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The Niger River explained in under 3 minutes | FactSpark | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Niger River explained in under 3 minutes
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The Niger River explained in under 3 Minutes Chapter 1: The Course of the Niger river
The source of the Niger river lays just 240 kilometers from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean,
but despite this proximity, the waters embark on a mighty 4200-kilometer-long journey
through rainforests, savannahs, and the deserts of western Africa.
From the Guinean Highlands, the river flows down through Mali’s Capital Bamako until a
sharp flattening of the topography braids the river out into several smaller streams
and lakes to form the Inner Niger Delta. For 400 kilometers, fertile lands stretch far beyond its
banks, providing the foundation for human settlement for thousands of years, giving
rise to West Africa’s most powerful Empires. After the Niger River Bend, south of Timbuktu,
the river enters the country of Niger, which has received its name from the river. Despite crossing
through only the southwestern tip of the country, it has a significant impact on the lives of
Nigerians, as almost half the population resides in the 3 regions closest to the river. After
forming the border between Benin and Niger, the river continues to Nigeria, where it plays a mayor
role in supplying the country with electricity. The Jebba and Kanji Dams are producing a combined
1300 Megawatts of electricity, constituting around 25% on the country’s electricity output. The river
then continues through the tropical savanna until it dissipates across a 36.000 square kilometer
large delta region into the Atlantic Ocean. Chapter 2: The Niger River in History
Around 5500 years ago, desertification turned the Sahara from a savanna into a desert,
pushing human migration into the Niger River Bend. This region is one of the earliest known regions
of human settlement and the domestication of crops. The fertile soil of the Inner Niger Delta
is known to have hosted one of the oldest urbanized centers in human history with the
city of Djenne over 2200 years ago, and the start of Trans-Saharan trade saw many settlements rise
to become centers of culture, commerce, education, and religion. In the 14th and 15th century,
cities like Timbuktu and Gao in today’s Mali were the capitals of the great West African empires
like the Ghana, Mali, and Songhai Empire, which boasted the richest civilizations of that time.
But just as the Trans-Sahara trade brough riches to the region, the reliance on the trade routes,
also cause their downfall. The arrival of Portuguese settlers along the West African coast
offered a more efficient trade route compared to the harsh Sahara Desert, causing the shiny
empires along the Niger River to fade out. Today, Djenne, Timbuktu and Gao are left
as impoverished cities who reminisce the golden ages through several UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
From a European perspective, the River has largely been a mystery, and the course of
the river couldn’t be explained until just 200 years ago. Theories of the Niger flowing into
the Nile or Congo River persisted for hundreds of years and it took many failed expeditions
for the first person in the form of Richard Lander to travel the entirety of the river,
making it known to the world, that the Niger is in fact one of the longest rivers in the world.
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