A concise study examining the various trends and structural factors in the contemnporary political economy of West Africa, assessing how they will affect the needs and capabilities of the sub-region's countries to achieve a more rapid system of democratic government and respond to the demands of globalisation. It provides an overview of the area's development issues, including the prospects for regional co-operation/integration, the important geo-political and economic role played by France in West Africa, changing forms of popular identity, and Islam and its growing influence. It argues that in this age of intensifying globalisation, West Africa's future centres around the choice between the pursuit of national strategies, and closer regional co-operation, the political will not withstanding.

Prior to the arrival of the forces of colonialism, the West African sub-region was dotted by a host of kingdoms and empires among the Ashanti Kingdom to the Sokoto Caliphate, the Kanem Bornu, Samory Touré's Guinea, the Oyo, the Benin and the Dahomey Kingdom, among others. [...] The rapidity with which military rule spread from Togo to encompass all the other countries of the sub-region, with the excep- tion of Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal, and the rapid, often violent regime turnover that the region witnessed in the period up to the late 1990s, is symptomatic of the crisis of governance that continues to afflict the area. [...] The project of reconciliation and reconstruction would, inevitably, involve close attention to the establishment of a new social contract between the state and society, the reconstruction of the state to redress the unidirectional retrenchment which it suffered during the adjustment years, and the provision of a new set of principles around which national energies 11 could be mobilised and which c. [...] Obviously, on the face of things at least, the easiest way to avert the possible outbreak of 'water wars' in the future will be to devise strategies for developing the full potentialities of the rivers in the wider framework of regional co-operation/integration in West Africa. [...] The situation was not helped by the indiscriminate removal of input subsidies, the lack of attention to the infrastructure needs of the farming communities, the inadequacy of marketing and financing institutions, and the difficulties posed by the ever-diminishing international terms of trade for primary commodity exporters.

West African Worlds provides a critical assessment of social, economic and political change in Africa’s most populous and arguably most externally focused region. With an emphasis on globalisation and modernisation, case studies and commentary are integrated throughout to highlight the concerns and issues of the region. Enriched by an impressive mix of West African voices, this text combines theory and application with policy and practice to address socio-economic change, the pursuit of livelihoods, and development within West Africa.

Essays on trends regarding the economic policy, economic implications and social implications of capitalism in Africa South of Sahara - covers historical and sociological aspects; includes chapters on dependence, the role of the peasantry and traditional society in rural development, proletarianization and the evolution of social classes, socio-economic role of foreign investment, White political power structures in Southern Africa, etc. Bibliography, references, statistical tables.

West African Worlds provides a critical assessment of social, economic and political change in Africa’s most populous and arguably most externally focused region. With an emphasis on globalisation and modernisation, case studies and commentary are integrated throughout to highlight the concerns and issues of the region. Enriched by an impressive mix of West African voices, this text combines theory and application with policy and practice to address socio-economic change, the pursuit of livelihoods, and development within West Africa.

Presents a cross-cutting analysis of the main development challenges for the West African region and offers suggestions on how to meet them.