Editing Africa (section)

==== West Africa ====

West Africa developed through a combination of farming, river trade, forest production, metalworking, and trans-Saharan exchange. Early communities used the Niger River, the Senegal River, the Volta basin, forest routes, and savanna corridors to exchange goods and ideas.

Ironworking, agriculture, and settlement growth supported the development of complex societies. The Nok culture in present-day Nigeria is known for terracotta sculpture and early ironworking. Later, West African states and kingdoms grew along trade routes linking gold-producing regions with Saharan and North African markets.

By the early medieval period, the foundations of later empires such as Ghana, Mali, and Songhai were already developing through control of trade, agriculture, taxation, and military organization.