A Short Political History of Nigeria Independent Nigeria   AFRICAN HISTORY TIMELINE Nigeria History   Nigeria is named after the River Niger, its most striking physical feature and a very useful means of communication. The area now called Nigeria was enclosed in the south by a difficult coastline and an impenetrable belt of rain forest along it, and in the north by the desert. Its isolation would have been complete if the Sahara desert had really been the barrier it seems to be today. Historically, the desert has not been an obstacle but a link between North Africa and the interior of the Western Sudan, including the northern states of Nigeria. Across the desert came many of the people now in Nigeria. From the dawn of history to the nineteenth century, the history of the interior of West Africa was the history of the movement of different peoples and the constant process fusion between them. Often, those movements are impossible to follow in detail. In fact, in some cases legend has to come to the aid of history, but there is no doubt that new people and dynamic contacts between old and new were constantly enriching the lives of the Nigerian peoples from the past. Nigeria--History, Language, and Culture The Colonial History and Literature of Nigeria Nigeria Saro-Wiwa and Ogoni separatism   World History Archives