Ethnic divisions are at least as numerous as languages, to which they are related but not identical. Although †‘tribal’ names have been used to identify the subjects of ethnographic monographs, the status of these terms is controversial. Contemporary ethnic identities have developed from differences between people that predate colonialization; however, the pertinence of these distinctions, the ethnic names used to label them, and precise criteria of inclusion and exclusion from current ethnic categories have changed demonstrably over the last hundred years. The colonial use of ‘tribal’ labels for administrative convenience, as well as postcolonial competition between groups defining themselves ethnically for control of resources of the state, mean that the ethnic map of West Africa must be understood as a contemporary phenomenon with historical antecedents, rather than as ‘traditional’.
A majority of West African peoples can be classified roughly into peoples of the savannah and peoples of the forest margins and forests. Substantial minorities which do not fit into this binary division include: the peoples of the ‘middle belt’, especially in Nigeria, the coastal peoples and creolized descendants of African returnees, and the Fulani pastoralists.
Developing an argument stated in strong terms by †J.Goody (1971): relative to Europe, West Africa can be characterized as abundant in land and low in population. Precolonially, West African forms of social organization rested on direct control over rights in people defined in terms of *kinship, *descent, *marriage, co-residence, *age, *gender, occupancy of offices, pawnship and *slavery. Political relations were defined by the extent of such relations rather than by strict territoriality. Relations between polities in the savanna depended importantly on their abilities to mobilize cavalry. Centralization of the southern states accelerated with access to the Atlantic trade and to firearms.
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