The Mandé people are an ethnic and linguistic group who are native to West Africa, possessing a long shared history and forming a distinct linguistic family known as the Mandé Languages. The Mandé languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé.
Tichitt Tradition rock art depicting cart, with long platform, framed by two wheels
13th–15th century female terracotta figure covered with red ochre
Sankore Mosque
A 13th-century mosque in northern Ghana attributed to the Wangara.
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo, as well as Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The population of West Africa is estimated at 419 million people as of 2021, and at 381,981,000 as of 2017, of which 189,672,000 were female and 192,309,000 male. The region is demographically and economically one of the fastest growing on the African continent.
A rhinoceros in Bandia Nature Reserve, Senegal
African bush elephants in Yankari National Park, Nigeria
Deforestation in Nigeria.
Satellite imagery from outer space of West Africa
