How the Nile River has Affected Humankind over the Millennia

Like the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are frequently described as the “cradle of civilization,” references to the “gift of the Nile River” in Egypt are likewise commonplace. To determine the reasons why, this paper provides a discussion concerning this statement in relation to the river system of agriculture, the people, riverine culture, worship and trade. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the Nile River are presented in the conclusion.

Nile River and Agriculture

At around 4,250 miles long, many people know that the Nile River is the longest river in the world, but far fewer fully understand the importance of this river system on the lives of the hundreds of millions of people who live along its pathways through the eleven countries that comprise the more than 1,293,000 square miles of the Nile River basin (see map at Appendix A) (Arah 109). All of these countries remain categorized by the international community as being \\\\\\\\\\\\"relatively underdeveloped and poor\\\\\\\\\\\\" and agriculture still represents the primary source of employment in these countries today (Arah 109).

Nile River and the People

More than 437 million people live along the Nile River’s pathways through Egypt, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Rwanda, the Republic of Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda (Arah 109).

Riverine Culture along the Nile

It is important to note that the hundreds of millions of people who live along the Nile River do not comprise a homogeneous collection, but rather represent dozens of individual cultures within these countries. Despite these fundamental differences, though, the vast majority of these peoples share a common cultural preference with respect to the gift of the Nile. In this regard, the editors of the Manila Bulletin point out that, “Most people prefer the riverine culture for easy living like the beneficiaries of the Nile” (Illegal logging 37). Indeed, except for the periodic droughts that plagued the ancient world and which have largely been eliminated through modern water management practices, the gift of the Nile River can be conceptualized a reliable source of livelihood that has shaped the riverine cultures of the nations that have lined its banks for millennia.

Nile River and Worship

Given the overarching importance of the Nile’s annual flooding to the lives of the people who live in its drainage basin, it is not surprising that the river has played an important role in shaping religious practices (Parker 613). Indeed, the ancient Egyptians even worshiped the God Hapi whom they believed “dwells at the foothills of the Mountains of the Moon” where the Nile originates and was responsible for the annual flooding that made successful agriculture in an otherwise desert setting possible (Delices 63). Like many ancient deities, Hapi was a demanding god and Egyptians sacrificed “their most beautiful girl” as the “bride of Hapi” each year to “please the river Nile” (Pabla 180).

Nile River and Trade

Given its enormous length and massive size of its drainage basin, it is also little wonder that the Nile River has played a major role in facilitating trade for thousands of years. The importance of the Nile for intra- and international commerce has assumed even greater importance in recent years, however, and some analysts believe that conflict between the countries that share the Nile’s blessings may be inevitable within the foreseeable future. For instance, Arah emphasizes that:

Escaping poverty requires that people realize full agricultural potential and engage in cross-border trade activities to enhance specialization based on comparative advantage supported by a well-coordinated irrigation system. Yet people, their governments, political leaders, and the international community continue to experience a fractured history of conflicts, disputes, and lack of cooperation resulting from the failure to have acceptably negotiated and binding agreements by all the riparian states including Egypt and Sudan. (Arah 110)

While many observers believe that conflicts over dwindling energy supplies will be the next major challenge faced by humankind, there is a growing consensus that conflicts over riparian rights along the Nile are likewise inevitable. For instance, according to a recent report from Leitheid (2018), “It is often said the world\\\\\\\\\\\\'s next world war will be fought over water and there are few places as tense as the River Nile. Egypt and Ethiopia have a big disagreement, Sudan is in the middle, and a big geopolitical shift is being played out along the world\\\\\\\\\\\\'s longest river” (2).

In sum, the Nile River remains at the forefront of disputes over rights to use these waterways as well as the water itself among many of the nations that have historically benefited from its gifts. For example, according to Pflanz, “A colonial era agreement gives Egypt and Sudan rights over all water in the world\\\\\\\\\\\\'s longest river. But a population boom in the Nile River\\\\\\\\\\\\'s basin has other Africa countries clamoring for more access” (3). While Egypt and Sudan have historically dominated this debate, developing nations such as Ethiopia are building industrial parks along the Nile’s banks in an effort to increase trade in order to transform themselves into modern economies that can compete more effectively in an increasingly globalized marketplace. In fact, according to Leithead, “Africa\\\\\\\\\\\\'s largest hydroelectric power station and one of the world\\\\\\\\\\\\'s largest dams will do that, but with 85% of the river emerging from the Ethiopian highlands, Egypt is concerned its rival has the capability to control the flow of the river” (6). These concerns are well-founded, especially given the paucity of international cooperation in determining the precise riparian rights of the Nile River’s beneficiary countries today (Leithead 7). Notwithstanding Egypt and Sudan’s historic influence over the waters of the Nile, an important point made by Pfalnz is the fact that fully 80% of the Nile River’s water originates in the Ethiopian highlands where it empties into the Blue Nile before joining the confluence with the much smaller White Nile at Sudan’s Khartoum. As Pflanz concludes, “Ethiopia knows it has the lion\\\\\\\\\\\\'s share of the water that ends up in the Nile. It has shown recently that it is not prepared to wait for basin-wide agreements to go ahead with large scale projects” (3).

Conclusion

The research showed that references to “the gift of the Nile River” apply to a wide range of benefits, including most especially its contributions to intra- and international trade, productive agricultural practices and a riverine culture that places a high priority on quality of life issues. The research also showed that the gifts of the Nile extend to religious observations that have been shaped by the centrality of the annual floods that made life along the banks of the Nile possible, as well as its unpredictable nature which is reflective of supernatural deities such as Hapi. Finally, the research was consistent in emphasizing that the nations that line the pathways of the Nile River have allowed longstanding disputes over riparian rights to assume greater importance than ever before, due in large part to the unwillingness or inability of these countries to reach an amicable accord despite the pressing need to do so.

Works Cited

Arah, Benjamin. (2015, September). “Governing the Nile River Basin: The Search for a New Legal Regime.” African Studies Quarterly, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 109-114.
Delices, Patrick. (2016, February). “Cementing Scholarship with Service: Dr. Ben at the Foothills of the Mountains of the Moon Where the God Hapi Dwells.” The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 8, no. 10, pp. 62-65.
“Illegal logging.” (2009, February 5). Manila Bulletin, 37.
Leithead, Alastair. (2018, February 24). “The ‘water war’ brewing over the new River Nile dam.” BBC. Accessed http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43170408.
Pabla, Prabhleen K. (2009, Autumn). “Encounters with Civilizations: From Alexander the Great to Mother Teresa.” International Journal on Humanistic Ideology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 179-183.
Parker, Jonathan D. (2014, Summer). “New Meanings for Ancient Texts: Recent Approaches to Biblical Criticisms and Their Applications.” Anglican Theological Review, vol. 96, no. 3, pp. 613-619.
Pflanz, Mike. (2010, June 4). “Egypt, Sudan Lock Horns with Lower Africa over Control of Nile River.” The Christian Science Monitor, p. 3.


Appendix A
Map of the Nile River Basin
[Source: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/]