Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Land
West Africa spans some of the great landscapes of the African continent. Its geography is
the story of three horizontal lines: a northern band of desert, a southern band of woodland
and forest, and a semidesert zone in between known as the Sahel. Through it all snakes the
region's lifeblood, the Niger River.
Although West Africa largely consists of a gently undulating plateau, there are some im-
portant highland areas: the borderlands between Nigeria and Cameroon rising to Chappal
Wadi (2418m); the Jos Plateau (1781m) and Shebsi Mountains (2418m) in Nigeria; Mt
Bintumani (1945m) in Sierra Leone; the rocky Aïr Mountains in Niger, rising to Mt Bag-
zane (2022m); Mt Nimba (1752m) in the border area between Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire and
Liberia; and the Fouta Djalon in western Guinea (1538m). The peaks of the volcanic Cape
Verde islands are also notable, with the highest being Mt Fogo (2829m). Mt Cameroon
(4095m) is the highest point in West Africa.
Sahara: A Natural History,
by Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle, covers the natural and human history of the
Sahara like no other recent book, and the lively text makes it a pleasure to read.
West Africa's highlands create headwaters for several rivers, including the Niger. Other
major rivers include the Senegal River, which forms the border with Mauritania; the Gam-
bia River, again giving its name to the country it flows through; the Casamance River in
southern Senegal; the Volta River in Ghana and Burkina Faso; and the Benue River (a ma-
jor tributary of the Niger) in Nigeria and Cameroon.
If West Africa is overshadowed by the looming Sahara to the north, it is barricaded by
the equally formidable Atlantic Ocean to the south. Many major cities (including 12 out of
17 West African capitals) are strung out along the coast like beads in a chain, in some areas
forming an almost constant linear urban sprawl, cut only by national frontiers.
Nearly half of Togo's land is considered arable, making it one of only two countries in Africa with more
than 40% of its land suitable for farming. Just 0.2% of Mauritania can support agriculture.
The Sahara
The Sahara is a notoriously unwieldy beast to quantify, but most estimates put its size at
over nine million sq km, comparable in size to the continental United States. The Sahara
occupies more than half of Mali, 75% of Mauritania and 80% of Niger.
