west africa

A brief biography of the self-educated nineteenth-century Englishwoman who, after a secluded childhood and youth, traveled alone through unexplored West Africa in 1893 and 1894 and learned much about the area and its inhabitants.

Summary: Discusses Portuguese voyages of discovery and exploration around Africa and Asia in the fifteenth centuries.

A fascinating introduction to the development and history of the rich societies and culture of West Africa until c. 1850. West Africa, of course, is a vast area, covering a great range of climates and conditions, from the Sahara to equatorial jungles and an equal range of peoples and cultures. It is not a single story that the author has to tell, but many interlocking and overlapping stories. To that end, he provides narrative accounts of the key empires and cultures of west Africa, but sets them in their broader general context, illuminated by the findings of both historians and anthropologists.

A book of 6 funny spider stories.

Portrays the West African kingdom of Benin as it existed when visited by the Portuguese in 1472 and describes its customs and the ceremony surrounding the Oba.