Editing Niger River (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Niger, Boubon (16), scene at the river front.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|Commercial activity along the river front at [[Boubon]], in [[Niger]]]]

The Niger has different names in the different languages of the region:
* [[Fula language|Fula]]: ''Maayo Jaaliba'' {{lang|ff|𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤴𞤮 𞤔𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭𞤦𞤢}}
* [[Manding languages|Manding]]: ''Jeliba'' {{lang|man|ߖߋ߬ߟߌߓߊ߬}} or ''Joliba'' {{lang|man|ߖߏ߬ߟߌߓߊ߬}} "great river"
* [[Tuareg languages|Tuareg]]: ''Eġərəw n-Igərǝwăn'' {{lang|tmh|ⴴⵔⵓ ⵏ ⴴⵔⵓⵏ}} "river of rivers"
* [[Songhay languages|Songhay]]: ''Isa'' "the river"
* [[Zarma language|Zarma]]: ''Isa Beeri'' "great river"<ref>{{citation |last1=Idrissa |first1=Abdourahmane |last2=Decalo |first2=Samuel |date=June 1, 2012 |title=Historical Dictionary of Niger |edition=4th |page=274 |location=Plymouth, UK |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0810860940}}</ref>
* [[Hausa language|Hausa]]: ''Kwara'' {{lang|ha|كوَرَ}}
*[[Nupe language|Nupe]]: ''Èdù''
* [[Yoruba language|Yoruba]]: ''Ọya'' "named after the Yoruba goddess [[Ọya]], who is believed to embody the river"
* [[Igbo language|Igbo]]: ''Orimiri'' or ''Orimili'' "great water"
* [[Ijaw languages|Ijaw]]: ''Toru Beni'' "the river water"

The earliest use of the name "Niger" for the river is by [[Leo Africanus]]<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Niger |volume=19 |page=676 |first=Frank Richardson |last=Cana}}</ref> in his ''[[Description of Africa (Ramusio book)|Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che ivi sono]]'', published in Italian in 1550.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022|reason=A reference is needed for this information.}} Nevertheless, "Nigris" was already the name of a river in West Africa, as mentioned by Pliny the Elder and Solinus, among others.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), NIGEIR |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=nigeir-geo |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu |archive-date=2024-04-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240401162754/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0064:entry=nigeir-geo |url-status=live }}</ref> 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 languages|Berber]] phrase ''gr-n-grwn'' meaning "river of rivers", as the current Tuareg name for the river Niger.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hunwick |first=John O. |author-link=John Hunwick |title=Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sadi's Tarikh al-Sudan down to 1613 and other contemporary documents |publisher=Brill |place=Leiden |orig-year=1999 |year=2003 |isbn=978-90-04-11207-0 |page=275 Fn 22}}</ref> As [[Timbuktu]] was the southern end of the principal [[Trans-Saharan trade]] route to the western [[Mediterranean Sea|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 [[Nigeria|modern Nigeria]], as these were not recognized at the time as being the same river.<ref name=EB1911/> 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 Ocean|Atlantic]] through [[Mangrove forest|mangrove swamps]] and thousands of [[distributary|distributaries]] along more than {{convert|100|mi|km|order=flip}}, was thought to be coastal wetlands. It was only with the 18th-century visits of [[Mungo Park (explorer)|Mungo Park]], who travelled down the Niger River and visited the great [[Sahelian kingdoms|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 the [[Scramble for Africa]] at the end of the 19th century.