Gain insights into this vast region’s fascinating heritage through unique collection items and newly commissioned articles by leading experts and teaching resources. Experience the region’s history, politics, literature and religion through fascinating stories from the region’s 17 nations.
Articles
How word, symbol and song shaped history
Gus Casely-Hayford (SOAS and King’s College London), Janet Topp Fargion (British Library) and Marion Wallace (British Library) introduce the cultural dynamism and creativity of West Africa, and explain how word, symbol and song have shaped a thousand years of history.
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Building West Africa
Dr Gus Casely-Hayford (SOAS and King’s College London) introduces a thousand years of West African history, looking at the power of story and symbol in the past and today.
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Crossings: African writers in the era of the transatlantic slave trade
Marion Wallace (British Library) introduces the leading writers of African heritage in 18th-century Britain, and explains how the pen became a weapon against both the slave trade and the system of enslavement itself.
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The Ransome-Kuti dynasty
British Library curator Janet Topp Fargion introduces the influential Ransome-Kuti dynasty.
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Speaking out: political protest and print cultures in West Africa
West Africans made powerful use of writing and publishing to oppose colonialism and fight for independence. Since then, authors have not been reluctant to comment on the state of their nations and the world. Stephanie Newell (Yale University) and Marion Wallace (British Library) reflect on these developments.
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