Gaia

Gaya stands beside the Niger in the Dendi country, where the river leaves the drier Sahel for more richly watered lands to the south. Dendi-speaking communities live along its banks and islands, cultivating the floodplain and fishing in the river. Their history is connected with the movements of Songhai-speaking peoples down the Niger after the fall of the Songhai empire. The river remains the defining feature of a landscape shared by farmers, fishers and traders.