yam farming here long predates manioc, the cassava root that Portuguese traders brought to Africa from Brazil only in the 1500s.

Which West African empire of the 1400s and 1500s had its capital at Gao on the Niger River?

Songhai power ended in 1591 at the Battle of Tondibi, where an invading force with gunpowder weapons routed a far larger army.

A Scottish explorer who drowned on the Niger River in 1806 was trying to prove it joined which other river?

The Congo theory outlived him and became the general opinion in Europe until the Niger's real outlet was traced in 1830.

Which river, rising on the Adamawa Plateau of northern Cameroon, is the largest tributary of the Niger River?

The Benue was once known as the Chadda, and it is also the second-longest river in Nigeria.

Which hydroelectric dam on the Niger River in Nigeria, finished in 1968, drowned the old town of Bussa?

Kainji holds back a lake about 135 km long, and a quarter of the project's cost went on resettling the people it displaced.

Which Moroccan traveller of the 1300s journeyed down the Niger River to Gao in a canoe carved from one tree?

Ibn Battuta had already followed the river south-west to the capital of the Mali Empire before making the canoe trip downstream.

European traders of the 1800s named the Niger Delta's waterways after which product they shipped out in bulk?

Palm oil earned the delta the name Oil Rivers, and Britain declared an Oil Rivers Protectorate there in 1885.

Which Nigerian writer was hanged in 1995 after leading Ogoni protests over pollution in the Niger Delta?

Ken Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign, and his execution got Nigeria suspended from the Commonwealth for more than three years.

Port Harcourt in the Niger Delta was named in 1913 after a politician holding which British office?

Colonial Secretary Lewis Harcourt gave his name to the port, which had been built in 1912 and went a year without a name.

What happens to nearly two-thirds of the Niger River's potential flow as it crosses the inland delta in Mali?

Lost to evaporation and seepage, about 31 cubic km of water vanishes in an average year, more than the tributary joining there adds.

The name Nigeria, drawn from the Niger River, was coined in 1897 by Flora Shaw, who worked as what?

Journalist Flora Shaw was colonial editor of The Times, and in 1902 she married Frederick Lugard, who went on to govern the country.

Which naturalist from Captain Cook's first voyage led the African Association, formed to trace the Niger River?

Joseph Banks and a dozen titled Londoners founded the club, which also hoped to locate a fabled inland city of gold.

At which city, once capital of British Northern Nigeria, does the Niger River meet its largest tributary?

Lokoja is now the capital of Kogi State, and the flag of the Royal Niger Company was lowered there in 1900.

The Niger River's name may derive from a phrase meaning river of rivers in which North African language family?

Berber survives in the Tuareg name for the river, Egerew n-Igerewen; the first writer known to call it the Niger was Leo Africanus in 1550.

The Royal Niger Company, which ran the lower Niger River until 1900, was later absorbed into which consumer giant?

Unilever took control of its successor, the United Africa Company, in the 1930s and folded it into the parent firm in 1987.

The Office du Niger irrigation scheme in Mali was built in the colonial era to grow which crop for textile mills?

Cotton was the plan, but the canals fed from the Markala dam now mostly water a food grain across nearly 100,000 hectares.

Which Malian river port, where the Bani joins the Niger, becomes a chain of islands when the floods arrive?

Mopti's islands are linked by raised causeways from August to December, and a 12 km causeway is then the only road out.

Which Yoruba goddess of winds and storms is the patroness of the Niger River and gives it its Yoruba name?

Oya is also said to command the spirits of the dead, and Yoruba speakers call the river Odo Oya.

Which English explorer, once Hugh Clapperton's servant, followed the lower Niger River to the sea in 1830?

Richard Lander made the journey with his brother John, ending a puzzle that had defeated European expeditions for decades.

Which Nigerian state, first called West Central State, was renamed after a Hausa name for the Niger River?

Kwara was created in 1967, when General Gowon's government broke Nigeria's four regions into twelve states.

Which Nigerian market city gained a bridge over the Niger River in 1965, replacing its old ferry crossing?

Onitsha is also known for its market literature and as a hub for financing and distributing Nollywood films.

Which North African country has a small area inside the Niger River basin but is not in the Niger Basin Authority?

Algeria is the odd one out: nine other basin countries belong to the authority, which works in both French and English.