What is the history of West Africa?
What is the 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, developed agriculture, and made contact with peoples to the north; the second, the Iron Age empires that consolidated both intra-Africa, and extra-Africa trade, and developed centralized …
What is the oldest culture in West Africa?
The Nok culture
The Nok culture was one of the earliest known societies of Western Africa. It existed in modern-day Nigeria from around 500 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. The Nok farmed crops and used iron tools.
What is West Africa called?
western Africa, region of the western African continent comprising the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
What language do they speak in West Africa?
English. In West Africa, English is the primary language of many countries. Nations like Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana speak it officially.
Who founded West Africa?
The Mali Empire began in the 13th century CE, eventually creating a centralised state including most of West Africa. It originated when a Mande (Mandingo) leader, Sundiata (Lord Lion) of the Keita clan, defeated Soumaoro Kanté, king of the Sosso or southern Soninke, at the Battle of Kirina in c. 1235.
What nationality is West African?
What is the best source for West African history?
Sifting through six centuries of Arabic writings, Levtzion and Hopkins created an invaluable resource: these 314 pages of carefully translated writings are the main source for West African history between the ninth and fifteen centuries.
Is African dominion a good introduction to West African history?
Although it is accompanied by maps and written in a clear style, African Dominion is not an introduction to West African history and presupposes basic knowledge of the empires it covers, which can be quickly acquired by reading through our History of West Africa at a Glance article.
Why is West Africa so important?
West Africa, with its density of ancient kingdoms and empires as well as its participation in the trans-Saharan and, later, the Atlantic slave trades, features prominently in every encyclopedia of African history.
Is Africa a part of history?
See also history books in French. “There is a broad strain of thought that has long treated Africa as existing outside of history and progress […], but Africa has never lacked civilizations, nor has it ever been cut off from world events.”
