West African History. The recorded history of West Africa is largely devoted to powerful empires and the deeds of their rulers. Little of the information in these sources is directly related to the everyday lives and aspirations of the common men and women of the cities, forests, and savanna of the region. Furthermore, there are few written accounts of West Africa from before the year 1000, and the earliest documents for several regions were written even later. Archaeological research in West Africa has been conducted for a relatively short time, and the distribution of digs has been uneven. Information about the great empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai before 1500 comes mostly from Arabic documents of the period.

A Complex Culture. Despite incomplete records of West African everyday life, scholars have been able to piece together a picture of a diverse and complex culture that has often been misunderstood. During...