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136-721: Major ethnic groups include the Fula or Fulani ( Fula : Fulɓe ; French: Peul ), who are Islamic pastoralists , and numerous Muslim and animist speakers of Adamawa , Chadic , and Nilo-Saharan languages . French is the language of formal education, and Fulfulde , the language of the Fulbe, is widespread as a lingua franca . In 2008, the President of the Republic of Cameroon, President Paul Biya signed decrees abolishing "Provinces" and replacing them with "Regions". Hence, all of

272-637: A Berber language, in which "gher" means "watercourse", confusion could easily arise. Pliny connected these two rivers as one long watercourse which flowed (via lakes and underground sections) into the Nile, a notion which persisted in the Arab and European worlds – and further added the Senegal River as the "Ger" – until the 19th century. While the true course of the Niger was presumably known to locals, it

408-504: A host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek , the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as " nation , tribe, a unique people group"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or " barbarous " nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan"). In

544-535: A dearth of schools. The cultural hindrance comes from the traditional role of Fulbe women; girls marry as young as age ten or eleven, and schooling typically stops at this time. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that fewer than 300 schools exist in a province of almost 1,500 villages. This compels parents interested in educating their children to send them away for most of the year, often to large towns where they must fend for themselves or stay with relatives. However, when agriculture forms such an integral part of most of

680-435: A fairly common pattern. The house of the chief often forms the centre of a village, and houses are grouped around it with granaries nearby to help the villagers survive the dry season. Various fields of crops in turn surround homes. A common house type is a round building with a cone-shaped roof. However, houses of cement brick and roofed in sheet metal are quite common in larger settlements. Villages are often clustered along

816-421: A focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "...   categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in

952-494: A lingua franca. French is the language of formal instruction. Islam is the dominant religion in the north due to the cultural and political domination of the Fulbe. Those ethnic groups who resisted the Fulbe are collectively referred to by the pejorative term Kirdi ("pagans"), though they are not culturally homogenous and do not necessarily identify as a group. Non-Muslim groups include the Chamba and Fali. Some ethnic groups, such as

1088-503: A mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity   ... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization." This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity

1224-700: A modern airport. The Union Nationale pour la Démocratie et le Progrès (UNDP) is the most important political party in the area due to its large base of Fulbe supporters. The UNDP has not presented much of a front in several years, however, because the ruling party, the Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais RDPC, is careful to represent Fulbe interests. In traditional Fulbe culture, several lamidos rule over individual populations of Fulbe subjects. The government of Cameroon allows these individuals to exercise relatively wide-reaching powers, so they can make laws, judge disputes, and intern prisoners. As

1360-519: A preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior. The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing

1496-412: A process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure ); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" – characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups. Ethnicity theory argues that race

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1632-613: A roughly south–north axis: Chamba , Fanbe , Gimbe , Komandera , and Vere . The Doayo live east of the river, and the Ndupa , Dugun , another group of Chamba, and the Voko of Poli village neighbour them to the south. The Mond capital is at Rey Bouba , and the Mundang and Mambeya live on the Chadian border at the northeast of Bénoué division. Four Fali groups, with territories in

1768-495: A shadow of winter sets in. The North Province is a land of savanna . This begins with wooded savanna on the Adamawa Plateau with its thick grasses and isolated copses of trees. This territory was once more heavily forested, but repeated burning and livestock trampling has left this original vegetation only in the valleys. Moving north, the wooded savanna gradually gives way to Sudan savanna or parkland savanna in

1904-742: A shared cultural heritage , ancestry, origin myth , history , homeland , language , dialect , religion, mythology , folklore , ritual , cuisine , dressing style , art , or physical appearance . Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry. By way of assimilation , acculturation , amalgamation , language shift , intermarriage , adoption , and religious conversion , individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes , which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from

2040-519: A stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953). The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity

2176-795: Is 2,117,700 km (817,600 sq mi) in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through Mali , Niger , on the border with Benin and then through Nigeria , discharging through a massive delta , known as the Niger Delta , into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean . The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded by

2312-548: Is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a people of a common language , culture , common sets of ancestry , traditions , society, religion , history, or social treatment. The term ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation , particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism . Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by

2448-443: Is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture". This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism

2584-638: Is also a concern, though locals claim that the Lagdo Reservoir is free of the snails that carry the disease. The Fulbe observe traditional Islamic holidays such as Ramadan and the Feast of the Ram . In addition, most of the province's non-Muslim peoples maintain a lively traditional culture that includes a number of special ceremonies, dances, and holidays. One of these is the Cock Festival , in which

2720-423: Is called ethnogenesis , a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually exotic (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership,

2856-420: Is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention. Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste , but also

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2992-804: Is enlarged by the Mayo Rey, the Mayo Kebi (which flows into the area from Chad), the Mayo Louti (which flows down from the Mandara mountains) and other rivers. Its valley forms the main part of the Bénoué Depression . Several smaller tributaries also flow into the Bénoué. All of these waterways form part of the Niger basin . The Lagdo Reservoir is formed by a dam at Lagdo that traps waters from

3128-655: Is not a noun in Britain. In effect there are no "ethnics"; there are only "ethnic relations". In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference". Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by

3264-539: Is only viable during the wet season (July to October). Many of the North's ethnic groups farm on small plots for subsistence . The chief among these are the Mbum and Duru. Sorghum , millet (both fast- and slow-growing), and maize are the staple crop throughout most of the province, though manioc (cassava) is also important on the Adamawa Plateau, and rice is especially popular in cities. Other crops include yams along

3400-477: Is part of the larger African massive physiographic division. The Niger River basin, located in western Africa , covers 7.5% of the continent and spreads over ten countries. Niger River basin: areas and rainfall by country within the basin rainfall in the basin (mm) Hydrometric stations on the Niger River kilometer (rkm) (m) (km ) start Average, minimum and maximum discharge of

3536-442: Is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation. Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by

3672-490: Is southeast of Garoua on the Chad border. Cameroon created the park in 1968 to protect the black rhinoceros and Derby eland . Many experts today say that the rhinoceros is now extinct in the area today. Other animals in the park include buffalo, elephants, giraffes , leopards , lions, and hippopotami. Farthest south is Faro National Park ( Parc National du Faro ), which protects 3,300 square kilometres of terrain straddling

3808-431: Is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be

3944-463: The Caribbean and South Asia . Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were künstlich (artificial, i.e. a social construct ) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared Gemeinschaft (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This

4080-467: The East Sudanian savanna ecoregion . After centuries of human habitation and manipulation, very little of the North's indigenous wildlife survives. Of the countless species that once roamed the area, today only hippopotami , jackals , various monkeys such as baboons , and various species of reptile exist in human-inhabited areas. The region's full diversity of species is today only extant in

4216-498: The Kainji Dam , Shiroro Dam , Zungeru Dam , and Jebba Dam are used to generate hydropower. The water resources of the Niger River are under pressure because of increased water abstraction for irrigation. The construction of dams for hydropower generation is underway or envisaged in order to alleviate chronic power shortages in the countries of the Niger basin. The FAO estimates the irrigation potential of all countries in

North Region (Cameroon) - Misplaced Pages Continue

4352-551: The Mayo Oulo valley are composed of relatively young soils high in raw mineral content. The bottom of the Bénoué basin is alluvial soil. All rivers in the province experience a tropical regime , with a period of high water during the rainy season during which flooding may occur. The Bénoué, Mayo Oulo, Mayo Kébi , and Mayo Godi are particularly susceptible to this ( mayo is the Fulfulde word for river). In contrast, however,

4488-455: The New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations. In recent decades, feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to

4624-712: The Nile and the Congo River . Its main tributary is the Benue River . The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region: The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che ivi sono , published in Italian in 1550. Nevertheless, "Nigris" was already the name of a river in West Africa, as mentioned by Pliny

4760-591: The Scramble for Africa at the end of the 19th century. As part of the West Africa Sahel region, Niger River has a hot climate characterized by very high temperatures year-round; a long, intense dry season from October–May; and a brief, irregular rainy season linked to the West African monsoon. The Niger River is a relatively clear river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because

4896-588: The Wadi Ghir on the north-western edge of the Tuat , along the borders of modern Morocco and Algeria . This would likely have been as far as Ptolemy would have had consistent records. The Ni-Ger was likely speculation, although the name stuck as that of a river south of the Mediterranean's "known world". Suetonius reports Romans traveling to the "Ger", although in reporting any river's name derived from

5032-411: The wollarbe and yillarga . The groups are traditionally rivals, though they often unite for common cause. Most North Province peoples speak their own distinct languages. Those with the most speakers include Daba , Dii , South Fali , Gidar , Adamawa Fulfulde (spoken by Cameroon's Fulbe), and Ngambay . Due to the Fulbe's numerical superiority and historical domination, Fulfulde is widely spoken as

5168-592: The 1980s. The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river, a boomerang shape that baffled geographers for two centuries. Its source ( Tembakounda ) is 240 km (150 mi) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, but the river runs directly away from the sea into the Sahara Desert , then takes a sharp right turn near the ancient city of Timbuktu and heads southeast to the Gulf of Guinea . This strange geography apparently came about because

5304-569: The 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national minority group " arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism . The abstract ethnicity had been used as

5440-512: The Adamawa Plateau and the Bénoué Depression. The park houses many reptile species as well as elephants, giraffes, and hippopotami. Today, however, poachers have wiped out much of the park's animal population. The North Province is moderately populated, averaging 12 to 25 people per km in most areas. This density jumps to 25 to 50 people in the river valleys west of the Lagdo Reservoir and in the Bénoué Depression. North of Garoua and in

5576-784: The Adamawa Province, flows through the North, and then empties into the Logone River in Chad. It is swelled by the Mbéré River east of Touboro . Before this, the Mbéré forms the province's southeastern border with Chad for several kilometers. These are the only major rivers in the province that form part of the Chad basin . The Bénoué Depression constitutes the North Province's primary land feature. This basin runs along

North Region (Cameroon) - Misplaced Pages Continue

5712-568: The Atlantika Mountains, the likely results of tectonic activity. These chains form most of the western edge of the province, with peaks as high as 1000 metres. The mountains continue north into the Far North Province and Nigeria, though their elevations gradually drop to as low as 500 metres. The surrounding terrain is hilly. The North's highest elevation is Hosséré Vokré (Vokne), an isolated peak of 2,049 metres. From

5848-580: The Benoue and its smaller tributaries the Mayo Godi, Mayo Rey, Mayo Sina , Mayo Oldiri , and others, many of which rise on the Adamawa Plateau. The reservoir provides an important source of hydroelectric power for Cameroon's three northern provinces. Local villagers also use it as a source of fish, and both the lake and the river are used for irrigation . Another significant river is the Vina, which rises in

5984-577: The Bouba Ndjida Park, though its thick vegetation and large number of rivers make it considerably more difficult to travel in. Faro National Park is little visited, as it is the least accessible to vehicles and it has been mostly poached out. Those who wish simply to view wildlife usually continue north to visit Waza National Park in the Far North. There is also a zoo in Garoua where many of

6120-542: The Bénoué Depression, a Sahel climate prevails. Here, the dry season lasts longer, and temperatures reach even higher levels. Provincial temperatures average 24 °C in the south along the plateau. In the Depression, they rise to 26 °C. North of the reservoir, temperatures climb as high as 28 °C. Seasons follow a wet/dry pattern, with rough divisions in November (dry) and April (wet). The year begins under

6256-490: The Bénoué Depression. Here grass cover thins out, and trees become fewer and more isolated, and stunted shrubs become more prevalent. Common species include acacia , baobab , and various palms . Most of these have adapted to the region's harsh dry season and seasonal burning by growing thick bark and shedding their leaves during this period. This area has been categorised by the World Wildlife Fund as part of

6392-658: The Bénoué and Mayo Rey divisions. The Fulbe follow two distinct ways of living. The nomadic Fulbe, known to others but not themselves as Mbororo, are cattle herders. They roam the province's grasslands and south into the Adamawa Province, and their settlements are never more than semi-permanent. Mbororo are typically tall, thin people with a mixture of Semitic and African features. In contrast, those Fulbe who have settled are known as sedentary or town Fulbe. They outnumber their pastoral brethren, and they have over many years intermarried with their Sudanese neighbours, whom they now resemble. The North's Fulbe also recognize two main lineages,

6528-786: The Bénoué and Mayo-Louti divisions, form the last member of the Adamawa group: the Fali proper, the Fali Bussime, the Fali Durbeyi, and the Fali Kangu. At the province's borders live various Chadic-language-speaking peoples. The Njanyi begin this band at the northwest of the Bénoué division. The Gude lie to their north. Then, from west to east, the northern border is home to the Gawar, Daba , and Guidar . The Bata and Zim complete

6664-484: The Bénoué, roughly parallel to it. South of the Bénoué Depression lies the Adamawa Plateau. This descends to the Depression in escarpments and peaks of between 1000 and 2000 metres that follow a major fault. Past this frontier region, the plateau slopes south and southeast into the Adamawa Province and Chad. The North's third significant land feature is the Mandara Mountains and their southern extension,

6800-691: The Chadic speakers, with three separate concentrations of the former along the Nigerian border in Bénoué and Faro divisions, and two areas of the latter at the border with Chad and straddling the Bouba-Njida park. The Bata are further divided into the riverain Bata (west of Garoua and along the Bénoué river and into Nigeria) and the inland Bata (or Njirai), who inhabit the Zummo-Malabo Hills . As

6936-592: The Elder and Solinus, among others. Whether this river was the same as the actual Niger, or rather the river also known as Ger (currently known as Oued Guir, in Morocco), is a matter of discussion. This Nigris was said to divide "Africa proper" from the land of the (Western) Ethiopians to the south, and its name (as well as that of the river Ger) might well come from the Berber phrase gr-n-grwn meaning "river of rivers", as

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7072-432: The Fulbe possessed an independent emirate until relatively recently, they hold this traditional political structure in high regard. However, human rights groups have pointed to these extra-governmental leaders as some of Cameroon's most egregious human-rights abusers. The prisons at Bibémi , Gashiga , Rey Bouba and Tchéboa are particularly maligned, for example, and some groups even accuse lamidos of keeping slaves from

7208-449: The Fulbe way of life, particularly for the pastoral Wodaabe , who place great importance on the number of cattle an individual owns. They roam throughout the province and beyond while their town cousins keep animals around the province's central and northern settlements. The two major breeds are the humpbacked zebu , both the brown and white Fulani zebu , herded by the town Fulbe, and the leaner, lighter-coloured Bororo zebu , herded by

7344-610: The Greeks. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen ,

7480-571: The Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. The water from the Bani River , which flows into the Delta at Mopti , does not compensate for the losses. The average loss is estimated at 31 km /year but varies considerably between years. The river is then joined by various tributaries but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria

7616-654: The Interior of Africa . Park proposed a theory that the Niger and Congo were the same river. Although the Niger Delta would seem like an obvious candidate, it was a maze of streams and swamps that did not look like the head of a great river. He died in 1806 on a second expedition attempting to prove the Niger-Congo connection. The theory became the leading one in Europe. Several failed expeditions followed; however

7752-487: The Lagdo Reservoir and at Tcholliré and groundnuts in the Mayo-Rey division. Farmers often create their fields by burning an area of its vegetation during the dry season. Only fruit trees or trees useful for animal fodder or firewood are kept, such as baobab, faidherbia , and karita . Crops are planted at the first rains. Traditional farms are laid out in concentric circles centred on the village. These are surrounded by hedges or fences aimed at keeping out livestock . In

7888-420: The Mandara Mountains, these circular plots follow the slope of the mountains in terraces . Virtually nothing grows during the long dry season, so most food must be ground and stored in granaries for use during the rest of the year. Dry season sorghum (Muskwari) is grown along the river banks, relying on the moisture left behind as the rivers recede. Cotton grows well in the North's river valleys and constitutes

8024-590: The Mandara Mountains, where large populations of non-Muslim (often known collectively by the derogatory name Kirdi ) were forced to flee years ago, density peaks at 50 to 100 people per km. Due to the major port located there, Garoua was at one point Cameroon's third largest city, though its population is 235,996 (2005 Census). The city is today a mélange of the region, with large populations of Fulbe, non-Muslim Northerners and immigrants from Southern Cameroon, as well as from neighboring Chad and Nigeria. Dwelling units differ from ethnic group to ethnic group, but many follow

8160-421: The Mayo Kébi and Bénoué River and has an elevation of between zero and 200 metres. The valleys surrounding the various rivers that feed the Kébi and later Bénoué reach elevations only slightly higher than this, averaging 200–500 metres in the north and 500–1000 metres in the south (the dividing line is at about 8˙ N). Garoua lies at about 235 metres. Farther north is the Kaélé Elevation . A major fault runs north of

8296-457: The Mayo Rey division. Most of these are long-legged breeds of sheep and goats that are larger and taller than those of most of the rest of Cameroon. Horses and donkeys are used as beasts of burden and transportation throughout, and the Bata are renowned for their expert skills at horse breeding. Fowl are common, particularly in the northern portions. Garoua is the industrial heart of all of Cameroon's Grand North, and numerous factories dot

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8432-444: The Mbum and the Guidar, are divided between Muslims and Christians. As Cameroon's third busiest port, Garoua has long been a site of commercial development in the region. Despite the fact that the port is new but a shade of its former self, Garoua remains the economic centre of the North Province and of Cameroon's Grand North in general. The city is today a crossroads for goods travelling to and from Cameroon, Chad, and Nigeria. The port

8568-412: The Niger River at Koulikoro (Upper Niger), Niamey (Middle Niger) and Lokoja (Lower Niger). Period from 2000/06/01 to 2024/05/31. Average discharge of the Niger River at Niger Delta (period from 2010 to 2018): Niger River at Lokoja average, minimum and maximum discharge (1946 to 2023): The main tributaries from the mouth: tributary tributary (km) (km ) (m /s) At

8704-416: The Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. The upper Niger, from the source west of Timbuktu to the bend in the current river near Timbuktu , once emptied into a now dry lake to the east northeast of Timbuktu, while the lower Niger started to the south of Timbuktu and flowed south into the Gulf of Guinea. Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in stream capture of the upper Niger by

8840-428: The Niger bend region also brought Islam to the region in approximately the 14th century CE. Much of the northern Niger basin remains Muslim today, although the southern reaches of the river tend to be Christian. Classical writings on the interior of the Sahara begin with Ptolemy , who mentions two rivers in the desert: the "Gir" (Γειρ) and farther south, the "Nigir" (Νιγειρ). The first has been since identified as

8976-520: The Niger's headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt . Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly; this begins in September, peaks in November, and finishes by May. An unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta , which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases. The result is a region of braided streams , marshes , and large lakes; the seasonal floods make the Delta extremely productive for both fishing and agriculture. The river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in

9112-457: The North's inhabitants. Many of the region's craftsmen deal with fabrics, and weaving of everything from clothing to prayer mats is an important source of income. The North is also home to many skilled embroiderers who finish the many textiles produced there. An artisanat at Garoua provides a major outlet for such craftsmen to sell their wares. Mining forms a small aspect of the North's industrial complex. Limestone deposits are situated at

9248-462: The United States that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected

9384-422: The Wodaabe. Primary transhumance routes run through the Faro division and the southeast of the Mayo Rey division and eventually lead to Yaoundé , Douala , or farther south. Modern ranching occurs around the town of Faro, an endeavor made possible by the eradication of the tsetse fly from the region in 1974. Other livestock raised include sheep and goats in the Faro division and on the border northeast of

9520-994: The added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states. According to Paul James , formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing: Categorizations about identity, even when codified and hardened into clear typologies by processes of colonization, state formation or general modernizing processes, are always full of tensions and contradictions. Sometimes these contradictions are destructive, but they can also be creative and positive. Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have

9656-400: The area where the Adamawa Province descends to the Bénoué Depression is characterised by winding turns, and traffic accidents are not uncommon. In addition, the area is accessible by air. Garoua is the site of an international airport, and aircraft may land at Poli, Tcholliré, and Guider on airstrips. Finally, the port of Garoua makes the region accessible by boat, and the Bénoué is navigable all

9792-590: The area's indigenous species are on view. The province is divided into four departments These are in turn broken down into subdivisions. Presidentially appointed senior divisional officers ( prefets ) and subdivisional officers ( sous-prefets ) govern each respectively. The North enjoys a relatively high level of development in infrastructure thanks mainly to its most prominent native son, Ahmadou Ahidjo , Cameroon's first president. During Ahidjo's administration, his hometown of Garoua in particular saw much governmental attention, including state-of-the-art buildings and

9928-541: The beginning of the river near Kissidougou in Guinea, walking at first till a raft could be used, then changing to various local crafts as the river broadened and changed. Two of them reached the ocean on March 25, 1947, with Ponty having left the expedition at Niamey , somewhat past the halfway mark. They carried a 16mm movie camera , the resulting footage giving Rouch his first two ethnographic documentaries: "Au pays des mages noirs", and "La chasse à l’hippopotame". A camera

10064-449: The belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location." Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II

10200-402: The boundaries of the nation-state. River Niger This is an accepted version of this page (Period: 1971–2000)7,922.3 m /s (279,770 cu ft/s) The Niger River ( / ˈ n aɪ dʒ ər / NY -jər ; French : (le) fleuve Niger [(lə) flœv niʒɛʁ] ) is the main river of West Africa , extending about 4,180 kilometres (2,600 miles). Its drainage basin

10336-453: The bénoué Depression south, the North experiences tropical climate of the Sudan type . Average rainfall is between 900 and 1500 mm per year, decreasing from south to north due to elevation. Garoua, the major city, thus receives between 500 and 1000 mm per year. Rainfall in the Bénoué Depression is unpredictable, though it rarely drops to less than 1000 mm in any one year. North of

10472-475: The city. Among the goods produced in Garoua are beer and soft drinks , soap , cotton products such as textiles and cottonseed oil , construction materials, processed foods , and shoes . Figuil and Pitoa are smaller industrial centres. Figuil's factories produce cement and textiles, and those of Pitoa produce oils from groundnuts and cottonseeds. Guider and Touboro also have cotton gins . Handicrafts are an important cottage industry for many of

10608-573: The context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states , however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to

10744-627: The country's ten provinces are now known as Regions. Bands of alternating metamorphic and sedimentary rock interspersed with granite characterise the north's geology. Granite covered in volcanic basalt makes up the southernmost reaches, which form part of the Adamawa Plateau . A series of faults lies north of this and separate the plateau from the band of metamorphic stone to its north. Random granite deposits also characterise this area. The Mayo Rey and Vina River cut north of this portion, leaving deposits of sedimentary stone except in

10880-422: The course of individual life histories." In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities: ... the named ethnic identities we accept, often unthinkingly, as basic givens in the literature are often arbitrarily, or even worse inaccurately, imposed. In this way, he pointed to

11016-526: The cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term "race" is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term "race" altogether and speak of "ethnic groups". In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of

11152-420: The current Tuareg name for the river Niger. As Timbuktu was the southern end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean , it was the source of most European knowledge of the region. Medieval European maps applied the name Niger to the middle reaches of the river, in modern Mali, but Quorra ( Kworra ) to the lower reaches in modern Nigeria , as these were not recognized at

11288-451: The distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs , with identity assigned by societal rules. The term ethnic is ultimately derived from the Greek ethnos , through its adjectival form ethnikos , loaned into Latin as ethnicus . The inherited English language term for this concept is folk , used alongside

11424-452: The distinctions of ethnicity and race that function to set off categories of workers from one another. It is, nevertheless, the process of labor mobilization under capitalism that imparts to these distinctions their effective values. According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion , and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion . Writing in 1977 about

11560-746: The end of the African humid period around 5,500 years before present, the modern Sahara Desert, once a savanna , underwent desertification . As plant species sharply declined, humans migrated to the fertile Niger River bend region, with abundant resources including plants for grazing and fish. Like in the Fertile Crescent , many food crops were domesticated in the Niger River region, including yams , African rice ( Oryza glaberrima ), and pearl millet . The Sahara aridification may have triggered, or at least accelerated, these domestications. Agriculture, as well as fishing and animal husbandry, led to

11696-465: The ethnic groups of the North speak languages of three major language families: Niger–Congo ('Adamawa'), Chadic, and Central Sudanic. The Adamawa-language speakers occupy the majority of the territory. The Mbum inhabit much of Faro division and a large southeastern portion of Mayo-Rey division, with the Dii occupying the vast area in between. The land west of the Mayo Rey is home to several peoples on

11832-530: The extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditions   when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation but lived in another state. In the 1920s, Estonia introduced a flexible system of ethnicity/nationality self-choice for its citizens, which included Estonians Russians, Baltic Germans and Jews. Multi-ethnic states can be

11968-414: The fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had

12104-591: The fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot . Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures , interest groups or social classes , because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in

12240-596: The following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the Armenian language , or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnography begins in classical antiquity ; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus , Herodotus laid

12376-672: The foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world c.  480 BC . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes . Although there were exceptions, such as Macedonia, which was ruled by nobility in a way that was not typically Greek, and Sparta, which had an unusual ruling class, the ancient Greeks generally enslaved only non-Greeks due to their strong belief in ethnonationalism. The Greeks sometimes believed that even their lowest citizens were superior to any barbarian. In his Politics 1.2–7; 3.14, Aristotle even described barbarians as natural slaves in contrast to

12512-558: The genes. Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification

12648-463: The granite east. North of this lies a band of sedimentary alluvium , clay , limestone , and sandstone . Faults tentatively follow the Bénoué River north of this and form a barrier to split the remainder of the province, with metamorphic rocks such as gneiss , mica , and schists dominating to the south and sedimentary stone making up the north. Another large band of metamorphic rock makes up

12784-513: The handful of protected areas. The Bénoué National Park ( Parc National de la Bénoué ) protects 1,800 square kilometres southeast of Garoua at the province's centre. It shelters many large mammal species, including hartebeest , hippopotami, kob , and waterbuck , as well as smaller numbers of buffalo , giant eland , elephants , lions and reptiles such as crocodiles . It has been a protected area since 1968. The 2,200 square kilometres Bouba Njida National Park ( Parc National de Bouba Ndjida )

12920-467: The influence of the harmattan winds in the dry season. In this period, temperatures are at their highest and rainfall is virtually nonexistent. This period of stifling heat continues until April, which brings with it torrential rains and lower temperatures. Rains ease up in June, though temperatures remain lower and humidity relatively high. Then in November, the province becomes drier and temperatures cool as

13056-433: The kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne . Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of

13192-654: The latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian ecumene ), as the Septuagint used ta ethne 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew goyim "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity ( Homeric Greek ) could refer to any large group,

13328-580: The lower Niger. The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend , is an important area because it is the major river and source of water in that part of the Sahara. This made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao . The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, which in turn

13464-515: The main roads. In contrast to the province's various settled peoples, the Mbororo Fulbe are nomadic and live in portable, tent-like huts (again, Mbororo is a derogatory word). They do establish semi-permanent settlements called ruga , however, to care for the aged and for women to raise children while their husbands are out to pasture. With the exception of small populations of Hausa , Shuwa Arabs , and expatriate Westerners in Garoua,

13600-468: The major cash crop . Most cotton farms in the region are under the management of the Société de Développement du Coton  [ fr ] (SODECOTON), which was established in 1974. Groundnuts are also important in the southern half of the province, especially at the edge of the Adamawa Plateau . The plateau is generally unsuited to commercial crops due to its hard soils. Cattle are an integral part of

13736-485: The marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures. Michael Omi and Howard Winant 's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in Racial Formation in

13872-483: The modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation , developed in

14008-509: The mystery of the Niger would not be solved for another 25 years, in 1830, when Richard Lander and his brother became the first Europeans to follow the course of the Niger to the ocean. In 1946, three Frenchmen, Jean Sauvy, Pierre Ponty and movie maker Jean Rouch , former civil servants in the African French colonies , set out to travel the entire length of the river, as no one else seemed to have done previously. They travelled from

14144-627: The nephew of the head of a family kills a cock and throws it into a fire; should the cock fall onto its right side, it is considered a good omen. The Tupuri people also perform the Gouma , or the Dance of the Cock, a cacophony of drumming and tambourines and circles of long sticks. The Lam of the Guider people is a ceremony to display marriageable girls. Ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group

14280-532: The only ethnic group in the province to speak a Central Sudanic language , the Ngambay make up the third linguistic group. They live in a large territory on the border with Chad between the Vina River and the Mayo Godi. Though relatively newcomers to the region, the Fulbe or Fulani are the North Province's most numerous ethnic group. Their territory stretches through most of the province's centre, primarily in

14416-551: The parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity . Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis . Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past has dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since

14552-466: The plateau itself, they are mostly ferralitic or lateritic . The region's annual rainy/dry cycle erodes the landscape and aids in the formation of iron deposits called duricrust or hardpans near the surface. in addition, the area between the Vina and Mbere Rivers and the Mayo Deo valley is hydromorphic , while the volcanic Mandara and Atlantika Mountains , other high points in the province, and

14688-450: The problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as

14824-439: The province's citizens, such a prospect may be tenuous at best. Like schools, hospitals in the North must serve a large number of spread-out villages. Most health centres are in larger towns or cities, necessitating long-distance travel for some citizens to receive care. Malaria is a major health concern. Similarly, fly-borne diseases such as dysentery sometimes break out, especially in more urbanised centres. Schistosomiasis

14960-590: The province's northern bulge, and uranium deposits lie in the Bénoué Depression near Poli. Workers mine tin ore from the area northwest of the Lagdo Dam. The Lagdo Dam and Reservoir, which holds 4 cubic kilometres of water, provides a major source of hydroelectric power for Garoua and the area north of it (including the Far North Province). Travel in the North is relatively easy thanks to its large network of roads, many of which are paved. However,

15096-433: The public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute

15232-571: The result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1950, the UNESCO statement " The Race Question ", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Gunnar Myrdal , Julian Huxley , etc.), said: National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and

15368-488: The result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa , where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom . Examples for

15504-504: The rise of settlements like Djenné-Djenno in the Inner Delta, now a World Heritage Site . The region of the Niger bend, in the Sahel , was a key origin and destination for trans-Saharan trade , fueling the wealth of great empires such as the Ghana , Mali, and Songhai Empires . Major trading ports along the river, including Timbuktu and Gao, became centers of learning and culture. Trade to

15640-641: The river – the myth connecting the Niger to the Nile persisted. Many European expeditions to plot the river were unsuccessful. In 1788 the African Association was formed in England to promote the exploration of Africa in the hopes of locating the Niger, and in June 1796 the Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first European to lay eyes on the middle portion of the river since antiquity (and perhaps ever). He wrote an account in 1799, Travels in

15776-412: The rivers mostly dry up during the dry season, many disappearing completely into the sand. Animals and humans must dig during this period to retrieve water. This means that the port of Garoua on the Bénoué is only functional during a small portion of the year. The Bénoué River (Benue) serves as the North's primary waterway, as it passes through the port at Garoua. It flows down from the Adamawa Plateau and

15912-588: The second case are countries such as Netherlands , which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom , France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed " multicultural " societies, especially in large cities. The states of

16048-420: The source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality. In some cases, especially those involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following

16184-407: The state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view,

16320-441: The state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka , argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within

16456-512: The study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. According to Eriksen , these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology , by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in

16592-524: The term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical a priori to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with

16728-446: The term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories. Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being

16864-406: The territory northwest of the Bénoué basin. The Mandara Mountains , which run roughly north–south at the province's Nigerian border, are irregular in that they are volcanic , composed mostly of crystalline and metamorphic rock and granite. The Adamawa Plateau divides the province into two main soil types. Those to the north are mostly shallow and ferruginous , brown or brownish red in colour. On

17000-533: The time as being the same river. When European colonial powers began to send ships along the west coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Senegal River was often postulated to be the seaward end of the Niger. The Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres (100 mi), was thought to be coastal wetlands. It

17136-468: The usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States , Wallman noted The term "ethnic" popularly connotes "[race]" in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In North America, by contrast, "[race]" most commonly means color, and "ethnics" are the descendants of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. "[Ethnic]"

17272-425: The various Kirdi ethnic groups. Many of the North's smaller ethnic groups maintain traditional political organisation. The Bata divide themselves into several independent chiefdoms, for example. In some of these groups, however, traditional chiefs are mere figureheads. In others, the position does not exist at all. The population of the North is one of Cameroon's lesser educated due both to traditional culture and to

17408-444: The way to Port Harcourt , Nigeria. This waterway is impassable in the dry season, however, and road is the preferred means of transporting goods through the area. Tourism in the North Province is largely centred on hunting in its national parks. Of these, most travel guides recommend the 1,800 square kilometre Bénoué National Park as the most accessible and least poached . The park is popular among fishermen as well. Hunters also visit

17544-448: The ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact. Assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled,

17680-442: The world have been incorporated into a global economy: The opposing interests that divide the working classes are further reinforced through appeals to "racial" and "ethnic" distinctions. Such appeals serve to allocate different categories of workers to rungs on the scale of labor markets, relegating stigmatized populations to the lower levels and insulating the higher echelons from competition from below. Capitalism did not create all

17816-463: Was a mystery to the outside world until the late 18th century. The connection to the Nile River was made not simply because this was then known as the great river of " Aethiopia " (by which all lands south of the desert were called by Classical writers), but because the Nile like the Niger flooded every summer. Through the descriptions of Leo Africanus and even Ibn Battuta – despite his visit to

17952-483: Was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship , a common place of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in

18088-407: Was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race". Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth , whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of

18224-524: Was estimated at 25 km /year before the 1980s and at 13.5 km /year during the 1980s. The most important tributary is the Benue River which merges with the Niger at Lokoja in Nigeria. The total volume of tributaries in Nigeria is six times higher than the inflow into Nigeria, with a flow near the mouth of the river standing at 177.0 km /year before the 1980s and 147.3 km /year during

18360-439: Was only with the 18th-century visits of Mungo Park , who travelled down the Niger River and visited the great Sahelian empires of his day, that Europeans correctly identified the course of the Niger and extended the name to its entire course. The modern nations of Nigeria and Niger take their names from the river, marking contesting national claims by colonial powers of the "upper", "lower" and "middle" Niger river basin during

18496-743: Was used to illustrate Rouch's subsequent book "Le Niger En Pirogue" (Fernand Nathan, 1954), as well as Sauvy's "Descente du Niger" (L'Harmattan, 2001). A typewriter was brought as well, on which Ponty produced newspaper articles he mailed out whenever possible. The water in the Niger River basin is partially regulated through dams. In Mali the Sélingué Dam on the Sankarani River is mainly used for hydropower but also permits irrigation. Two diversion dams, one at Sotuba just downstream of Bamako , and one at Markala , just downstream of Ségou , are used to irrigate about 54,000 hectares. In Nigeria

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