NOTES ET DOCUMENTS JEFFREYS itw ater sr and University Johannesburg Niger Origins of the Word

Nigritia : Nigeria

While it is clear that there should be some common denominator for the names of an African territory that appear to derive from common root it does not appear possible to nnd this common denominator Thus Nigritia is defined according to the Century Dictionary of 1904 as region in central Africa nearly equivalent to Sudan and the home of the most pronounced types of the Negro race .. In Africa London 1670 map shows region called Nigritarum south of the Sahara to stretch from the Atlantic to the Nile So that one suspects that Nigritia is but latinising of the Arabic word Sudan which means the land of the Blacks Ptolemy makes no mention of Nigritia but his discourse on the rivers of Africa may throw light on the origin of the word Niger Murray 1817 381 remarks Westwards from the Nile he Ptolemy describes the vast range of Libya Interior watered by the great rivers Gir and Niger It has been generally understood that this tract comprised the modern Nigritia that the Niger was the great river so well known in Europe under this name though it is not designated so in any part of Africa and that the Gir is the river of Boumau We may add that the name Gir is native in this part of Africa and is applied to river of Sigilmessa This tract would not encompass the realms of the Negroes and could not thus refer to the area known to-day as Nigeria which includes much of the courses of the Niger and the Benue rivers

Nigeria

The name Nigeria first appeared in print according to Dr Meek 1960 on January 1897 It was the title of an article in our leading newspaper written by Miss Flora Shaw who at that time did the colonies for The Times as Cecil Rhodes expressed it. The Oxford English Dictionary has 1908 as its date for Nigerian but Cole 1862 170 writes This is the general mode in which the Nigerians make known their loses. Here one realises that words Nigeria and Nigerian derive from the name Niger