Senegal River
Senegal River ( | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Senegal, Mauritania, Mali |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Bakoy River |
• location | Menien-Koma, Guinea |
• coordinates | 11°50′N 9°45′W / 11.833°N 9.750°W |
• elevation | 760 m (2,490 ft) |
2nd source | Bafing River |
• location | Foranruel, Guinea |
• coordinates | 10°23′42″N 12°08′06″W / 10.395°N 12.135°W |
• elevation | 750 m (2,460 ft) |
Source confluence | |
• location | Bafoulabé, Mali |
• coordinates | 13°48′47″N 10°49′41″W / 13.813°N 10.828°W |
• elevation | 83 m (272 ft) |
Mouth | Atlantic Ocean |
• location | Saint-Louis, Senegal |
• coordinates | 15°56′17″N 16°30′29″W / 15.938°N 16.508°W |
• elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Length | 1,086 km (675 mi) |
Basin size | 337,000 km2 (130,000 sq mi) |
Discharge | |
• average | 680 m3/s (24,000 cu ft/s) |
Senegal River at Dagana, Senegal
The Senegal River (
In 1972 Mali, Mauritania and Senegal founded the Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS) to manage the river basin. Guinea joined in 2005. As of 2012[update], only very limited use was made of the river for the transportation of goods and passengers. The OMVS have looked at the feasibility of creating a navigable channel 55 m (180 ft) in width between the small town of Ambidédi in Mali and Saint-Louis, a distance of 905 km (562 mi). It would give landlocked Mali a direct route to the Atlantic Ocean.
The aquatic fauna in the Senegal River basin is closely associated with that of the Gambia River basin, and the two are usually combined under a single ecoregion known as the Senegal-Gambia Catchments. Only three species of frogs and one fish are endemic to this ecoregion.
The river has two large
Geography
The Senegal's
The river has two large
The Senegal River has a drainage basin of 270000 km2 (100000 sq mi), a mean flow of 680 m3/s (24000 cu ft/s), and an annual discharge of 21.5 km3 (5.2 cu mi).[2][3] Important tributaries are the Falémé River, Karakoro River, and the Gorgol River.
Downstream of
In 1972 Mali, Mauritania and Senegal founded the Organisation pour la mise en valeur du fleuve Sénégal (OMVS) to manage the river basin. Guinea joined in 2005.
At the present time, only very limited use is made of the river for the transport of goods and passengers. The OMVS have looked at the feasibility of creating a navigable channel 55 m (180 ft) in width between the small town of Ambidédi in Mali and Saint-Louis, a distance of 905 km (562 mi). It would give landlocked Mali a direct route to the Atlantic Ocean.[2]
The aquatic fauna in the Senegal River basin is closely associated with that of the Gambia River basin, and the two are usually combined under a single ecoregion known as the Senegal-Gambia Catchments. Although the species richness is moderately high, only three species of frogs and one fish are endemic to this ecoregion.[4]
History
The existence of the Senegal River was known to the early Mediterranean civilizations. It or some other river was called Bambotus by
Arab sources
In the Early Middle Ages (c. 800 CE), the Senegal River restored contact with the Mediterranean world with the establishment of the
Arab geographers Abd al-Hassan Ali ibn Omar (1230),
As the Senegal River reached into the heart of the gold-producing Ghana Empire and later the Mali Empire, Trans-Saharan traders gave the Senegal its famous nickname as the "River of Gold". The Trans-Saharan stories about the "River of Gold" reached the ears of Sub-Alpine European merchants that frequented the ports of Morocco and the lure proved irresistible. Arab historians report at least three separate Arab maritime expeditions - the last one organized by a group of eight mughrarin ("wanderers") of Lisbon (before 1147) - that tried to sail down the Atlantic coast, possibly in an effort find the mouth of the Senegal.[11]
Cartographic representation
Drawing from Classical legend and Arab sources, the "River of Gold" found its way into European maps in the 14th century. In the Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300), there is a river labelled "Nilus Fluvius" drawn parallel to the coast of Africa, albeit without communication with Atlantic (it ends in a lake). It depicts some giant ants digging up gold dust from its sands, with the note "Hic grandes formice auream serican [or servant] arenas"[12] ("Here great ants guard gold sands"). In the mappa mundi made by Pietro Vesconte for the c. 1320 atlas of Marino Sanuto, there is an unnamed river stemming from the African interior and opening in the Atlantic ocean. The 1351 Medici-Laurentian Atlas shows both the Egyptian Nile and the western Nile stemming from the same internal mountain range, with the note that "Ilic coligitur aureaum".[13] The portolan chart of Giovanni da Carignano (1310s-20s) has the river with the label, iste fluuis exit de nilo ubi multum aurum repperitur.[14]
In the more accurately-drawn portolan charts, starting with the 1367 chart of Domenico and Francesco Pizzigano and carried on in the 1375 Catalan Atlas, the 1413 chart of the Catalan converso Mecia de Viladestes, etc. the "River of Gold" is depicted (if only speculatively), draining into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere just south of Cape Bojador. The legend of Cape Bojador as a terrifying obstacle, the 'cape of no return' to European sailors, emerged around the same time (possibly encouraged by Trans-Saharan traders who did not want to see their land route sidestepped by sea).
The river is frequently depicted with a great river island midway, the "Island of Gold", first mentioned by al-Masudi, and famously called "Wangara" by al-Idrisi and "Palolus" in the 1367 Pizzigani brothers chart. It is conjectured that this riverine "island" is in fact just the
The 1413 portolan chart of Mecia de Viladestes gives perhaps the most detailed depiction of the early state of European knowledge about the Senegal River prior to the 1440s. Viladestes labels it "River of Gold" ("riu del or") and locates it a considerable distance south of Cape Bojador (buyeter) - indeed, south of a mysterious "cap de abach" (possibly Cape Timris). There are extensive notes about the plentifulness of ivory and gold in the area, including a note that reads
"This river is called Wad al-Nil and also is called the River of Gold, for one can here obtain the gold of Palolus. And know that the greater part of those that live here occupy themselves collecting gold on the shores of the river which, at its mouth, is a league wide, and deep enough for the largest ship of the world."[16]
The galley of
East of Mali, the river forms a lake or "Island of Gold" shown here studded with river-washed gold nuggets (this is what the Pizzigani brothers called the island of "Palolus", and most commentators take to indicate the Bambuk-Buré goldfields). It is connected by many streams to the southerly "mountains of gold" (labelled "montanies del lor", the
North of the Senegal-Niger are the various oases and stations of the
Uniquely, the Viladestes map shows another river, south of the Senegal, which it labels the "flumen gelica" (poss. angelica), which some have taken to depict the Gambia River. In the 1459 mappa mundi of Fra Mauro, drawn a half-century later, after the Portuguese had already visited the Senegal (albeit still trying to respect Classical sources), shows two parallel rivers running east to west, both of them sourced from the same great internal lake (which, Fra Mauro asserts, is also the same source as the Egyptian Nile). Mauro names the two parallel rivers differently,calling one "flumen Mas ("Mas River"), the other the "canal dal oro" ("Channel of Gold"), and makes the note that "Inne larena de questi do fiume se trova oro de paiola" ("In the sands of both these rivers gold of 'palola' may be found"), and nearer to the sea, "Qui se racoce oro" ("Here gold is collected"), and finally, on the coast, "Terra de Palmear" ("Land of Palms"). It is notable that Fra Mauro knew of the error of Henry the Navigator's captains about the Daklha inlet, which Mauro carefully labels "Reodor" ("Rio do Ouro", Western Sahara), distinctly from the "Canal del Oro" (Senegal River).[19]
European contact
Christian Europeans soon began attempting to find the sea route to the mouth of the Senegal. The first known effort may have been by the
The project of finding the Senegal was taken up in the 1420s by the
Realizing the mistake, Henry kept pressing his captains further down the coast, and in 1445, the Portuguese captain
The very next year, in 1446, the Portuguese
Sometime between 1448 and 1455, the Portuguese captain
Portuguese chronicler
Etymology
The 16th-century chronicler
Other etymological theories for "Senegal" abound. A popular one, first proposed by Fr. David Boilat (1853), was that "Senegal" comes from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, meaning "our canoe" (more precisely, "our pirogue").[36] Bailot speculates the name probably arose as a misunderstanding, that when a Portuguese captain came across some Wolof fishermen and asked them what the name of the river was, they believed he was asking who their fishing boat belonged to, and replied simply "it is our canoe" (sunu gaal).[37] The "our canoe" theory has been popularly embraced in modern Senegal for its charm and appeal to national solidarity ("we're all in one canoe", etc.).
More recent historians suggest the name "Senegal" is probably a derivation of Azenegue, the Portuguese term for the Saharan Berber
A strong challenge to this theory is that "Senegal" is much older, and might derive from "Sanghana" (also given as Isenghan, Asengan, Singhanah), a city described by the Arab historian
Some Serer people from the south have advanced the claim that the river's name is originally derived from the compound of the Serer term "Sene" (from Rog Sene, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water").
See also
- Futa Toro
References
- ^ Hydrographic data for Dagana, Senegal 1903-1974, Unesco International Hydrological Programme, retrieved 24 May 2012.
- ^ a b c SENEGAL-HYCOS: Renforcement des capacités nationales et régionales d'observation, transmission et traitement de données pour contribuer au développement durable du bassin du Fleuve Sénégal (Document de projet préliminaire) (PDF) (in French), Système Mondial d’Observation du Cycle Hydrologique (WHYCOS), 2007, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 December 2013.
- ^ UNH/GRDC Composite Runoff Fields V 1.0 data for Dagana.
- ^ Freshwater Ecoregions of the World (2008). Senegal-Gambia. Accessed 2 May 2011.
- ^ Pliny, Natural History, Lib. 5, Ch.1 (p. 380)
- ^ A translation of al-Bakri's 1068 account is found in Levtzion & Hopkins, (2000, Corpus: (p. 77). In French, see Monteil (1968). For an attempt to reconstruct the Senegal river's course from the accounts of al-Bakri and al-Idrisi, see Cooley (1841: p. 52).
- Berbers of Western Sahara. There is a report from an Arab commander from the 750s who claims to have reached as far south as "the Nile" (i.e. the Senegal). See Hrbek (1992: p.308).
- ^ Geographia, Book IV, Chapter 6, Section 13.
- ^ e.g. Leo Africanus, p. 124
- ^ See R.H. Major (1868) Life of Prince Henry p. 114
- ^ See Beazley (1899: p. xliv, lxxv)
- ^ Bevan and Phillott (1873: p. 105.
- ^ See João de Andrade Corvo (1882) Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa por D. João de Castro, Lisbon. p.68n.
- ^ Winter (1962: p. 18)
- ^ Delafosse (1912: v.1,p.55), Crone (1937: p.xv), Mauny (1961: p.302), Levtzion (1973: p.155). However, McIntosh (1981) suggests an alternative identification of this riverine "island" to be the Djenné area, around the bend of the Niger.
- ^ "Aquest flum es apelat ued anil axi matex es apelat riu de lor per tal com si requyl lor de palola. Et scire debeatis quod major pars gentium in partibus istis habitantium sunt electi ad colligendum aurum ipso flumine, qui habet latitudinem unius legue et fondum pro majori nave mundi"
- ^ "Aquest senyor dels negres es appelat musa melli, senyor de guineua, e aquest es el puys noble senyor de tota esta partida per labondansia del or lo qualse recull en la sua terra"
- Barbary(land of the Bebers).
- ^ João de Andrade Corvo (1882: p.70)
- ^ Zurara (p.178-83), Barros (p.110-12)
- ^ Cadamosto suggest this was begun in 1450: "Five years before I went on this voyage, this river was discovered by three caravels belonging to Don Henry, which entered it, and their commanders settled peace and trade with the Moors; since which time ships have been sent to this place every year to trade with the natives." Cadamosto (Engl. 1811 trans., p. 220) The identification of Lourenço Dias as the opener of Portuguese trade on the Senegal River is suggested in a 1489 document. See Russell (2000:p.97n14).
- Tiber River! In all likelihood, "Tiber Gold" was just a generic Italian reference to river-dug gold.
- ^ Cadamosto (p. 220; Ital: p. 111).
- ^ Geographia, Book IV, Chapter 6, Section 14.
- ^ By confounding the Ptolemy's Greek 'Nigir' with the Latin word for "black", Leo Africanus assumed the "Nile of the Blacks" (i.e. Senegal-Niger of the Arab traders) must be the Nigir of the ancients. See Leo Africanus, (Ital: p. 7, Eng: p. 124
- Luis del Marmol Carvajal (1573) (ch. 17)
- ^ Barros, Décadas da Ásia (p. 109). See also Bailot (1853: p.199).
- ^ See also A.M. de Castilho (1866) Descripção e roteiro da costa occidental de Africa, vol. 1, p. 92.
- )
- ^ Barros, p. 109. This is reiterated in Marmol, Ch.8.3.
- ^ Cadamosto (Ital: p. 110; Eng: p.220).
- ^ Cadamosto (Ital: p. 113; Eng., p. 225 )
- ^ Russell (2000: p.298)
- ^ e.g. in a Genoese note about Jaume Ferrer's 1346 trip to the River Gold, "Istud flumen vocatur Vedamel similiter vocatur riu Auri". See G. Gråberg (1802) Annali di geografia e di statistica, Genoa, vol. II, p. 290
- ^ The "River of Treasure" interpretation of Vedamel can be found in J.G.H. "'Histoire du commerce entre le Levant et l'Europe' in 1831, Antologia; giornale di scienze, lettere e arti, Vol. 3 (Aug.) p. 27. R.H. Major (p.113) proposes the "Nile" interpretation.
- ^ Fr. David Boilat (1853) Esquisses sénégalaises p. 199
- ^ Bailot, p. 199
- ^ Monod & Mauny, in the French translation of Zurara, although it is already noted by editor Kerr in the 1811 English translation of Cadamosto.
- Ghana empire.
- ^ Delafosse "Senegal River", in First encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, Leiden: E.J. Brill. vol. 7 (pp. 223–24)
- ^ a b c Monteil, 1964: p. 91
Sources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 639.
- João de Barros (1552–59) Décadas da Ásia: Dos feitos, que os Portuguezes fizeram no descubrimento, e conquista, dos mares, e terras do Oriente.. Vol. 1 (Dec I, Lib.1-5).
- Beazley, C.R. (1899) "Introduction" to vol. 2 of C.R. Beazley and E. Prestage, editors, Zurara's The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea. London: Haklyut
- Boilat, Fr. David (1853). Esquisses sénégalaises: physionomie du pays, peuplades, commerce, religions, passé et avenir, récits et légendes' (in French). Paris: P. Bertrand.
- Alvise Cadamosto (1460s) "Il Libro di Messer Alvise Ca da Mosto Gentilhuomo Venetiano" & "Navigatione del Capitano Pietro di Sintra Portoghese scritta per il medesimo M. Alvise da Ca da Mosto", as printed in Venice (1550), by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, ed., Primo volume delle navigationi et viaggi nel qua si contine la descrittione dell'Africa, et del paese del Prete Ianni, on varii viaggi, dal mar Rosso a Calicut,& infin all'isole Molucche, dove nascono le Spetierie et la navigatione attorno il mondo.. online (English translation: "Original Journals of the Voyages of Cada Mosto and Piedro de Cintra to the Coast of Africa, the former in the years 1455 and 1456, and the latter soon afterwards", in R. Kerr, 1811, A General History of Voyages and Travels to the end of the 18th century, vol. 2, Edinburgh: Blackwood. online)
- Cooley, W. D. (1841). The Negroland of the Arabs examined and explained; or, An inquiry into the early history and geography of Central Africa. London: Arrowsmith.
- Delafosse, M. (1912) Haut-Sénégal-Niger. 3 vols, Paris: Emil Larose.
- Hrbek, I. (1992) Africa from the Seventh to the Eleventh century. University of California Press.
- Levtzion, N. (1973) Ancient Ghana and Mali London: Methuen
- Levtzion, N. and J.F.P. Hopkins, editors, (2000) Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history, Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener.
- Leo Africanus (1526) "Descrittione dell' Africa, & delle cose notabili che lui sono, per Giovan Lioni Africano"Descrittione dell’Africa", as printed in Venice (1550), by Giovanni Battista Ramusio, ed., Primo volume delle navigationi et viaggi nel qua si contine la descrittione dell'Africa, et del paese del Prete Ianni, on varii viaggi, dal mar Rosso a Calicut,& infin all'isole Molucche, dove nascono le Spetierie et la navigatione attorno il mondo.. English trans. 1896, as The History and Description of Africa, and of the notable things therein contained. London: Haklyut. vol. 1
- Major, Richard Henry (1868). The Discoveries of Prince Henry the Navigator: and their results; being the narrative of the discovery by sea, within one century, of more than half the world (1877 ed.). London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington.
- Luis de Marmol Carvajal(1573) Primera Parte de la Descripción General de Áffrica, con todos los successos de guerras que a auido entre los infieles, ye el pueblo Christiano, y entre ellos mesmos, desde que Mahoma inueto su secta, hasta el año del señor 1571. Granada: Rabut.
- Mauny, R. (1961). "Tableau géographique de l'ouest africain au moyen-âge d' après les sources écrites, la tradition et l'archéologie". Mémoire de l'Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire. 61. Dakar.
- McIntosh, Susan Keech (April 1981). "A Reconsideration of the Wangara/Palolus Island of Gold". Journal of African History. 22 (2): 145–158. S2CID 162961695.
- Monteil, Vincent (1964). l'Islam Noir (in French). Paris: Edit. du Seuil. ISBN 978-2020024624.
- Monteil, Vincent (1968). "al-Bakri (Cordoue, 1068) - Routier de l'Afrique blanche et noire du Nord-Ouest: Traduction nouvelle de seize chapitres, sur le MS arabe 17 Bd PSS/902 du British Museum". Bulletin de l'Ifan. 30: 39–116.
- A Phérotée de La Croix (1688) Relation universelle de l'Afrique, ancienne et moderne Alyon: Amaulry
- Pliny the Elder (c. 30 AD) Naturalis Historiae. [1855 edition, John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley transl. The Natural History of Pliny. London: H.G. Bohn. vol 1. (Bks I - V)
- Russell, P. E. (2000). Prince Henry 'the Navigator': a life. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300091304.
- Livio Sanuto (1588) Geografia di M. Livio Sanvto distinta in XII libri. Ne' quali, oltra l'esplicatione di molti luoghi di Tolomeo e della Bussola, e dell' Aguglia; si dichiarano le Provincie, Popoli, Regni, Città; Porti, Monti, Fiumi, Laghi, e Costumi dell' Africa. Con XII tavole di essa Africa in dissegno di rame. Aggiuntivi de piu tre Indici da M. Giovan Carlo Saraceni, Venice: Damiano Zenaro.
- Winter, Heinrich (January 1962). "The Fra Mauro Portolan chart in the Vatican". Imago Mundi. 16 (1): 17–28. JSTOR 1150299.
- Gomes Eanes de Zurara (1453) Crónica dos feitos notáveis que se passaram na Conquista da Guiné por mandado do Infante D. Henrique or Chronica do descobrimento e conquista da Guiné. [Trans. 1896-99 by C.R. Beazley and E. Prestage, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea, London: Haklyut, v.1, v.2
Further reading
- Betz, R. L. (2007). The Mapping of Africa: a cartobibliography of printed maps of the African continent to 1700. Hes & de Graaf. ISBN 978-90-6194-489-8.
- Davidson, Basil (1998). West Africa Before the Colonial Era: a history to 1850. London: Longman. ISBN 0-582-31852-1.
- De la Roncière, Charles (1925). La découverte de l'Afrique au moyen âge. 2 volumes. Cairo: Société Royale de Géographie d'Égypte.
External links
- The Hydrology of Senegal (PowerPointpresentation)