In a region on the west side of the continent of Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south, and the Sahara Desert to the north, are a number of nation states that include Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Niger, and Mali. The borders of these countries meant nothing until very recently when they were arbitrarily – at least as far as the indigenous people were concerned – drawn by European colonizers.
Free from foreign rule, the people in ...