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Who Discovered the Niger River?
How the story of a river in Nigeria tells the story of indigenous tribes around the world
Allow me to take you down to Nigeria for a minute, the economic and financial powerhouse in the heart of West Africa, teeming with life, activity, and dreams. In this part of West Africa, the third-longest river in Africa, the Niger River, flows into the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of Guinea. Being a long river, it is also pan-African; it traverses Guinea, Mali, and Niger, on the border with Benue, and then enters Nigeria where it meets with the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger River discharges into the Atlantic Ocean through a massive Delta called the Niger Delta. This is where I grew up.
As you can imagine, The Niger River has been around for a long time. A river this large is thousands of years old if not millions, therefore predating the existence of the modern Nigerian State. I can imagine your surprise to learn that I only just learned this recently.
As a kid growing up so close to The River Niger, my whole life was built around and affected by this River. It’s a source of food for the region but also provides livelihood. A lot of people I knew were employed in the oil industry, an industry that exists thanks to The Niger River and the Atlantic Ocean it flows into. The security situation in the…
