Era of Australopithecus, the first...

Generalization about West Africa is made difficult by the size (roughly 3,000 miles west to east, and half that north to south) and diversity of the region, as well as by the problematic character of the terms available to describe it, and the...

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...

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...

In one of this city's relatively posh neighborhoods, there is a compound full of specialists.Some who work within the high-walled enclosure are experts in crushing cocaine bars and tying the powder into waterproof pellets for couriers to swallow. Others are adept at dismantling suitcases or...