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West Africa
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West Africa has been a major contributor to world cuisine in terms of the migration of its indigenous crops, methods of production of those crops, and culinary customs. Very few of Africa's currently known native food plants have received the recognition or research deserved and warranted for so vast a larder. The scientific community has not been able to provide an exact count of foods actually native to the continent nor the age of most of its crops. The history of the continent's flora is, therefore, virtually unknown. As with environments threatened with endangered species, Africa's indigenous agricultural pantry is gradually dwindling due to lack of research and interest. Many biases exist against native African foods, biases that have kept alive perceptions of the inferiority of African crops.
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The first step towards the economic integration of West Africa was the establishment of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 1975. Under the ECOWAS treaty, it was envisaged that the 16 member-nations would form a common market. Subsequently, the heads of state and government adopted the ECOWAS Monetary Cooperation Program (EMCP) IN 1987. Under the initiative, it was envisaged that all the countries would come together to form a single monetary one by 2000, from the eight currencies in the sub-region, one of which is the CFA franc.
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When doing business in Central and West Africa, American businesses can turn to the U.S. government for assistance. The United States Commercial Service, which is part of the Department of Commerce, is represented in Dakar, which covers eighteen Central and West African countries unless Nigeria. Additionally, most embassies, consulates, and U.S. Government offices overseas have commercial sections that can provide market research, counseling services, and assistance in making contacts with U.S. businesses. The commercial section is equipped with valuable resources to help businesses learn more about the market and to help locate potential customers, distributors or agents. The latest tool created by the U.S. Commercial Service top help businesses in finding buyers and sellers, qualify new markets, target new markets and close trade deals is BuyUSA
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Nigeria, West Africa's only significant oil producer, had oil production averaging 2.118 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2002 (see Table 3). Nigerian oil production has averaged 2.219 million bbl/d for the first three months of 2003. OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) statistics list Nigeria's estimated proven crude reserves at 31.5 billion barrels, and this constitutes 96% of the region's estimated proven crude reserves. Smaller reserves are located in the Gulf of Guinea (offshore Benin, Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana), in the Atlantic Ocean (offshore Mauritania and Senegal) and in landlocked Niger. Nigeria is the region's largest oil consumer (nearly 60% of the region's total).
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Located in sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa is defined by a series of elongated countries that border the Atlantic Ocean, with an exception of Burkina Faso. The countries are small in area compared to the other parts of Africa. Western Africa makes up the largest population cluster in sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the population lives in the southern coastal area, along the Atlantic, a result of European trading that led to economic development beginning in the 1200s.
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The southern part of West Africa below the Sahel was dominated by the three great empires of Ghana, Mali and Gao. Each of these empires was composed of a particular language group; ... Ghana was controlled by Soninke-speaking peoples, Mali by Manding peoples and Gao by Songhay people. These were not empires in the modern sense but rather confederations of language and kinship groups which owed allegiance to a central ruler whose capital was often mobile. The empires are difficult to define in territorial terms as they had differing degrees of control over different peoples over a wide area. The key to the rise and fall of these empires was the control of the gold trade with North Africa.
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West Africa