Discrimination
comprises "base or the basis of class or category without regard to
individual merit, especially to show prejudice on the basis of
ethnicity, gender, or a similar social factor".
This term is used to highlight the difference in treatment between
members of different groups when one group is intentionally singled out
and treated worse, or not given the same opportunities. Attitudes toward
minorities have been marked by discrimination in the history of the United States. Many forms of discrimination have come to be recognized in American society, particularly on the basis of national origin, race and ethnicity, non-English languages, religion, gender,and sexual orientation.
Colorism
is a form of racially-based discrimination where people are treated
unequally due to skin color. It initially came about in the United
States during slavery. Lighter skinned slaves tended to work indoors, while dark skinned worked outdoors. In 1865, during the Reconstruction period after the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was passed and it abolished slavery. This was soon followed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that granted citizenship to all persons "born or naturalized in the United States", and the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
that protected the rights to vote for everyone. These Amendments passed
during the Reconstruction period extended protection to the newly
emancipated slaves. However, in the 1870s Jim Crow laws were introduced in the Southeastern United States. These laws promoted the idea of "Separate but equal" which was first brought about from the Plessy v. Ferguson
decision in 1896, meaning that all races were equal, but they had to
have separate public facilities. The mixing of races was illegal in most
places such as public schools, public transportation and restaurants.
These laws increased discrimination and segregation in the United
States. Oftentimes, the products and sections designated for the
"Colored" were inferior and not as nice for the "White Only".
Water fountains, bathrooms, and park benches were just a few of the
areas segregated by Caucasians due to Jim Crow laws. Furthermore, the
Jim Crow laws systematically made life harder for African-Americans and
people of color. It made voting harder to accomplish, due to the fact
that African-Americans had to do literacy tests and go through other
obstacles before getting the chance to vote.
In the modern United States, gay black men are extremely likely to experience intersectional discrimination. In the United States, the children of gay African-American
men have a poverty rate of 52 percent, the highest in the country. Gay
African-American men in partnerships are also six times more likely to
live in poverty than gay white male couples.
Some have made the controversial claim that the racist treatment of African-Americans amounts to genocide, elaborated on in Black genocide with foci on slavery, Jim Crow, and other racist institutions in the U.S.
In August 2020, the U.S. Justice Department argued that Yale University discriminated against Asian candidates on the basis of their race, a charge the university denied.
Major figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks
were involved in the fight against the race-based discrimination of the
Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat in
1955 sparked the Montgomery bus boycott—a large movement in Montgomery, Alabama,
that was an integral period at the beginning of the Civil Rights
Movement. The Bus Boycott lasted a total of 381 days before the Supreme Court of the United States
deemed that segregated seating is unconstitutional. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr., a peaceful activist and pastor, led many such protests,
advocating for the improvement of African-Americans in American's
society. His role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott helped to launch his
role in the Civil Rights Movement. King organized many protests attended
not only by African-American, but also Caucasians.
While King organized peaceful protests, Malcolm X went a different route. His main supporters, The Nation of Islam,
and he stressed the idea of black power, and black pride. Although
Malcolm X's actions were radical, especially when they contradicted that
of Dr. King, but he is still considered one of the pioneers in fighting
back against racial discrimination in daily life and not just from a
political standpoint. His ideas of black nationalism
and the use of violence to fight back helped to spark the political
group in the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which later became
known as the Black Panther Party. Formed by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton, the organization was created in October 1966, in Oakland, California. Usually seen in all black and armed, as a group, the Black Panthers first started off patrolling Oakland Police Department
activity, but soon grew to widespread support in cities like Los
Angeles, and Chicago. Although they were seen as a violent gang and a
danger to society, the Black Panthers brought numerous social programs
such as free breakfast for school children and free clinics across
numerous cities. What the Black Panthers were fighting for was outlined
in their Ten-Point Program. They were ultimately taken down by the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover,
in the early 1970s. Other factors such as internal tensions, and
financial struggles also played into the demise of the Black Panther
Party and by 1982 they were completely gone.
In the education system, the Civil Rights Movement further became huge after the ruling of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Oliver Brown challenged the Board of Education of Topeka, Kanas, when his daughter was not allowed to enroll in any of the all white schools claiming that "separate but equal" violates the protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Ruby Bridges, along with the Little Rock Nine,
dealt with discrimination from Caucasian peers, their parents, and the
community in general during the desegregation of schools. The Little
Rock Nine were a group of nine African-American students who volunteered
to attend school at the Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.
They continuously had problems with the public and faced harsh
treatment from other students, parents, and even the Little Rock
National Guard. However, a change occurred when President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by sending federal troops to escort the students. For Ruby Bridges, she joined the Civil Rights Movement in the November 14, 1960, when she became enrolled in William Frantz Elementary School.
Due to many parents not allowing their children in her class, Bridges
was in class by herself, which was taught by Barbara Henry, and
oftentimes ate alone and had recess alone. Ruby, along with her family,
did face a lot of backlash throughout Louisiana from the desegregation;
however, they did receive support from numerous people in the North and
Bridges was able to finish the year.
Gender discrimination
is another form of discrimination. Women are often seen as an expense
to their employers because they take days off for children, need time
off for maternity leave and may be stereotyped as "more emotional". It
is known as the glass escalator
or the glass ceiling, which holds that while women are being held down
in male-dominated professions, men often rise quickly to positions of
authority in certain fields. Men are being pushed forward into
management, even surpassing women who have been at the job longer and
have more experience in the field in some cases.
Dscrimination against men has been described in the areas of family law, such as divorce and child custody, labor such as paternity leave, paternity fraud, health, education, conscription, and other areas of the law such as domestic violence, genital integrity, and allegations of rape.
Discrimination against immigrants
Immigrants to the United States
are affected by a totally separate type of discrimination. Some people
feel as though the large numbers of people being allowed into the
country are cause for alarm, therefore discriminate against them.
Arizona passed a law
that forces people to carry documents with them at all times to prove
their citizenship. Some people claim that immigrants are taking up
"Americans" jobs. Immigration restrictions are among the biggest
government interventions in the economy. They prevent millions of
immigrants from taking jobs, renting homes, and pursuing a wide range of
opportunities that they could otherwise have. Violent hate crimes have increased
drastically. Recent social psychological research suggests that this
form of prejudice against migrants may be partly explained by some
fairly basic cognitive processes.
According to Soylu,
some argue that immigrants constantly face being discriminated against
because of the color of their skin, the sound of their voice, the way
they look and their beliefs. Many immigrants are well educated, some
argue that they are often blamed and persecuted for the ills in society
such as overcrowding of schools, disease and unwanted changes in the
host country's culture due to the beliefs of this "unwelcomed" group of
people.
According to Soylu, there was an open immigration policy up until 1924 in America until the National Origins Act came into effect.
According to the Immigration Act of 1924 which is a United States
federal law, it limited the annual number of immigrants who could be
admitted from any country to 2% of the number of people from that
country who were already living in the United States in 1890, down from
the 3% cap set by the Immigration Restriction Act of 1921, according to the Census of 1890 It superseded the 1921 Emergency Quota Act. The law was primarily aimed at further restricting immigration of Southern Europeans and Eastern Europeans.
According to Buchanan, later in the 1930s with the advent of opinion
polling, immigration policy analysis was carried out by collecting
public thoughts and opinions on the issue. These factors encouraged a
heated debate on immigration policy. These debates continued even into the 2000s, and were intensified by George W. Bush's immigration proposal. Some argue that the 9/11 terrorist attacks left the country in a state of paranoia and fear that strengthened the views in favor of having closed borders.
Discrimination in the workplace
Immigration to the United States
can be difficult due to immigrants' lack of access to legal documents
and the expensive nature of immigration. The United States has
historically been a major target destination for people seeking work and
continues to be so today.. As Graciela, a 47-year-old married woman who
had lived in the U.S. for 4 years, stated, “My husband,... he lost his
job. Things were beginning to get tough... We came with the need to find
work and better life possibilities.”Worldwide, the workforce has become increasingly pluralistic and
ethnically diverse as more and more people migrate across nations.
Although race- or ethnicity-based discriminatory employment practices
are prohibited in most developed countries, according to feminist
scholar Mary Harcourt, actual discrimination is still widespread. Sahagian Jacqueline, an author, argues that one example of this act of discrimination occurred at Macy's
a department store. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Macy's
used unfair documentation practices against legal immigrant employees
who had proper work authorizations. During an eligibility
re-verification process, Macy's broke immigration law that prohibits
employers from discriminating against immigrant employees during
re-verification by asking for more or different documents than other
employees are required to submit based on a worker's immigration status
or national origin. Some of the affected employees lost seniority, were
suspended, or even let go due to the illegal re-verification.
While their opinions are controversial, researchers Moran, Tyler and
Daranee argue that with immigrants' growing numbers and their expanding
economic role in U.S. society, addressing challenges and creating
opportunities for immigrants to succeed in the labor force are critical
prerequisites to improve the economic security for all low-wage working
families and ensure the future vitality of our economy.
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest river in the world, though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer. Of the world's major rivers, the Nile is one of the smallest, as measured by annual flow in cubic metres of water. About 6,650 km (4,130 mi) long, its drainage basin covers eleven countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Republic of the Sudan, and Egypt. In particular, the Nile is the primary water source of Egypt, Sudan and South Sudan. Additionally, the Nile is an important economic river, supporting agriculture and fishing.
The Nile has two major tributaries – the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile is traditionally considered to be the headwatersstream. However, the Blue Nile is the source of most of the water of the Nile downstream, containing 80% of the water and silt. The White Nile is longer and rises in the Great Lakes region. It begins at Lake Victoria and flows through Uganda and South Sudan. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and flows into Sudan from the southeast. The two rivers meet at the Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
The northern section of the river flows north almost entirely through the Nubian Desert to Cairo and its large delta, and the river flows into the Mediterranean Sea at Alexandria. Egyptian civilization and Sudanese kingdoms
have depended on the river and its annual flooding since ancient times.
Most of the population and cities of Egypt lie along those parts of the
Nile valley north of the Aswan Dam. Nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt developed and are found along river banks. The Nile is, with the Rhône and Po, one of the three Mediterranean rivers with the largest water discharge.
Etymology
The standard English names "White Nile" and "Blue Nile" refer to the river's source, derived from Arabic names formerly applied to only the Sudanese stretches that meet at Khartoum.
The Nile word (pronounced Nil or Neel in Arabic) is derived from the Arabic word for the indigo(Añil) color نيلي (لون) [ar] (pronounced Nili in Arabic and its grammer) made from the indigo dyeصبغة النيلة [ar] that Arabs extracted from indigo plant AKA نيلة [ar] or نيلج that grew by the River Euphrates,
where that indigo dye was the most natural dye used by the Ancients.
For this is how the Nile river looked to Arabs when they first
discovered it looking at the river from distance as an indigo snake in
the yellow background of desert.
In the ancient Egyptian language, the Nile is called Ḥꜥpy (Hapy) or Jtrw (Iteru), meaning "river". In Coptic, the word ⲫⲓⲁⲣⲟ, pronounced piaro (Sahidic) or phiaro (Bohairic), means "the river" (lit. p(h).iar-o "the.canal-great"), and comes from the same ancient name. In Nobiin the river is called Áman Dawū, meaning "the great water". In Luganda the river is called Kiira or Kiyira. In Runyoro it is called Kihiira. In Egyptian Arabic, the Nile is called en-Nīl, while in Standard Arabic it is called an-Nīl. In Biblical Hebrew, it is הַיְאוֹר, Ha-Ye'or or הַשִׁיחוֹר, Ha-Shiḥor.
The English name Nile and the Arabic names en-Nîl and an-Nîl both derive from the LatinNilus and the Ancient GreekΝεῖλος. Beyond that, however, the etymology is disputed. Homer called the river Αἴγυπτος, Aiguptos, but in subsequent periods, Greek authors referred to its lower course as Neilos; this term became generalised for the entire river system. Thus, the name may derive from Ancient Egyptian expression nꜣ rꜣw-ḥꜣw(t)
(lit. 'the mouths of the front parts'), which referred specifically to
the branches of the Nile transversing the Delta, and would have been
pronounced ni-lo-he in the area around Memphis in the 8th century BCE. Hesiod at his Theogony refers to Nilus (Νεῖλος) as one of the Potamoi (river gods), son of Oceanus and Tethys.
Another derivation of Nile might be related to the term Nil (Sanskrit: नील, romanized: nila; Egyptian Arabic: نيلة), which refers to Indigofera tinctoria, one of the original sources of indigo dye. Another may be Nymphaea caerulea, known as "The Sacred Blue Lily of the Nile", which was found scattered over Tutankhamun's corpse when it was excavated in 1922.Another possible etymology derives from the Semitic term Nahal, meaning "river". Old Libyan has the term lilu, meaning water (in modern Berber ilel ⵉⵍⴻⵍ means sea).
With a total length of about 6,650 km (4,130 mi) between the region of Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea, the Nile is among the longest rivers on Earth. The drainage basin of the Nile covers 3,254,555 square kilometers (1,256,591 sq mi), about 10% of the area of Africa. Compared to other major rivers, though, the Nile carries little water (5% of that of the Congo River, for example). The Nile basin is complex, and because of this, the discharge at any given point along the main stem depends on many factors including weather, diversions, evaporation and evapotranspiration, and groundwater flow.
Upstream from Khartoum (to the south), the river is known as the White Nile, a term also used in a limited sense to describe the section between Lake No and Khartoum. At Khartoum, the river is joined by the Blue Nile. The White Nile starts in equatorial East Africa, and the Blue Nile begins in Ethiopia. Both branches are on the western flanks of the East African Rift.
The source of the White Nile, even after centuries of
exploration, remains in dispute. The most remote source that is
indisputably a source for the White Nile is the Kagera River;
however, the Kagera has tributaries that are in contention for the
farthest source of the White Nile. Two start in Burundi: the Ruvyironza River (also known as the Luvironza) and the Rurubu River. In addition, in 2010, an exploration party in Rwanda went to a place described as the source of the Rukarara tributary, and by hacking a path up steep jungle-choked mountain slopes in the Nyungwe Forest found (in the dry season)
an appreciable incoming surface flow for many kilometres upstream, and
found a new source, giving the Nile a length of 6,758 km (4,199 mi).
The White Nile leaves Lake Victoria at Ripon Falls near Jinja, Uganda, as the "Victoria Nile." It flows north for some 130 kilometers (81 mi) to Lake Kyoga.
The last part of the approximately 200 kilometers (120 mi) river
section starts from the western shores of the lake and flows at first to
the west until just south of Masindi Port, where the river turns north, then makes a great half circle to the east and north to Karuma Falls. For the remaining part, it flows westerly through the Murchison Falls until it reaches the northern shores of Lake Albert where it forms a significant river delta. Lake Albert is on the border of the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
but the Nile is not a border river at this point. After leaving Lake
Albert, the river continues north through Uganda and is known as the Albert Nile.
In South Sudan
The White Nile flows into South Sudan just south of Nimule, where it is known as the Bahr al Jabal ("Mountain River"). Just south of the town is the confluence with the Achwa River. The Bahr al Ghazal, 716 kilometers (445 mi) long, joins the Bahr al Jabal at a small lagoon called Lake No, after which the Nile becomes known as the Bahr al Abyad, or the White Nile, from the whitish clay suspended in its waters. When the Nile floods it leaves a rich silty deposit which fertilizes the soil. The Nile no longer floods in Egypt since the completion of the Aswan Dam in 1970. An anabranch river, the Bahr el Zeraf, flows out of the Nile's Bahr al Jabal section and rejoins the White Nile.
The flow rate of the Bahr al Jabal at Mongalla is almost constant throughout the year and averages 1,048 m3/s (37,000 cu ft/s). After Mongalla, the Bahr Al Jabal enters the enormous swamps of the Sudd region. More than half of the Nile's water is lost in this swamp to evaporation and transpiration. The average flow rate of the White Nile at the tails of the swamps is about 510 m3/s (18,000 cu ft/s). From here it meets with the Sobat River at Malakal. On an annual basis, the White Nile upstream of Malakal contributes about 15% of the total outflow of the Nile.
The average flow of the White Nile at Lake Kawaki Malakal, just below the Sobat River, is 924 m3/s (32,600 cu ft/s); the peak flow is approximately 1,218 m3/s (43,000 cu ft/s) in October and minimum flow is about 609 m3/s
(21,500 cu ft/s) in April. This fluctuation is caused by the
substantial variation in the flow of the Sobat, which has a minimum flow
of about 99 m3/s (3,500 cu ft/s) in March and a peak flow of over 680 m3/s (24,000 cu ft/s) in October. During the dry season (January to June) the White Nile contributes between 70% and 90% of the total discharge from the Nile.
In Sudan
Below Renk, the White Nile enters Sudan, it flows north to Khartoum and meets the Blue Nile.
The course of the Nile in Sudan is distinctive. It flows over six groups of cataracts, from the sixth at Sabaloka just north of Khartoum northward to Abu Hamad. The tectonic uplift of the Nubian Swell diverts the river south-west for over 300 km, following the structure of the Central African Shear Zone embracing the Bayuda Desert. At Al Dabbah it resumes its northward course towards the first cataract at Aswan forming the 'S'-shaped Great Bend of the Nile[40] mentioned by Eratosthenes.
In the north of Sudan, the river enters Lake Nasser (known in Sudan as Lake Nubia), the larger part of which is in Egypt.
In Egypt
Below the Aswan Dam, at the northern limit of Lake Nasser, the Nile resumes its historic course. North of Cairo, the Nile splits into two branches (or distributaries) that feed the Mediterranean: the Rosetta Branch to the west and the Damietta to the east, forming the Nile Delta.
At Beni Sweif: 0.5 million tonnes of suspended sediment and an additional 20% of bedload
At Qena: 0.27 million tonnes of suspended sediment and an additional 27% of bedload
At Sohag: 1.5 million tonnes of suspended sediment and an additional 13% of bedload
Tributaries
Red Nile
Below the confluence with the Blue Nile the only major tributary is the Atbarah River, also known as the Red Nile. Roughly halfway to the sea, it originates in Ethiopia north of Lake Tana,
and is around 800 kilometers (500 mi) long. The Atbarah flows only
while there is rain in Ethiopia and dries very rapidly. During the dry
period of January to June, it typically dries up north of Khartoum.
The Blue Nile (Amharic: ዓባይ, ʿĀbay)
springs from Lake Tana in the Ethiopian Highlands. The Blue Nile flows
about 1,400 kilometres to Khartoum, where the Blue Nile and White Nile
join to form the Nile. Ninety percent of the water and ninety-six percent of the transported sediment carried by the Nile originates in Ethiopia, with fifty-nine percent of the water from the Blue Nile (the rest being from the Tekezé, Atbarah, Sobat, and small tributaries). The erosion and transportation of silt only occurs during the Ethiopian rainy season when rainfall is especially high in the Ethiopian Highlands;
the rest of the year, the great rivers draining Ethiopia into the Nile
have a weaker flow. In harsh and arid seasons and droughts, the Blue
Nile dries out completely.
The flow of the Blue Nile varies considerably over its yearly
cycle and is the main contribution to the large natural variation of the
Nile flow. During the dry season the natural discharge of the Blue Nile
can be as low as 113 m3/s (4,000 cu ft/s), although upstream
dams regulate the flow of the river. During the wet season, the peak
flow of the Blue Nile often exceeds 5,663 m3/s (200,000 cu ft/s) in late August (a difference of a factor of 50).
Before the placement of dams on the river the yearly discharge varied by a factor of 15 at Aswan. Peak flows of over 8,212 m3/s (290,000 cu ft/s) occurred during late August and early September, and minimum flows of about 552 m3/s (19,500 cu ft/s) occurred during late April and early May.
Bahr el Ghazal and Sobat River
The Bahr al Ghazal and the Sobat River are the two most important tributaries of the White Nile in terms of discharge.
The Bahr al Ghazal's drainage basin is the largest of any of the
Nile's sub-basins, measuring 520,000 square kilometers (200,000 sq mi)
in size, but it contributes a relatively small amount of water, about
2 m3/s (71 cu ft/s) annually, because tremendous volumes of water are lost in the Sudd wetlands.
The Sobat River, which joins the Nile a short distance below Lake No, drains about half as much land, 225,000 km2 (86,900 sq mi), but contributes 412 cubic meters per second (14,500 cu ft/s) annually to the Nile. When in flood the Sobat carries a large amount of sediment, adding greatly to the White Nile's color.
Yellow Nile
Map of Nile tributaries in modern Sudan, showing the Yellow NileThe Nile represented in an ancient Roman mosaic found from the ruins of Pompeii.
The Yellow Nile is a former tributary that connected the Ouaddaï highlands of eastern Chad to the Nile River Valley c. 8000 to c. 1000 BCE. Its remains are known as the Wadi Howar. The wadi passes through Gharb Darfur near the northern border with Chad and meets up with the Nile near the southern point of the Great Bend.
Reconstruction of the Oikoumene (inhabited world), an ancient map based on Herodotus' description of the world, circa 450 BC
The Nile has been the lifeline of civilization in Egypt since the Stone Age,
with most of the population and all of the cities of Egypt developing
along those parts of the Nile valley lying north of Aswan. However, the
Nile used to run much more westerly through what is now Wadi Hamim and
Wadi al Maqar in Libya and flow into the Gulf of Sidra. As the sea level rose at the end of the most recent ice age, the stream which is now the northern Nile captured the ancestral Nile near Asyut. This change in climate also led to the current extents of the Sahara desert, around 3400 BCE.
Khufu branch
The Giza Pyramid Complex originally overlooked a branch of the Nile that no longer exists. This branch was highest during the African Humid Period.
Ancient Niles
The existing Nile has five earlier phases;
i) the Upper Miocenian Eonile, of about 6 million years BP,
ii) the Upper Pliocenian Paleonile, commencing about 3.32 million years BP, and during the Pleistocene, the Nile phases
iii) Proto-Nile, commencing about 600,000 years BP,
iv) Pre-Nile, transitioning at about 400,000 years BP to the
v) Neo-Nile.
Flowing north from the Ethiopian Highlands, satellite imagery
was used to identify dry watercourses in the desert to the west of the
Nile. A canyon, now filled by surface drift, represents the Eonile that flowed during 23–5.3 million years before present. The Eonile transported clastic sediments to the Mediterranean; several natural gas fields have been discovered within these sediments.
During the late-MioceneMessinian salinity crisis, when the Mediterranean Sea was a closed basin
and evaporated to the point of being empty or nearly so, the Nile cut
its course down to the new base level until it was several hundred
metres below world ocean level at Aswan and 2,400 m (7,900 ft) below
Cairo. This created a very long and deep canyon which was filled with sediment after the Mediterranean was recreated. At some point the sediments raised the riverbed sufficiently for the river to overflow westward into a depression to create Lake Moeris.
Lake Tanganyika drained northwards into the Nile until the Virunga Volcanoes blocked its course in Rwanda. The Nile was much longer at that time, with its furthest headwaters in northern Zambia. The currently existing Nile first flowed during the former parts of the Würm glaciation period.
Integrated Nile
There are two theories about the age of the integrated Nile. One is
that the integrated drainage of the Nile is of young age and that the
Nile basin was formerly broken into series of separate basins, only the
most northerly of which fed a river following the present course of the
Nile in Egypt and Sudan. Rushdi Said postulates that Egypt supplied most
of the waters of the Nile during the early part of its history.
The other theory is that the drainage from Ethiopia via rivers
equivalent to the Blue Nile, the Atbara and the Takazze flowed to the
Mediterranean via the Egyptian Nile since well back into Tertiary times.
Salama suggests that during the Paleogene and Neogene
Periods (66 million to 2.588 million years ago) a series of separate
closed continental basins each occupied one of the major parts of the
Sudanese Rift System: Mellut rift, White Nile rift, Blue Nile rift, Atbara rift and Sag El Naam rift.
The Mellut Basin is nearly 12 kilometers (7.5 mi) deep at its central part. This rift is possibly still active, with reported tectonic activity in its northern and southern boundaries. The Sudd
swamp which forms the central part of the basin may still be subsiding.
The White Nile Rift system, although shallower than the Bahr el Arab rift,
is about 9 kilometers (5.6 mi) deep. Geophysical exploration of the
Blue Nile Rift System estimated the depth of the sediments to be 5–9
kilometers (3.1–5.6 mi). These basins were not interconnected until
their subsidence ceased, and the rate of sediment deposition was enough
to fill and connect them.
The Egyptian Nile connected to the Sudanese Nile, which captures
the Ethiopian and Equatorial headwaters during the current stages of
tectonic activity in the Eastern, Central and Sudanese Rift systems.
The connection of the different Niles occurred during cyclic wet
periods. The Atbarah overflowed its closed basin during the wet periods
that occurred about 100,000 to 120,000 years ago. The Blue Nile
connected to the main Nile during the 70,000–80,000 years B.P. wet
period. The White Nile system in Bahr El Arab and White Nile Rifts
remained a closed lake until the connection of the Victoria Nile to the
main system some 12,500 years ago during the African humid period.
An aerial view of irrigation from the Nile River supporting agriculture in Luxor, EgyptA felucca traversing the Nile near Aswan
The Greek historian Herodotus
wrote that "Egypt was the gift of the Nile". An unending source of
sustenance, it played a crucial role in the development of Egyptian
civilization. Because the river overflowed its banks annually and
deposited new layers of silt, the surrounding land was very fertile. The
Ancient Egyptians cultivated and traded wheat, flax, papyrus and other crops around the Nile. Wheat was a crucial crop in the famine-plagued Middle East.
This trading system secured Egypt's diplomatic relationships with other
countries and contributed to economic stability. Far-reaching trade has
been carried on along the Nile since ancient times. A tune, Hymn to the Nile,
was created and sung by the ancient Egyptian peoples about the flooding
of the Nile River and all of the miracles it brought to Ancient
Egyptian civilization.
Water buffalo were introduced from Asia, and the Assyrians introduced camels
in the 7th century BCE. These animals were raised for meat and were
domesticated and used for ploughing—or in the camels' case, carriage.
Water was vital to both people and livestock. The Nile was also a
convenient and efficient means of transportation for people and goods.
The Nile was also an important part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. Hapi was the god of the annual floods, and both he and the pharaoh
were thought to control the flooding. The Nile was considered to be a
causeway from life to death and the afterlife. The east was thought of
as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of
death, as the god Ra,
the Sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each day as he
crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were west of the Nile, because the
Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they had to be
buried on the side that symbolized death.
As the Nile was such an important factor in Egyptian life, the
ancient calendar was even based on the three cycles of the Nile. These
seasons, each consisting of four months of thirty days each, were called
Akhet, Peret, and Shemu.
Akhet, which means inundation, was the time of the year when the Nile
flooded, leaving several layers of fertile soil behind, aiding in
agricultural growth. Peret was the growing season, and Shemu, the last season, was the harvest season when there were no rains.
European search for the source
John Hanning Spekec. 1863. Speke was the Victorian explorer who first reached Lake Victoria in 1858, returning to establish it as the source of the Nile by 1862.
Owing to their failure to penetrate the Sudd wetlands of South Sudan,
the upper reaches of the White Nile remained largely unknown to the
ancient Greeks and Romans. Vitruvius thought that source of the Nile is in Mauritania, on the "other" (south) side of the Atlas Mountains. Various expeditions failed to determine the river's source. Agatharchides records that in the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus,
a military expedition had penetrated far enough along the course of the
Blue Nile to determine that the summer floods were caused by heavy
seasonal rainstorms in the Ethiopian Highlands, but no European of
antiquity is known to have reached Lake Tana. The Tabula Rogeriana depicted the source as three lakes in 1154.
Europeans began to learn about the origins of the Nile in the 14th century when the Pope sent monks as emissaries to Mongolia who passed India, the Middle East and Africa, and described being told of the source of the Nile in Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
Later in the 15th and 16th centuries, travelers to Ethiopia visited
Lake Tana and the source of the Blue Nile in the mountains south of the
lake. Putatively, Paolo Trevisani (circa 1452-1483), a Venetian
traveller in Ethiopia, wrote a journal of his travels to the origin of the Nile that has since been lost.Although James Bruce claimed to be the first European to have visited the headwaters, modern writers give the credit to the JesuitPedro Páez. Páez's account of the source of the Nile
is a long and vivid account of Ethiopia. It was published in full only
in the early 20th century, although it was featured in works of Páez's
contemporaries, including Baltazar Téllez, Athanasius Kircher and by Johann Michael Vansleb.
Europeans had been resident in Ethiopia since the late 15th
century, and one of them may have visited the headwaters even earlier
without leaving a written trace. The Portuguese João Bermudes published
the first description of the Tis Issat Falls in his 1565 memoirs, compared them to the Nile Falls alluded to in Cicero's De Republica. Jerónimo Lobo describes the source of the Blue Nile, visiting shortly after Pedro Páez. Telles also uses his account.
The White Nile was even less understood. The ancients mistakenly believed that the Niger River represented the upper reaches of the White Nile. For example, Pliny the Elder writes that the Nile had its origins "in a mountain of lower Mauretania", flowed above ground for "many days" distance, then went underground, reappeared as a large lake in the territories of the Masaesyli,
then sank again below the desert to flow underground "for a distance of
20 days' journey till it reaches the nearest Ethiopians."
A map of the Nile c. 1911, a time when its entire primary course ran through British occupations, condominiums, colonies, and protectorates
Modern exploration of the Nile basin began with the conquest of the northern and central Sudan by the Ottoman viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad Ali,
and his sons from 1821 onward. As a result of this, the Blue Nile was
known as far as its exit from the Ethiopian foothills and the White Nile
as far as the mouth of the Sobat River. Three expeditions under a
Turkish officer, Selim Bimbashi, were made between 1839 and 1842, and
two got to the point about 30 kilometres (20 miles) beyond the present
port of Juba, where the country rises and rapids make navigation very difficult.
Lake Victoria was first sighted by Europeans in 1858 when British explorer John Hanning Speke reached its southern shore while traveling with Richard Francis Burton
to explore central Africa and locate the great lakes. Believing he had
found the source of the Nile on seeing this "vast expanse of open water"
for the first time, Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria. Burton, recovering from illness and resting further south on the shores of Lake Tanganyika,
was outraged that Speke claimed to have proven his discovery to be the
true source of the Nile when Burton regarded this as still unsettled. A
quarrel ensued which sparked intense debate within the scientific
community and interest by other explorers keen to either confirm or
refute Speke's discovery. British explorer and missionary David Livingstone pushed too far west and entered the Congo River system instead. It was ultimately Welsh-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley who confirmed Speke's discovery, circumnavigating Lake Victoria and reporting the great outflow at Ripon Falls on the lake's northern shore.
Since 1950
The confluence of the Kagera and Ruvubu rivers near Rusumo Falls, part of the Nile's upper reachesDhows on the NileThe Nile passes through Cairo, Egypt's capital city.
The Nile has long been used to transport goods along its length.
Winter winds blow south, up river, so ships could sail up river using
sails and down river using the flow of the river. While most Egyptians
still live in the Nile valley, the 1970 completion of the Aswan Dam
ended the summer floods and their renewal of the fertile soil,
fundamentally changing farming practices. The Nile supports much of the
population living along its banks, enabling Egyptians to live in
otherwise inhospitable regions of the Sahara. The river's flow is
disturbed at several points by the Cataracts of the Nile which form an
obstacle to navigation by boats. The Sudd also forms a formidable
navigation obstacle and impedes water flow, to the extent that Sudan had
once attempted to build the Jonglei Canal to bypass the swamp.
Nile cities include Khartoum, Aswan, Luxor (Thebes), and the Giza – Cairo conurbation.
The first cataract, the closest to the mouth of the river, is at Aswan,
north of the Aswan Dam. This part of the river is a regular tourist
route, with cruise ships and traditional wooden sailing boats known as feluccas. Many cruise ships ply the route between Luxor and Aswan, stopping at Edfu and Kom Ombo along the way. Security concerns have limited cruising on the northernmost portion for many years.
A computer simulation study to plan the economic development of
the Nile was directed by H.A.W. Morrice and W.N. Allan, for the Ministry
of Hydro-power of Sudan, during 1955–57
Morrice was their hydrological adviser, and Allan his predecessor. The
calculations were enabled by accurate monthly inflow data collected for
50 years. The underlying principle was the use of over-year storage, to
conserve water from rainy years for use in dry years. Irrigation,
navigation and other needs were considered. Each computer run postulated
a set of reservoirs and operating equations for the release of water as
a function of the month and the levels upstream. The behavior that
would have resulted given the inflow data was modeled. Over 600 models
were run. Recommendations were made to the Sudanese authorities. The
calculations were run on an IBM 650 computer. Simulation studies to
design water resources are discussed further in the article on hydrology transport models, which have been used since the 1980s to analyze water quality.
Despite the development of many reservoirs, drought during the
1980s led to widespread starvation in Ethiopia and Sudan, but Egypt was
nourished by water impounded in Lake Nasser. Drought has proven to be a
major cause of fatality in the Nile river basin. According to a report
by the Strategic Foresight Group around 170 million people have been affected by droughts in the last century with half a million lives lost.
From the 70 incidents of drought which took place between 1900 and
2012, 55 incidents took place in Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and
Tanzania.
Water sharing dispute
Hydropower dams in the Nile (plus huge dam under construction in Ethiopia)
The Nile's water has affected the politics of East Africa and the Horn of Africa for many decades. The dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over the $4.5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has become a national preoccupation in both countries, stoking patriotism, deep-seated fears and even murmurs of war. Countries including Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya have complained about Egyptian domination of its water resources. The Nile Basin Initiative promotes a peaceful cooperation among those states.
Several attempts have been made to establish agreements between the countries sharing the Nile waters. On 14 May 2010 at Entebbe,
Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Tanzania signed a new agreement on
sharing the Nile water even though this agreement raised strong
opposition from Egypt and Sudan. Ideally, such international agreements
should promote equitable and efficient usage of the Nile basin's water
resources. Without a better understanding about the availability of the
future water resources of the Nile, it is possible that conflicts could
arise between these countries relying on the Nile for their water
supply, economic and social developments.
Modern achievements and exploration
White Nile
In 1951, American John Goddard
together with two French explorers became the first to successfully
navigate the entire Nile from its source in Burundi at the potential
headsprings of the Kagera River in Burundi to its mouth on the
Mediterranean Sea, a journey of approximately 6,800 km (4,200 mi). Their
9-month journey is described in the book Kayaks down the Nile.
The White Nile Expedition, led by South African national Hendrik Coetzee,
navigated the White Nile's entire length of approximately 3,700
kilometres (2,300 mi). The expedition began at the White Nile's
beginning at Lake Victoria in Uganda, on 17 January 2004 and arrived at
the Mediterranean in Rosetta, four and a half months later.
Blue Nile
The Blue Nile Expedition, led by geologist Pasquale Scaturro and his
partner, kayaker and documentary filmmaker Gordon Brown became the first
known people to descend the entire Blue Nile, from Lake Tana in
Ethiopia to the beaches of Alexandria on the Mediterranean. Their
approximately 5,230-kilometre (3,250 mi) journey took 114 days, from 25
December 2003 to 28 April 2004. Though their expedition included others,
Brown and Scaturro were the only ones to complete the entire journey. Although they descended whitewater manually, the team used outboard motors for much of their journey.
On 29 January 2005, Canadian Les Jickling and New Zealander Mark
Tanner completed the first human-powered transit of Ethiopia's Blue
Nile. Their journey of over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) took five
months. They recount that they paddled through two war zones, regions
notorious for bandits, and were arrested at gunpoint.
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