French Sudan

SUDAN, FRENCH, one of the colonies of French West Africa, of which the area is now 380,557 sq.m. (a third of French West Africa); population (1933) 3,526,611; less than 2,000 are Europeans. The colony of Upper Volta was separated from it in 1919, but a portion was re-added on Jan. t, 1933. Until 1920 French Sudan was called Upper Senegal and Niger. Tribes north and east of the Niger are mainly of Berber (Tuareg) stock; the inhabitants of the Niger bend are chiefly Negroids, such as the Mandingo, with Fula in certain districts.

The colony, as a whole, consists of a great plateau of granite and sandstone, rarely more than 1,600 ft. high. Hydrographically the western portion belongs to the basin of the Senegal, the cen tral to that of the Niger. At Mopti, 200 TM S.W. of Timbuktu, the Niger receives the Bani, which rises in about 92° N. and with its tributaries drains a very large area. In its lower courses its divergent channels, uniting with offshoots from the Niger, form in the flood season an immense lake. The lakes or widen ings of the Niger itself occupy vast areas; Lake Debo, the Lake of Horo, the Lake of Dauna and Lake Faguibini are all to the south or west of Timbuktu, and are permanent. Towards the south the country is somewhat mountainous. The country west of the Niger contains patches of forest, but it consists mainly of open land well adapted to agriculture and stock-raising.

The fauna includes the lion, elephant, hippopotamus, wild boar, panther and various kinds of antelope. The climate is tropical. Of the old native States included in the colony, Bambuk lies between the Senegal and the Faleme and Bafing. It is traversed from north-west to south-east by the steep and wall-like range of the Tamba-Ura mountains. The soil in a large part of the country is of remarkable fertility; rice, maize, millet, melons, manioc, grapes, bananas and other fruits grow abundantly; the forests are rich in a variety of valuable trees; and extensive stretches are covered with abundant pasturage of the long guinea-grass.

The inhabitants, a branch of the Mandingo race, own large herds of cattle and sheep. The reports which reached Europe during the 57th and 18th centuries of a country in Upper Senegal rich in gold, referred to this district, where both alluvial and quartz deposits have been found.

Towns.—Kayes (pop. 11,774, about 200 of them Europeans) is situated on the Senegal at the point at which that river ceases to be navigable from the sea—a distance of 46o m. from St. Louis. Bamako (pop. 20,920, about 700 of them Europeans), chosen in 1904 as the capital of the colony, is, on the upper Niger at the head of its navigable waters, and is in railway com munication with Kayes; the military and administrative build ings stand on the healthy plateau of Koulouba, which over looks the commercial town and the river. Segu, where Mungo Park first reached the Niger, is a series of townships stretching for 15 km. along the river (pop. 8,898). Before the French occupation the possessor of Segu was the ruler of the surround ing country ; and the town was the headquarters of the emirs Omar and Ahmadu. Sansandig stands on the north bank of the

Niger below Segu. It was visited by Mungo Park in 1796, and Lieut. E. Mage and Dr. Quintin, French officers, witnessed its stand in 1865 against a siege by Ahmadu, sultan of Segu, from whom it had revolted. Before its conquest by the Tuareg, in the first half of the 19th century, Sansandig was an important mart.

Communications.—There is regular communication by rail and river between Dakar, the principal port of Senegal, and Tim buktu, the journey occupying Io to 12 days. A railway linking the Senegal and Niger rivers starts at Kayes on the Senegal, passes south-east through Bafulabe and Kita, whence it goes east to Bamako on the Niger, and follows the left bank of that river to Kulikoro, the terminus, from which point the Niger is navigable down stream all the year round for a distance of goo m., while from Bamako the Niger is navigable up stream to Kurussa, a dis tance of 225 m., for most of the year. The Senegal-Niger rail way, opened in 1905, is 347 m. long. Steamers ply on the Niger between Kabara, the port of Timbuktu, and Kulikoro and Bamako. There is a complete system of telegraphic communi cation with all the French colonies in West Africa.

Trade and Agriculture.

The chief exports are gum (which comes largely from the northern districts such as Kaarta), rubber, gold, kola nuts, leather and ostrich feathers. A goodly propor tion of the exports from the middle Niger are shipped from Konakry in French Guinea. Under the direction of French offi cials, cotton-growing on scientific methods was begun in the Niger basin in 1904. American and Egyptian varieties were introduced, the American varieties proving well adapted to the soil. Indigenous varieties of cotton are common and are culti vated by the natives for domestic use, weaving being a general industry. Large works are planned at Segu, at Nyamina and at Sansandig, in view of cotton-growing on a large scale; the execu tion of the irrigation works is made difficult by the scarcity of labour. Gold is found in the basin of the Faleme and of the Tankisso. The people are great agriculturists, their chief crops being millet, maize, rice, cotton and indigo. Tobacco is culti vated by the river folk along the banks inundated by the floods. Wheat is grown in the neighbourhood of Timbuktu, the seed having been, in all probability, brought' from Morocco at the time of the Moorish invasion. (See TIMBUKTU.) The oil of the karite or shea-butter tree, common in the southern and western regions, is largely used. Cattle are plentiful ; there are several good breeds of horses; donkeys are numerous and largely used as transport animals; wool-bearing sheep—distinct from the smooth-haired sheep of the coast regions—are bred in many dis tricts, the natives using the wool largely in the manufacture of blankets and rugs. The imports are valued at 86 millions, and the exports seem to reach nearly the same figure. (A. BE.)