More languages
More actions
| West Africa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Largest city | Lagos |
| Area | |
• Total | 6,140,000 km² |
| Population | |
• 2026 estimate | 471,794,711 |
West Africa refers to the western region of Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Gulf of Guinea to the south, the Sahara to the north, and Lake Chad to the east. It commonly includes Mauritania, Western Sahara, Senegal, The Gambia, Mali, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cape Verde, and the Canary Islands. Most of these are Anglophone and Francophone states with varying population sizes; Nigeria alone has 239 million people out of the total 471,794,711 in West Africa.[1]
It covers approximately 6.5 million square kilometers, which is about one-fifth of Africa as a whole. Most of these economies are dependent on the export of raw materials to imperial core usurer states and on remittances from the diaspora.
The world has become divided into a handful of usurer states and a vast majority of debtor states.
— Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism, 1916
History[edit | edit source]
...
Geography[edit | edit source]
...
Economy[edit | edit source]
Colonial borders and imperialist institutions still affect this region. France, Britain, and the US preserved economic ties and currency arrangements, such as the West African Economic and Monetary Union, which ensures that 14 West African countries are using the French franc currency. This is called the CFA zone, which locks these states into unequal exchange.[2]
Alongside this, imperialist exploitation for oil, gas, uranium, and minerals makes the region a honeypot for imperialist interests. Most of these states are governed by a comprador bourgeoisie subordinated to transnational capital, which controls the state and export revenues. These comprador bourgeoisie exploit industrial workers, miners, peasants, and the unemployed through excessive labor and the removal of social services. Imperialist organizations like the IMF and the World Bank deepen this austerity through their conditions and debt traps.[3]
There has been a change, though; there has been an uptick in workers' strikes, protests, and mass action by the West African proletariat across the region. These struggles are being ignited by the dehumanizing conditions of the West African worker, which fuels the objective potential of the West African working class to challenge not only their own nations' bourgeoisie but also the imperial core.[4]
The existing and newly established trade unions, federations, and mass organizations are not only uneven but are also typically comprised of bourgeois leadership, or the leadership becomes class traitors and turns to opportunism, meanwhile, organizations with actual principles are systematically repressed by the state. Despite this repression, we have recently seen a wave of coups in the Sahel specifically (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger) in an anti-imperialist fashion, though ECOWAS threatened military intervention in Niger, revealing its subordination to the imperial core. It can be observed how neo-colonialism differs from colonialism, as imperialism actively contributes to division along ethnic lines in order to secure resources without having to directly do anything and utilize their proxies.[3]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2024). World Population Prospects 2024.
- ↑ Pigeaud, F., & Sylla, N. S. (2021). Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story. Pluto Press.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Nkrumah, K. (1965). Neo-Colonialism, the Last Stage of Imperialism. Thomas Nelson & Sons.
- ↑ Zeilig, L., & Seddon, D. (2023). Class and Protest in Africa: New Waves. Review of African Political Economy.