'West Africa' or 'Western Africa' is the
westernmost
region of the
African
continent. Geopolitically, the
UN definition of Western Africa (which coincides with common reckonings of the region) includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of around 5 million square km:
[1]
★ Benin
★ Burkina Faso
★ Côte d'Ivoire
★ Cape Verde[2]
★ The Gambia
★ Ghana
★ Guinea
★ Guinea-Bissau
★ Liberia
★ Mali
★ Mauritania
★ Niger
★ Nigeria
★ Senegal
★ Sierra Leone
★ Togo
All the 16 countries are members of
Economic Community of West African States, except for Mauritania. The UN region also includes the island of
Saint Helena, a
British overseas territory in the
South Atlantic Ocean.
Background
West Africa is an area with a great span of geography, bioregions, and cultures. It is oriented west of an imagined north-south axis lying close to 10° east
longitude. The
Atlantic Ocean forms the western and southern borders of the region. The northern border is the
Sahara Desert, with the
Niger Bend generally considered the northernmost part of the region. The eastern border is less precise, with some placing it at the Benue Trough, and others on a line running from
Mount Cameroon to
Lake Chad.
Colonial boundaries are reflected in the modern boundaries between contemporary West African nations, cutting across ethnic and cultural lines, often dividing single ethnic groups between two or more countries.
Geography and climate
West Africa occupies an area in excess of 6,140,000
km², or approximately one-fifth of Africa. The vast majority of this land is plains lying less than 300 meters above sea level, though isolated high points exist in numerous countries along the southern shore of the region.
The northern section of West Africa is composed of semi-arid terrain known as
Sahel, a transitional zone between the Sahara desert and the
savannahs of the
western Sudan forests form a third
belt between the
savannahs and the southern coast, ranging from 160 km to 240 km in width.
Culture and religion
Despite the wide variety of cultures in West Africa, from
Nigeria through to
Senegal, there are apparent similarities in dress, cuisine, musical genres and wealth.
Islam is the predominant religion of the West African interior and the far west coast of the continent;
Christianity is the predominant religion in coastal regions of
Nigeria,
Ghana, and
Cote d'Ivoire; and elements of indigenous religions are practised throughout. Before the decline of the Mali and Songhai Empires there was a sizable group of Jewish communities in areas like Mali, Senegal, Mauritania, and Nigeria. Today there are Jewish populations in Ghana, Nigeria and Mali. Along with historic migrations, these religions have culturally linked the peoples of West Africa more than those in other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The game
Oware is quite popular in many parts of West Africa.
Football is also a pastime enjoyed by many, either spectating or playing. The national teams of some West African nations, especially Nigeria, regularly qualify for the
World Cup.
Mbalax,
Highlife,
Fuji and
Afrobeat are all modern musical genres which enjoin listeners in this region. Traditionally, musical and oral history as conveyed over generations by
Griots are typical of West African culture.
A typical formal attire worn in this region is the flowing
Boubou (also known as ''Agbada'' and ''Babariga''), which has its origins in the clothing of nobility of various West African Empires in the 12th Century.
The
Djembe drum, whose origins lie with the
Mandinka peoples, is now a popularly played drum among many West African ethnic groups. The Djembe, along with the highly intricate woven
Kente cloth of the
Akan peoples of Ghana and the distinct
Sudano-Sahelian architectural style seen in the many mosques of the region (see
Djenné), are the primary symbolic icons of West African culture.
Family is an important aspect as well, being a main priority.
History
Main articles: History of West Africa
The history of West Africa can be divided into five major periods: first, its prehistory, in which the first human settlers arrived, agriculture developed, and contact made with the Mediterranean civilizations to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated trade and developed centralized states; third, the slave-trading kingdoms, jihads, and colonial invaders of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; fourth, the colonial period, in which France and Great Britain controlled nearly the whole of the region; fifth, the post-independence era, in which the current nations were formed.
Prehistory
Early
human settlers, probably related to the Pygmies, arrived in West Africa around 12,000 BC. Sedentary farming began around the fifth millennium BC, as well as the domestication of cattle. By 400 BC, ironworking technology allowed an expansion of agricultural productivity, and the first city-states formed. The domestication of the
camel allowed the development of a cross-Saharan trade with
Mediterranean cultures, including
Carthage and the
Berbers; major exports included
gold, cotton cloth, metal ornaments and leather goods, which were then exchanged for
salt,
horses, and textiles.
Empires
The development of the region's economy allowed more centralized states to form, beginning with the
Ghana Empire in the
eighth century AD. Based around the city of
Kumbi Saleh in modern-day Mauritania, the empire came to dominate much of the region until its defeat by
Almoravid invaders in
1052. The
Sosso Empire sought to fill the void, but was defeated (c.
1240) by the
Mandinka forces of
Sundiata Keita, founder of the new
Mali Empire. The
Mali Empire continued to flourish for several centuries (most particularly under Sundiata's grandnephew),
Kankan Musa I before a succession of weak rulers led to its collapse under
Mossi,
Tuareg and
Songhai invaders. In the
fifteenth century, the Songhai would form a new dominant state based around
Gao, in the
Songhai Empire, under the leadership of
Sonni Ali and
Askia Mohammed. Further south,
Osei Tutu and
Okomfo anokye have started to build the
Empire of Ashanti Meanwhile, south of the Sudan, strong city states arose in
Ife,
Bono, and
Benin around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Further east,
Oyo arose as the dominant
Yoruba state and the
Aro Confederacy as a dominant
Igbo state in modern-day Nigeria.
Slavery and European contact
Two slightly differing Okpoho manillas as used by Europeans to purchase slaves.
Following the
1591 destruction of the Songhai capital by
Moroccan invaders, a number of smaller states arose across West Africa, including the
Bambara Empire of
Ségou, the
Bambara kingdom of
Kaarta, the
Peul/
Malinké kingdom of
Khasso, and the
Kénédougou Empire of
Sikasso. Portuguese traders began establishing settlements along the coast in
1445, followed by the French and English; the
African slave trade began not long after, which over the following centuries would debilitate the region's economy and population. The slave trade also encouraged the formation of states such as the Bambara Empire and
Dahomey, whose economies largely depended on exchanging slaves for
European
firearms, which were then used to capture more slaves.
The expanding
Atlantic slave trade produced significant populations of West Africans living in the
New World, recently colonized by Europeans. The oldest known remains of African slaves in the Americas were found in
Mexico in early 2006; they are thought to date from the late 16th century and the mid-17th century.
[3] European and American governments passed legislation prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade in the 19th century, though slavery in the Americas persisted in some capacity through the century in the Americas; the last country to abolish the institution was
Brazil in 1888. Descendants of West Africans make up large and important segments of the population in Brazil, the
Caribbean, the
United States, and throughout the New World.
Colonialism
In the early nineteenth century, a series of Fulani reformist
jihads swept across the Western Sudan. The most notable include
Usman dan Fodio's
Fulani Empire, which replaced the
Hausa city-states,
Seku Amadu's
Massina Empire, which defeated the Bambara, and El Hadj
Umar Tall's
Toucouleur Empire, which briefly conquered much of modern-day Mali. However, the
French and
British continued to advance in the
Scramble for Africa, subjugating kingdom after kingdom. With the fall of
Samory Ture's new-founded
Wassoulou Empire in
1898 and the
Ashanti queen
Yaa Asantewaa in
1902, West African military resistance to colonial rule came to an effective end.
Britain controlled The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Nigeria throughout the colonial era, while France unified Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire and Niger into
French West Africa.
Portugal founded the colony of
Guinea-Bissau, while
Germany claimed
Togoland, but was forced to divide it between France and Britain following
First World War. Only
Liberia retained its independence, at the price of major territorial concessions.
Postcolonial era
Following
Second World War, nationalist movements arose across West Africa. In 1957, Ghana, under
Kwame Nkrumah, became the first sub-Saharan colony to achieve its independence, followed the next year by France's colonies; by 1974, West Africa's nations were entirely autonomous. Since independence, many West African nations have been plagued by
corruption and instability, with notable civil wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire, and a succession of military coups in Ghana and Burkina Faso. Many states have failed to develop their economies despite enviable natural resources (''see:
Petroleum in Nigeria''), and political instability is often accompanied by undemocratic government.
AIDS is also a growing problem for the region, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, and Nigeria.
Famine has been a problem in parts of northern Mali and Niger, the latter of which is currently undergoing
a food crisis.
Regional organizations
The
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), founded by the 1975
Treaty of Lagos, is an organization of West African states which aims to promote the region's economy. The
West African Monetary Union (or UEMOA from its name in French, ''Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine'') is limited to the eight, mostly Francophone countries that employ the
CFA franc as their common currency. The
Liptako-Gourma Authority of Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso seeks to jointly develop the contiguous areas of the three countries.
See also
★
Empire of Ashanti
★
Ashanti people
★
Fula people
★
Ghana Empire
★
Hausa people
★
Igbo
★
Islam
★
Jews of the Bilad el-Sudan (West Africa)
★
Mali Empire
★
Mande people
★
Songhay
★
Yoruba people
★
Manillas – A form of archaic money unique to West Africa
★
Corruption in Ghana
Notes
1. ''The UN office for West Africa''
2. Cape Verde is sometimes included due to its membership in ECOWAS.
3. "Skeletons Discovered: First African Slaves in New World". January 31, 2006. LiveScience.com. Retrieved on 2006-09-27.
References
★ Davidson, Basil. ''Africa in History''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.
External links
★
''West Africa by Region and Country'' – African Studies at Columbia University
★
ouestaf.com – Online source for news and current affairs in west Africa.
★
Loccidental – The News reference for West Africa.
★
West Africa Review – An e-journal on West Africa research and scholarship.
★
A website dedicated to West African djembe drumming
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