West Africa

One of the first questions that crossed my mind when I first heard about the Three Rivers Jenbe Ensemble was what exactly comprises West Africa. I thought that since I didn’t have any other research/information to share right now, I would try to give a brief answer to that question. So, to find that information I went to the not-so-scholarly-but-always-good-for-a-quick-answer Wikipedia. This is what I found:

West Africa is comprised of the westernmost lobe of Africa and (according to the U.N.) includes some 5 million square kilometers. It includes the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’lvoire, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. The region defined by the U.N. also includes the island of Saint Helena which is a British territory. All of these except Mauritania and Saint Helena are part of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). It is approximately one fifth of the African continent. While all of the states of West Africa have been independent since the year 1974, the region has a long history of European control/colonization. From about the beginning of the twentieth century until after World War II the region was controlled by the French and the British. While this undoubtedly left a mark on the region, it also has its own distinctive culture and traditions. This is some of what I would like to research and will come back to in later postings. For now, here is a map showing the region of West Africa.