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BOOK REVIEW
The Nile in Legal and Political Perspective: Between Change and
Continuity, by Mahemud E. Tekuya, Brill - Nijhoff, 2024.
JOHN MUKUM MBAKU*
I. INTRODUCTION
Although there have been arguments to the contrary, the Nile
River is the longest watercourse in the world.1 For Africa, it is also the
most important watercourse which serves as a foundation for eco-
nomic, social, and cultural activities in at least eleven countries.2 It
has a length of about 6,650 kilometers (4,132 miles),3 with a drain-
age basin that covers Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan,
Tanzania, and Uganda.4 Its two main tributaries, the Blue Nile and
the White Nile,5 meet at Khartoum and flow northwards through
Egypt and into the Mediterranean Sea.6 The waters of the Nile River
provide sustenance for eleven riparian States whose populations
* Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & John S. Hinckley
Research Fellow at Weber State University (Ogden, Utah, USA). He is also a Nonresident
Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C. Attorney and Counselor
at Law (licensed in the State of Utah). J.D. and Graduate Certificate in Environmental
and Natural Resources Law, the S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, where
he was Managing Editor of the Utah Environmental Law Review; Ph.D. (economics), Uni-
versity of Georgia. This Review reflects only the present considerations and views of the
author, which should not be attributed to either Weber State University or the Brookings
Institution.
1. Harold Edwin Hurst & Charles Gordon Smith, Nile River, BRITANNICA, https://
www.britannica.com/place/Nile-River/Study-and-exploration [perma.cc/BM85-Y4R9]
Qan. 17, 2025).
2. See Richard Kyle Paisley, Why the 11 Countries That Rely on the Nile Need to Reach a River
Deal Soon, CONVERSATION (Aug. 27, 2017), https://theconversation.com/why-the-11-coun-
tries-that-rely-on-the-nile-need-to-reach-a-river-deal-soon-75868 [perma.cc/J769-SVBV].
3. Terrence McCoy, Lauren Tierney, & Marina Dias, The Nile Is the World's Longest
River? The Amazon Would Like a Word, WASHINGTON POST (June 12, 2023), https://www.
washingtonpost.com/world/2023/06/12/amazon-nile-longest-river/.
4. Paisely, supra note 2.
5. SeeJOHN A. SHOUP, THE NILE: AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND
CULTURE 3 (2017). The Blue Nile originates at Lake Tana in Ethiopia and travels approx-
imately 1,450 kilometers through Ethiopia, meeting the White Nile at Khartoum where it
forms the Nile River. Id. at 73. The Blue Nile supplies sixty percent of the water that flows
into the Nile River. Id. The White Nile originates from the Great Lakes Region of Central
Africa. See id. at 344-47. It begins at Lake No and flows north until it reaches Khartoum,
where it merges with the Blue Nile. Id. at 346.
6. See id. at 2.
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