Juan Sanz Sanz

High Niger and Delta of the Niger Juan Sanz Sanz

The dry alluvial territory that lies to the Northwest of the Niger Arch was the center of the Ghana Empire, which, as is known, has nothing to do with the current state named so. From the beginning of the Era a powerful commercial center was developed in the limits of the desert, that maintained a constant traffic between the Mediterranean and the Sudan. This trade was based on the export of gold from the alluvial sites of Bambuk, in one of the tributaries of Upper Senegal. This forested region was not dominated by Ghana, which was limited to transport to the Mediterranean ports through the desert. Another essential element of that trade was the salt of the salt marshes of Idjil, of which the Sudanese peoples were in great need. Arab travellers have left us a description of that amazing civilization. But the support of the State was the cultivated fields that, in the middle of the steppe, were irrigated with the waters of the shallow wells of which the region had an overabundance. Later the water table dropped, making agriculture impracticable. And it is precisely the restoration of a nucleus cultivated in that region that may allow us to resurrect the ancient routes and bring the Mediterranean countries back into communication with the Sudanese, the North and the South. If the colonization of the territory were possible in the simple way that we propose, we would have the advanced point on the desert from which to attempt its transit.