Kabara is a small town in Mali on the Niger River, the port for Timbuktu. It is to the south of Timbuktu and is connected to an arm of the Niger River by a canal. The town has at times in the past been linked to Timbuktu by an extension of the canal. However, silting and lower water levels in recent years have made the extension canal unusable and the Kabara port usable only during the high water seasons.
Canals
In the past, the area flooded by the Niger was more extensive than today. In years with high rainfall the floodwater would reach the western outskirts of Timbuktu itself. The Koriomé canal from Daï to Kabara was dug by the emperor Soni Ali Ber when he captured Timbuktu in 1468. An extension known as the "Hippopotamus Canal" was later excavated from Kabara up to Timbuktu. A small navigable waterway to the west of Timbuktu is shown on the maps published by Heinrich Barth in 1857 and Félix Dubois in 1896.
Between 1917 and 1921 the French used slave labour to again dig a narrow canal linking Timbuktu with Kabara. In 1929 the Kabara harbour was a circle of water surrounded by sand at the head of a canal running up from the Niger, used only during the high water season. A shallow canal meandered up from Kabara to Timbuktu, and was used when the Niger was in flood to transport goods to the city. The local people would drink its unfiltered water and become sick from guinea-worm. Kabara was also connected to Timbuktu by a broad sandy track, with two fords over the canal.
From the 1970s prolonged drought caused a drop in the water level of the Niger River, and the canals no longer filled. The canal up to Timbuktu became heavily silted and unusable. A Libyan-financed clearance project was launched in August 2006. The newly excavated canal extended about from Daï to Timbuktu via Kabara. The long and wide section from Kabara to Timbuktu was reopened in April 2007. The canal was also expected to be used to water animals and irrigate market gardens. Problems included steep sides and lack of easy access to the water, lack of footbridges for those wanting to cross it, seasonal drying up and health issues with the water basin in Timbuktu. Without a maintenance plan the canal could again be filled with sand from the surrounding dunes.
As of 2009 the channel from the Niger to Kabara was normally unnavigable in the low water months of September to December. Boats were diverted to Korioumé.
History
In 1353 the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta made the first recorded visit to Timbuktu and Kabara when returning from a stay in the capital of the Mali Empire. Ibn Battuta thought the Niger was the upper part of the Nile. It is probable that by "Kabara" he meant Lake Débo, further upstream, which used to be called Kabara. He wrote,
Kabara had a customs inspector who collected a large part of Timbuktu's revenue from tax on imports from merchant cities on the Niger. Under the Songhai Empire around the end of the 15th century Kabara was governed by two officials. The Balama was head of the military and the Kabara-farma collected customs duties. The Kabara-farma collected gharama, a traditional levy, while it seems that another official in Timbuktu, the Tusur-mondio, collected the Islamic zakat tax.
The Granada-born Berber Leo Africanus visited Timbuktu and Songay some time between 1506 and 1510. He wrote,
Mungo Park reached Kabara in 1805, but was not allowed to continue up the channel to Timbuktu. Gordon Laing reached Timbuktu in 1826, but was killed by Tuareg when he tried to leave. In 1828 René Caillié was the first European to visit the city and return alive. Heinrich Barth visited Kabara in 1853. The canal was so shallow that his boat's passengers had to disembark and the boat was dragged on with difficulty by the boatmen. Higher up the channel widened and led to a fairly large circular basin where seven good-sized boats were lying in front of the town, which was on the slope of a sandy hill. He revisited Kabara after the rains in October 1853, where he found all the fields overgrown with watermelons, a large part of the local economy. He was given hospitality by the harbour inspector, 'Abd el Kasim, a "cheerful old man ... of supposed sherif origin.".