Historiographical Context. Western-influenced scholars often divide West African history into "precolonial," "colonial," and "postcolonial" periods. Others divide it into "traditional" and "modern" eras demarcated by the arrival of western Europeans,...
The "Bright Age." While Europe was going through the Dark Ages and Middle Ages and then entering its Renaissance, West Africa was in its "Bright Age." The thriving kingdom of Ghana, founded near the Senegal and Niger Rivers, reached its peak in the...
Studying Family Structure. The study of the family from an historically informed perspective is a challenging exercise. Indeed, concepts of the social unit known as the family have varied widely from time to time and place to place. Reconstructing...
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square...
WITH ITS PROSECUTION of the former Liberian leader Charles Taylor, the United Nations will send a message to the strongmen of Africa that they can no longer export terror and death to neighboring nations. The trial needs to proceed fairly and quickly to convince...
National conferences in several francophone West African nations, including Chad, Togo, and Niger, have produced active pro-democracy movements. France will no longer prop up dictatorial regimes, but it also seems unwilling to support nascent democracies. GONE are the days when La Grande Armee...
DAKAR, Oct 31 (Reuters) - West Africa is sticking by its demand for an extended World Trade Organisation waiver for trade with Europe, a top regional adviser said on Wednesday, rejecting an EU call for new interim commercial deals by Dec. 31. The European...
ACCRA, Dec 13 (Reuters) - West Africa's ECOWAS bloc says member states can do last-ditch deals with Europe to avoid disrupting exports in 2008, but warned they shouldn't sign broader economic accords ahead of a possible regional deal. "We definitely do not object to...
