The regional setting

West Africa is the nearest tropical region to Europe, from which it is separated by the Arabic civilizations of North Africa and the Middle East. Much of its people's history depends on this fact; but for all that, the origin of the tripartite relationship between the regions bordering on the northeast Atlantic and Mediterranean seas remains shrouded in mystery. For modern Europeans, the history of West Africa goes back only five hundred years to the time when the Portuguese began to explore an African route to the east round the flanks of Islam. For Arabs it began in the eleventh century, with the temporary expansion of Almoravid conquerors beyond the Maghreb down the coast toward the Senegal River. They did not stay long: Those who have attempted to conquer West Africa never have. The Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans left fragmented records of their encounters with the black peoples of Africa. But the West Africans themselves never developed an indigenous literate tradition, although the body of medieval African documents in Arabic is substantial.