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Agadez

(Encyclopedia)Agadez ägädĕsˈ [key], town, W central Niger, in the Aïr Massif. Agadez is a trade center visited by Tuareg pastoral nomads. Leather and silver handicrafts are ...

Diourbel

(Encyclopedia)Diourbel dyo͝orbĕlˈ [key], town (1988 pop. 76,548), W Senegal, on the railroad from Dakar to the Niger River in Mali. The market for a peanut-growing region, it produces peanut oil as well as bever...

Mopti

(Encyclopedia)Mopti môpˈtē [key], city (1993 pop. 75,000), central Mali, a port at the confluence of the Niger and Bani rivers. The city is built on three islets linked by dikes; one dike, 8 mi (12.9 km) long, c...

Kaolack

(Encyclopedia)Kaolack kouˈläk [key], city (1988 pop. 150,961), W Senegal, a port on the Saloum River. Lying in a farm area, Kaolack is a major peanut marketing and exporting center and has a large peanut oil fact...

Family Compact, in French and Spanish history

(Encyclopedia)Family Compact, several alliances between France and Spain in the form of agreements between the French and Spanish branches of the Bourbon family. The first of the three compacts, the Treaty of the E...

Economic Community of West African States

(Encyclopedia)Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organization established in 1975 to increase economic cooperation and development in West Africa. Members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C...

Dogon

(Encyclopedia)Dogon dōgänˈ [key], African people who live on the bend of the Niger River in the Republic of Mali in West Africa. A patrilineal, sedentary agricultural people, they number over 360,000. They depen...

Songhai

(Encyclopedia)Songhai or Songhay both: sŏngˈgīˈ [key], largest of the former empires in the western Sudan region of N Africa. The state was founded (c.700) by Berbers on the Middle Niger, in what is now central...

Touré, Amadou Toumani

(Encyclopedia)Touré, Amadou Toumani, 1948–2020, Malian political and military leader. He graduated from military school in 1972 and received further military training in the Soviet Union and France. Promoted to ...

Dakar

(Encyclopedia)Dakar dəkärˈ, dä– [key], city (1988 pop. 672,991), capital of Senegal, W Senegal, on Cape Verde Peninsula, a port on the Atlantic Ocean. Situated in a market-gardening region, Dakar is Senegal's...