What are some fun facts about West Africa?
What are some fun facts about West Africa?
The 14th-century king was named the richest person in all history by the Celebrity Net Worth website. Mansa Musa I ruled West Africa’s Malian Empire in the early 1300s, making his fortune by exploiting Mali’s salt and gold production. 4. West Africa is more culturally diverse than the whole of Asia.
What makes western Africa unique?
West Africa has a rich ecology, with strong biodiversity and several distinct regions. The climate and ecology are heavily influenced by the dry Sahara to the North and East, which provides dry winds during the Harmattan, and the west and humid climate to the south and of the Atlantic which provides seasonal monsoons.
What did West Africa lack?
While North Africa had abundant supplies of salt, West Africa lacked salt. Salt is vital for human survival. Merchants, moving in caravans across the desert, picked up large blocks of salt on their journey to exchange for gold. West Africa had abundant supplies of gold.
What culture is in West Africa?
West Africa forms the westernmost region of the African continent. People have occupied the area for thousands of years, and its population is ethnically diverse though culturally relatively similar. The beliefs of native cultures include Islam, Christianity and various traditional African religions.
How large is West Africa?
2.371 million mi²
West Africa/Area
How many country made up West Africa?
17
Western Africa (17) – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
What is the geography and climate like in West Africa?
Geography and climate. West Africa, broadly defined to include the western portion of the Maghreb ( Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia ), occupies an area in excess of 6,140,000 km 2, or approximately one-fifth of Africa. The vast majority of this land is plains lying less than 300 meters above sea level,…
What was the first civilization in West Africa?
The urban Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa, and an early civilization of the Sahara, which may have served as the segue for state formation in West Africa.
What are the similarities between West African cultures?
Despite the wide variety of cultures in West Africa, from Nigeria through to Senegal, there are general similarities in dress, cuisine, music and culture that are not shared extensively with groups outside the geographic region.
What is the history of Agriculture in West Africa?
In West Africa, the wet phase ushered in expanding rainforest and wooded savannah from Senegal to Cameroon. Between 9000 and 5000 BCE, Niger–Congo speakers domesticated the oil palm and raffia palm. Two seed plants, black-eyed peas and voandzeia (African groundnuts) were domesticated, followed by okra and kola nuts.