Niger the beginning of the 20th century. What is now Niger was created from four distinct cultural areas in the pre-colonial era: the Zarma dominated Niger River valley in the southwest; the northern periphery of Hausaland, made mostly of those states which had resisted the Sokoto Caliphate, and ranged along the long southern border with Nigeria; the Lake Chad basin and Kaouar in the far east, populated by Kanuri farmers and Toubou pastoralists who had once been part of the Kanem-Bornu Empire; and the Tuareg nomads of the Aïr Mountains and Saharan desert in the vast north. Each of these communities,
Niger–Nigeria relations Niger–Nigeria relations The Niger–Nigeria relations refers to the current and historical relationship between Niger and Nigeria. Relations are based on a long shared border and common cultural and historical interactions. The 1,500 kilometer (930 mi) long border between Niger to the north and Nigeria to the south cuts through one of the more densely populated areas of both nations. Culturally, the center and west of this border bisects the northern section of Hausaland: the home of the Hausa people. Prior to the turn of the 20th century there was no formal border here, but the current line is roughly the