Liptako is an historic region of West Africa. It today falls in eastern
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...
, southwestern
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...](_blank)
. A hilly region beginning on the right back of the
Niger river
The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...
, Liptako is usually associated with the
Liptako Emirate
Liptako is an historic region of West Africa. It today falls in eastern Burkina Faso, southwestern Niger and a small portion of southeast central Mali. A hilly region beginning on the right back of the Niger river, Liptako is usually associated w ...
, an early 19th-century
Fulani
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people ( ff, Fulɓe, ; french: Peul, links=no; ha, Fulani or Hilani; pt, Fula, links=no; wo, Pël; bm, Fulaw) are one of the largest ethnic groups in the Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. ...
Islamic
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...
state, founded by
Brahima Saidu. With the semi nomadic Fula, the main historic population of Liptako are the
Gourmantche
Gurma (also called Gourma or Gourmantché) is an ethnic group living mainly in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, around Fada N'Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger. They number approximately 1,75 ...
, a minority population in each of the three nations, as well as the
Mossi and
Songhai. The other common name for the region, Liptako-Gourma, is a reference to the Gourmantche people.
Modern Liptako, most of which falls in 10 to 19 provinces of Burkina Faso, along with Niger's
Tera Department
TERA is a shielded twisted pair connector for use with Category 7 twisted-pair data cables, developed by The Siemon Company and standardised in 2003 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) with the reference IEC 61076-3-104.
Th ...
and
Say Department
Say is a department of the Tillabéri Region in Niger. Its capital city is Say, and includes the towns of Guéladjo, Tamou, and Torodi. It abuts the urban Region of Niamey, and lies across the Niger River to the southwest of the capital. It ...
, and small parts of Mali, is a hilly and in parts sparsely populated area. As elsewhere, the Fula population, known as the "Liptaako" or
Liptako Fula
Liptako is an historic region of West Africa. It today falls in eastern Burkina Faso, southwestern Niger and a small portion of southeast central Mali. A hilly region beginning on the right back of the Niger river, Liptako is usually associated w ...
, are historically supported by semi-nomadic cattle raising and trade.
Say
Say may refer to:
Music
*''Say'' (album), 2008 album by J-pop singer Misono
* "Say" (John Mayer song), 2007
*"Say (All I Need)", 2007 song by American pop rock band OneRepublic
* "Say" (Method Man song), 2006 single by rapper Method Man
* "Say" ( ...
, a nearby Niger River trade center, regionally dominant in the 19th century, relied in part on Fula trade routes through Liptako. In the late 20th century,
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
and other minerals were discovered here, leading to the 1970 creation of the
Liptako-Gourma Authority
The Liptako– Gourma Authority (LGA) is a regional organization seeking to develop the contiguous areas of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Created in December 1970, the Authority has as its goal the promotion of the areas mineral, energy, hydraul ...
: a regional zone focused on the promotion of the area's mineral, energy, hydraulic, and agricultural resources. The zone covered by the authority covers an area of 370,000 km², broader than the historic Liptako, including 19 provinces of Burkina Faso, 4 administrative regions of Mali, and two
Regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...
and an urban community of Niger. Major towns in Liptako include
Diagourou,
Téra
Téra is a city in the Tillabéri Region, Tera Department of Niger. It is situated 175 km north-west of the capital Niamey, close to the border with Burkina Faso. It is mainly inhabited by Songhai, Fulani, Gourmantche and Buzu ethnic gro ...
in Niger, and
Dori,
Koala
The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the womb ...
and
Aribinda
Arbinda (also spelled Aribinda) is a town in and the capital of the Arbinda Department of Soum Province in northern Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in We ...
in Burkina Faso.
[Martin B.Klien (reviewer) Irwin, Paul. - Liptako Speaks. History from Oral Tradition in Africa. Cahiers d'études africaines, 1984, Volume 24, Issue 96, pp. 511-512]
See also
*
Liptako-Gourma Authority
The Liptako– Gourma Authority (LGA) is a regional organization seeking to develop the contiguous areas of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
Created in December 1970, the Authority has as its goal the promotion of the areas mineral, energy, hydraul ...
*
List of rulers of Liptako
Liptako is a historic region in West Africa which included parts of modern-day Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali. Control of the area changed hands between several regional ethnic groups, before the Gurma people established the kingdom of Koala. In th ...
*
Tera Department
TERA is a shielded twisted pair connector for use with Category 7 twisted-pair data cables, developed by The Siemon Company and standardised in 2003 by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) with the reference IEC 61076-3-104.
Th ...
, Niger
*
Samira Hill Gold Mine
The Samira Hill Gold Mine (fr. ''Mine d'Or du Mont Samira'') is a gold mine in Téra Department of the Tillabéri Region in Niger. Opened in late 2004, it is the first industrial scale gold mine in the nation, and while operated by a Canadian/Mor ...
: large Nigerien Gold Mine along the Burkina Faso border
References
{{Coord, 17.20466, -2.413394, display=title
Geography of Niger
Geography of Mali
Geography of Burkina Faso
Regions of Africa