Niger River

The Niger River is important to Africa in many ways it provides transportantion from the Atlantic Ocean. The river also is a great source of water for farmers crops and fish. Farmers first grew crops along the river that included yams, palm kernels, cereral, and bananas to name a few. Cattle was also raised in this forested area. The Niger provide lots of opprotunities for the natives.

http://http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414815/Niger-River

This web site provides alot more information about the Niger River. It tells how the river is the third largest river in the world and the type of fish that are native to the region.


"Niger River." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopedia Britannia online. 27 Feb. 2010 http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414815/Niger-river

http://www.fcps.K12va.us/KingsParkES/technology/mali/images/malimap1.gif Google Images. Web 27 Feb. 2010


I think that after reading the information on this website I had a greater understanding for the Niger river. When reading the material of Ibn Battuat he reaches the Niger river he comes to relizing that the ruler there will not be visited by white men and they would be terminated before they reach him. He also talks about a crocodile and the unsual food prepared for him.

YouTube - World's Toughest Jobs: Salt Miner

YouTube - World's Toughest Jobs: Salt Miner

In this link it shows a video of the process of minning salt and transporting the salt across the desert. In the readings from the book "Africa A Short History" it tells the readers how important trade was to the natives. Africa is rich in gold and would use the exportation of gold in exchange for salt. Africans then used the salt for cooking and medicines. The book comments on how people can live with out gold but not without salt. This is why salt is so valuable. Infact salt is just as vuluble as gold itself. It also talks about how difficult it is to travel through the Sahara desert with little water and little direction as to where you are going. Cammels are interesting animals for they can store fat in their humps along with storing water in their bellies going up to ten days with out water.

I thought that this video is interesting and it relates to this weeks readings well. Trade among the state were very important for survival and for the economy. This video goes into more depth than the readings did and I thought that it was good to see the salt being processed than to just read about it. The video points out that the caravan would use the markings in the sands to tell the direction of the wind blowing as a reference to where they were heading.

World's Toughest Job: Salt Miner. Youtube.com. National Geographic. Web. 27 Feb. 2010
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi9bJhRZtKA&feature=related