The Maghreb Review, Vol. 41, 4, 2016 © The Maghreb Review 2016 This publication is printed on longlife paper ‘IT RUNS TO THE WORLD’S END’: THE ENIGMA OF THE RIVER NIGER1 JOHN WRIGHT* INTRODUCTION Obeying the natural law that ‘water always finds its own level’, rivers may do unexpected, seemingly illogical things. Even those with sources close together may set off in various directions and end up in quite different places. Three great rivers of West Africa tell such a story: the Senegal and the much shorter Gambia rise in the uplands of Futa Jallon in Guinea and, after generally westerly and reasonably logical courses, simply flow through the countries now respectively named after them, and into the North Atlantic Ocean through broad estuaries. But the third sibling from the neighbouring highlands, the Niger, sets off decisively north-eastwards through the Sahel towards the very edge of the Sahara. Following the southern fringes of the desert, it makes an immense easterly bend, but eventually trends south-eastwards to reach southern Nigeria. This is a complex and confusing river, particularly on the long stretches where it flows north-eastwards towards Kabara, the port of Timbuctu. On these reaches, the Niger makes a huge inland delta, dividing into separate branches and forming lakes and islands. These grow and recede with the seasonal rise and fall of the river waters. Large river craft can only navigate at high water (July–December). Further down, as the waterway becomes more clearly defined, rapids mark its descent towards the forested lowlands of Nigeria. Finally, rather than flowing into the Bight of Benin by a broad estuary clearly revealing the outlet of an important river, the waters reach the open ocean by seeping secretly through the many hidden channels of the world’s largest mangrove swamp. The Niger’s seemingly irrational, curving upper courses (vaguely suggesting a mighty question mark on the map); its seasonal changes in extent and depth; its different local names; its generally eastwards and then south-eastwards flow; and finally its discreet outlet after a course of 2,600 miles, were to confuse and confound the geographers, cartographers, armchair travellers and explorers of Africa for well over 2,000 years. Yet the fact that several empires grew and prospered on the banks of the Niger in the Middle Ages and later (notably Mali and Songhai), confirms that this was an attractive centre of amenity, of trade and communications between the desert 1 ‘These merchants, it would seem, are ignorant of the termination of the river [Niger], for such of them as can speak Arabic, describe the amazing length of its course in very general terms: saying only, that they believe it runs to the world’s end.’ M. Park, Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa. London, 1799, p. 214. (His emphasis) This article is part one of a two part series. * London 528 JOHN WRIGHT lands to the north and, to the south, the savannah and forest belts of tropical West Africa. THE ANCIENT WORLD The earliest-known geographer to discuss West Africa’s greatest river, the Niger, was the Greek so-called ‘Father of History’, Herodotus. In the mid-5th century BC he visited, among many places, Egypt and Cyrenaica, where he collected a mass of geographical, historical and anthropological information, much of it now confirmed by modern exploration and research. In the Greek city of Cyrene he learned the tale of a party of Libyan tribesmen who had adventurously crossed the Sahara, found a green and pleasant country, and had been captured there by small black men who took them to a town of similar black people. A great river with crocodiles in it flowed past the town from west to east. The Libyan explorers later returned safely home. Herodotus explains that the river flowing past the town was supposed to be the Nile, ‘for the Nile does in fact flow from Libya [as the Greeks called all North Africa west of Egypt] dividing it in two … and I am willing to believe that it rises at the same distance from its mouth as the Danube which … flows right through the middle of Europe to reach the Black Sea.’2...