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Limpopo, province, South Africa

(Encyclopedia)Limpopo, province (2011 pop. 5,404,868), 48,554 sq mi (125,754 sq km), NE South Africa. In 1994, under South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, Limpopo was created from the northern portion of the ...

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...

Benue

(Encyclopedia)Benue bānwāˈ [key], river, W Africa, chief tributary of the Niger. It flows c.880 mi (1,416 km) W from Cameroon into the Niger River at Lokoja, Nigeria. The Benue, which carries much commercial tra...

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...

Bamako

(Encyclopedia)Bamako bämäkōˈ [key], city (2020 est. pop. 2,710,000), capital of Mali and of the Bamako ...

Clapperton, Hugh

(Encyclopedia)Clapperton, Hugh, 1788–1827, British explorer, b. Annan, Scotland. After serving with the British navy in East India and Canada he made two journeys to W Africa. On the initial journey (1822–25) h...

Biafra, Bight of

(Encyclopedia)Biafra, Bight of bēäˈfrə [key], eastern bay of the Gulf of Guinea, W Africa. It extends approximately from the Niger River delta, in S Nigeria, to N Gabon. The bight gave its name to the secession...

Bantu languages

(Encyclopedia)Bantu languages, group of African languages forming a subdivision of the Benue-Niger division of the Niger-Congo branch of the Niger-Kordofanian language family (see African languages). Bantu contains...

Mande

(Encyclopedia)Mande mänˈdā [key], language group, W Africa, including the Malinke, Dyula, Marka, Mende, Bambara, and Soninke subgroups. The Mande-speakers today number about 3 million and live mainly in Senegal,...