West Africa is the term used today to describe that part of the great African continent which consists of the independent English-speaking states of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and the Gambia; the independent French-speaking states of Mauritania, Sen­egal, Mali, Niger, Guinea, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin (formerly Dahomey); Guinea-Bissau and Liberia.

It forms a natural geographical region, as it is bounded to the north in the Sahara Desert, to the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean, and to the east by the Cameroon's mountains and highlands, which form a barrier between West and Central Africa. These boundaries, while they marked the stage on which the main dramas of West African history were played, were far from rigid.

 

The Sahara may have seemed a barrier to free movement between North and West Africa, involving as it did a journey of about 1,500 kilometres across trackless waste, with few oases where water could be obtained. Even so, for more than two thousand years, men have trekked over the desert, surviving the extreme heat of the day and bitter cold of the night. This must always be remembered when considering the history of West Africa. The desert was not impenetrable and across it came trade, ideas and, on one occasion, an army of conquest from North to West Africa. Similarly while the Cameroon's highlands and mountains formed a natural barrier between West and Central Africa, people did cross them. It is believed that Central Africa may have been peopled in part by a migration from Northern Nigeria.

The most effective barrier to com­munication with other peoples appears to have been the Atlantic Ocean, since boats suitable for sailing long distances were not developed by the coastal fishermen. Even when the Europeans arrived, boats at the end of the fifteenth century, they did not teach Africans how to make them. Furthermore, some historians believe that there is evidence of long distance trade along the west coast as far as Angola. They point out that fishermen from modern Ghana, for instance, today travel long distances along the coast in their canoes without difficulty.

The study of West African History

In studying West African history, we must not lose sight of the fact that it was part of the history of the African continent as a whole. There are two reasons why we have to study the history of Africa in regions.

Firstly, our knowledge of the history of Africa has increased so greatly in the past ten years that it is difficult to cover it in depth in an introductory survey of the whole continent.

Secondly, there is a definite advantage in studying one particular region of the continent in detail before studying the continent as a whole. Once the problems of West African history are understood, the study of the history of the rest of Africa becomes much more easy, for it shares some of these same problems.

While initial all the inhabitants of West Africa practised their indigenous religions, Islam, which was brought across the desert, has gained many converts in the savannah. In more recent times it has gained converts in the forest belt too. Today over fifty percent of the population of West Africa is Muslim. Christianity, which only started active conversion of West Africans in the nineteenth century, has gained the majority of its converts in the forest belt, but probably less than ten percent of West Africans are Christians today.

Most West African societies are patrilineal: that is the relationships between members of the same family are determined through the male line. However, in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Senegal there are groups which are matrilineal: that is relationships in the family are determined through the female line. We shall concern ourselves with the importance of family relationships later when we come to consider how people governed themselves. Before that we must discuss the means by which we are able to discover the history of the people of West Africa.