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Originally posted by KING:
Hey Zarahan,

I found this on rivers in West Africa, hope it help:

Rivers in West Africa

By Jared Paventi,

The rivers of West Africa are important resources for the region. The rivers provide sources of water for agriculture and human consumption. Those that flow into the Atlantic Ocean are important to trade and shipping to the central part of the continent.

Niger River
The Niger River is the largest river in West Africa at nearly 2,600 miles. The body of water crosses five countries--Benin, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria--originating in the Guinean Highlands. The mouth of the river is at the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. The Niger is fairly clear, lacking the silt found in other African rivers, thanks to its rocky banks.

Volta River
The Volta River originates at the point where its three tributaries--the Red, White and Black Volta--meet. Those rivers flow out of Burkina Faso and into Ghana, where they meet. The Volta flows into the man-made Lake Volta, which is Ghana's largest hydroelectricity source. From Lake Volta, the river flows into the Gulf of Guinea.

Senegal River
The Senegal River is the second-largest river in West Africa and forms a natural border between its namesake nation and Mauritania. The 1,100-mile long river stretches into the Mali highlands and descends into the Atlantic Ocean. The river holds an important role in providing water for electricity and drinking, however, overbuilding of dams has caused damage to ecosystems in the upper part of the river. There has been significant depletion of wildlife and an increase in water-borne illnesses.

The Gambia River
The 700-mile Gambia River has more than just a natural significance. It was a major route of the pre-1850s slave trade. Africans would be transported down the river to James Island, a major exchange point for the slave industry, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


This is about the Congo river, the most powerful river in the world:

Congo River
Rhett A. Butler

The Congo River -- formerly the Zaire River -- is Africa's most powerful river and the second most voluminous river in the world with a discharge of 1,500,000 cubic feet of water per second. It is the fifth longest river in the world, draining a basin of nearly 1.5 million square miles.

The river is best known for its role in history. Called the heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad, the river and surrounding rainforest have long been known as the mysterious land of pygmies, mythical beasts, dreadful plagues, and cannibals. It is a land made famous by the rigorous adventures of Stanley and Livingstone, and known as a place of brutality and violence for its past: the days of the Arab slave and ivory trade, its long history of tribal warfare; and its present: the ethnic violence and massacres of today.

The river itself is as turbulent as its history, though it begins peacefully enough in the savannas just south of Lake Tanganyika. Gradually the river widens and picks up speed until it enters the "Gates of Hell," a 75-miles long canyon of impassable rapids. The river emerges again, surrounded by lush tropical rainforest as the Lualaba or Upper Congo. During the course its journey through the foreboding rainforest, the river crosses the equator twice. Because the watershed of the Congo drains from both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere it does not have the great seasonal fluctuations in water level as other great rivers. Its flow is relatively stable because part of its watershed is always in the zone of rain. The Upper Congo abruptly ends with Stanley Falls, a 60 mile stretch of rapids.

Stanley Falls gives way to the Middle Congo, a 1000 mile stretch of navigable river, nine miles wide in some parts. Along this quiet stretch of river is the city of Kinsangani, a city known for violence since Belgian colonial days. Near the end of the Middle Congo, the river slows to a virtual stand-still for 20 miles, a section known as Stanley or Malebo Pool. Here the river is 15 miles wide and flanked by the capital cities of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The peace of the pool is suddenly shattered by Livingstone Falls, a series of rapids and cataracts 220 miles long. There are some 32 cataracts, having as much power as all the river and falls in the United States combined. The final 100 miles to the Atlantic ocean from the end of the falls is fully navigable.

Hope this Helps.

Peace

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Posts: 5905 | From: The Hammer | Registered: Aug 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by lamin:
First, I would hardly rely seriously on anything Sowell writes: a fake economist and simplistic hack writer; but loved in right wing academic circles.

The problem of poverty in Africa has litle to do with rivers but more to do with a complex set of factors involving colonialism, targeted murders of proactive African leaders by European governments, low modern education levels,ignorance of African history, imported religions: alienated and unreflective worship of that religion that came out of the Arabian peninsula, unreflective worship or the religion that was fellow-travelled in with the invading colonialists from Europe, premodern cultural attitudes that could be solved by education, inferiority complexes of Western-educated Africans before white governments, myopic ethnic rivalries stirred up power-hungry and ruthless politicians, etc.

Leadership counts for oppressed peoples, so the West always ensures that African leaders that threaten Western economic and political interests get targeted and murdered. Lumumba was murdered by the U.S. and Belgium--and his body systematically chopped into pieces then stored in a vat. Nkrumah was overthrown by the U.S. with the axe-man being the U.S. ambassador to Ghana(mulatto Franklin Williams), Amilcar Cabral was murdered by the French and Portugese, Steve Biko was murdered by the Apartheid white regime, Laurent Kabila was targeted and murdered by the U.S. Mondlane of Mozambique was probably killed by Portugese and South African elements. The French engineered the murder of Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso. A cabal of all the white powers in the world conspired to overthrow the government of Libya under Gaddafi--now targeted for a murder kill. The list goes on.

So in reality, rivers have little to do with poverty in Africa.

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Posts: 1219 | From: North Carolina, USA | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged |