Official name: Republic of Niger
Capital city: Niamey
Internet country code: .ne
Flag description: Three equal horizontal bands of orange (top), white, and green with a small orange disk (representing the sun) centered in the white band
National motto: Fraternity – Work – Progress
Geographical description: Western Africa, southeast of Algeria
Total area: 490,000 sq. mi. (1,267,000 sq. km.)
Climate: Desert; mostly hot, dry, dusty; tropical in extreme south
Nationality: noun: Nigerien(s); adjective: Nigerien
Population: 12,894,865 (July 2007 CIA est.)
Ethnic groups: Haoussa 55.4%, Djerma Sonrai 21%, Touareg 9.3%, Peuhl 8.5%, Kanouri Manga 4.7%, other 1.2%
Languages spoken: French (official), Hausa, Djerma, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Tamachek, Toubou, Gourmantche, Arabic
Religions: Muslim 85%, other (includes indigenous religions and Christian) 15%
(pen name of Ivan Vasil’evich Dzhanaev). Born Oct. 21 (Nov. 2), 1896, in the village of Sindzisar in the former Nar District, Ossetia; died May 3, 1947, in Ordzhonikidze. Soviet Ossetian poet and literary scholar.
Niger graduated from the department of literature of the Gori Pedagogical Institute in 1930. From 1936 he was head of the department of history of Ossetian literature at the Severnaia Osetiia Scientific Research Institute. His poetry from the Soviet period is suffused with the fervor of revolutionary struggle and enthusiasm for the building of socialism. Niger introduced new forms into Ossetian poetry. He is the author of the narrative poems Gytstsi (1934), On the Bank of the Terek (1939), and The Red Army Soldier Will Tell All About It (1945). He wrote narrative poems based on themes from folk songs and legends, for example, Uakhatag’s Son, the Daring Guiman (1935) and Badeliata’s Dance (1935). Together with T. Epkhiev, Niger coauthored the drama Kosta (1939) about the fate of K. Khetagurov. He is also the author of studies on the works of Ossetian writers.
a river in West Africa (Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria); it is the third longest river with the third largest basin area in Africa (after the Nile and the Congo). It is 4,160 km long and drains an area of 2,092,000 sq km.
The Niger originates as the Djoliba River on the slopes of the Leone-Liberian Upland and empties into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean, forming a delta. Its main tributaries on the right bank are the Milo and the Bani; its main left bank tributaries are the Sokoto, the Kaduna, and the Benue. From its source to approximately 10° N lat., the Niger flows northeastward through mountains, mostly in a narrow valley, and then flows through the plains of the Sudan. From Kouroussa to Bamako and below the city of Ségou, the river valley widens. There the volume of water increases as a result of the influx of tributaries and the river becomes navigable.
Between the cities of Ké Macina and Tombouctou (Timbuktu), the Niger divides into many branches and flows through a wide, very marshy valley with an abundance of creeks, lakes, and dried-up riverbeds. This region is an inland delta of the Niger; at one time here the river discharged into a large lake without an outlet. In the vicinity of Tombouctou, the branches unite into a single channel. The river then flows east for about 300 km along the southern border of the Sahara, without receiving important tributaries. From the village of Bourem the river turns southeast and below the town of Yelwa crosses the Northern Guinean Upland, where it receives many small tributaries. Further on, all the way to the mouth (about 750 km), the river flows through a wide valley and becomes navigable. At the town of Lokoja the Niger receives its principal tributary, the Benue, and becomes a mighty stream up to 3 km wide and 20 m and more deep. The Niger Delta (24,000 sq km) begins 180 km from the ocean near the town of Aba. The longest branch is the Nun, but the deeper Forcados branch is used for navigation. Sea tides cover a large part of the delta and fall short of its summit by only 35 km; tides on the Forcados reach approximately 1.2 m.
The Niger is fed by summer monsoon rains and is characterized by a complex water regime. In its upper course, high water resulting from rains begins in June and at Bamako reaches a maximum in September and October. In the lower course, the water begins to rise in June from local rains, in September it reaches a maximum, after which the level drops, but in February it rises again as a result of floodwaters coming from the upper part of the basin. The Niger’s mean annual flow rate at its mouth is 8,630 cu m per sec, the annual water flow is 378 cu km, and discharges during high-water periods can reach 30,000 to 35,000 cu m per sec. The river’s inland delta and estuarine delta contain considerable accumulations of alluvial deposits. The Niger carries 67 million tons of silt a year. Dams have been built on the river—the Egrett (at Bamako) and the Sansanding (at the settlement of the same name)—to raise the water level in order to feed irrigation canals. The Niger’s hydroelectric resources amount to about 30 million gigawatts but are greatly underutilized. In the 1960’s, the Kainji Dam (designed capacity, 960,000 kW), with a reservoir of about 600 sq km in area, was built in Nigeria. The Niger is navigable from Kouroussa to Bamako, from the Sotuba waterfall to Ansongo, and from Niamey to the mouth. Fishing is an important industry (carp, perch, barbel). The most important cities on the Niger are Kouroussa, Bamako, Tombouctou, and Jebba. Port Harcourt is a seaport on the Niger Delta.
A. P. MURANOV