The history of West Africa is the long history of human movements, incursions,
displacements, intermixtures of peoples, and of the impact of these on the
beliefs, attitudes, social and political organization to the peoples West Africa.
The history of West Africa can be divided into three major periods: first, its
prehistory, second, colonial period, in which Great Britain and France
controlled nearly the whole of the region and the post-independence era, in
which the current nations were formed.