French West Africa

Igbo people are industrious, friendly and educated people. They play an important role in Nigeria political development. Ibos are culturally rich people and they are surrounded on all sides by other tribes like Bini, Warri, Ijaw and etc (“Igbo People History”). The Igbo culture is very dynamic and fascinating and it says a lot about the Igbo people. Village life for the Ibo people is like many other villages in Africa but still unique (“Ibos People”). Ibos villages have anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people (“Ibos People”). In an Igbo village everyone that live in that village is family. Family is a very important part of the Igbo culture. One thing about the Igbo villages is that there is no single ruler or king that controls the populations. Some groups were ruled by a council of elders, while others were ruled by an assembly of citizens (“Taylor, A Yisatu J”). Igbo people mostly farm, trade, and do crafts. Agriculture is an important way of life for Igbo people. Igbo people are all over the…

the Fulani herdsmen. In a separate incidence in a different community, a group of farmers was believed to have poisoned the only dam in a farming community in order to kill cattle belonging to Fulani herdsmen in the area. In a separate incidence, a group of local farmers attacked and murdered four Fulani herdsmen, including a 90-year-old. In one of Ghana’s far-flung communities close to the Burkina Faso border, a Fulani herdsman buttered a farmer to death when the later asked him to keep his…

The name "Sierra Leone" goes again to 1462, when Portuguese wayfarer Pedro da Cintra, cruising down the West African coast, saw the tall mountains ascending on what is currently the Freetown Peninsula and called them the "Lion Mountains," or " Serra Lyoa ." Successive visits by English mariners and later British colonization changed the name to "Sierra Leone." Despite different local varieties in dialect and neighborhood customs, Sierra Leoneans today are united by numerous components, for…

Kory and I met our freshman year of high school. I sat behind him in Ms. Baldwin’s geography class. One day, he had gotten his Discman back from a friend he had loaned it too with the wrong CD in it (how dated is that sentence?!). It turns out, his friend had accidentally kept Kory’s CD and left their Tool CD in the Discman when they returned it. At this point in time, Kory was definitely not a fan. So, after I had sat down behind him and class had begun, Kory decided he was going to doodle in…

Ethnic groups like the Ibos still practice the same customs that they did when they first started. Ibos are located in Nigeria. The people, not just one leader, make decisions. These people are religious and worship multiple gods and reincarnation. Women aren’t always treated equally (“Froiland”). Many of the Ibo people farm. Their main cash crop is yam (“Fourie”). The Ibos practice arranged marriage and polygamy. Sometimes a man can request to marry a woman, or their families arrange their…

The Igbo people started to cast metal in the ninth century, before many other parts of Nigeria. They are the first African tribe to use the lost-wax casting technique. The lost-wax technique involves making and object out of wax, surrounding the wax with clay to make a mold, firing the clay, and melting out the wax, then having a mold to cast the bronze in. The Igbos were the first people to work with copper in West Africa, the Igbos did not know about raising, soldering, riveting, and wire…

Nigeria, a country with over 140 million people is located in West Africa. Nigeria has over 270 ethnic groups, each group has its custom, tradition and dialect. Although diverse in their way of live, Nigerians are unified by the language of death. For the sake of understanding, there are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria, they are the Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Although rural-urban migration has caused us to live together, each ethnic group has its designated primary location. Although death…

Journey to Work: Transnational Prostitution in Colonial British West Africa is an ambitious undertaking achieved by Saheed Aderinto. In this article, his main argument is that local social processes contributed to change the perceptions on the prostitution in Nigeria, and that prostitution network in Nigeria-Gold Coast flourished partly because men benefited of the remittance of women. But he also announces that his article adresses multiple other questions: « How did the attitudes of…

Introduction The empire of Mali was formed in the year of 1230 in Mali. The empire was formed by a man named Sundiata Keita, also known as ‘lion king’, and had many other leaders after his death. The most popular ruler was Mansa Musa, because of his extreme wealth and introducing Islam into the empire. The empire lost power in the 14 hundreds,after the death of Musa, but totally fell apart and ended in the year of 1600 lasting 370 years, the lack of leadership after his death was the main reason…

The author of Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Chernoh Alpha M.Bah, explanation of the outbreak in Sierra Leon and how it influences people’s perception and the response to Ebola from both the political and social perceptive, is one of my favourite reading as it correlates to the topics discuss in lectures so far. As he demonstrated, structural violence in this case must be understood in the context of a regional history and global economy that have cultivated inequalities. For instance, it is no…