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West Africa Magazine, 1917–2003 Coming Soon
Over 85 years of news, politics, and culture in West Africa
If 1960 brings the decisive turn-over from colonialism to independence, it also brings the first real test of independence. From now on political interest in Africa, and particularly in West Africa, begins to swing from independence itself to the relations of the independent African states with each other.West Africa Magazine,
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Register your InterestExplore the history of West Africa from colonial rule to independence
Featuring over 170,000 images, this comprehensive run of West Africa, spanning the years 1917 to 2003, offers remarkable insights into a period of huge transformation across Africa and the wider world. Through reports, intellectual debate, letters, opinion columns, and photographic coverage, the collection charts the transition from British colonial jurisdiction to independence across Nigeria, the Gold Coast (later Ghana), Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. West Africa also featured news from other African nations, most notably from French West Africa, although events and debates from across central, southern, and eastern Africa were also discussed.
Originally published in London and aimed at British “coasters” (people employed by British trading companies and by the British government’s Colonial Office), after 1945, West Africa underwent a process of “Africanisation”. Increasingly, its editorial team addressed an African readership, focusing on new nationalist movements and leaders and, subsequently, the political turbulence of the post-independence era. The magazine became a platform for the international consumption of West African news, politics, economics, history, and culture. From 1979, it was run by Africans, having been purchased by the Daily Times, Nigeria’s state paper.
West Africa profiled influential anti-colonialist figures, such as Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana; Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo, two of the fathers of Nigerian nationalism, from the Igbo and Yoruba ethnic groups respectively; Léopold Sédar Senghor, the Senegalese cultural theorist, poet, and politician; and Félix Houphouët-Boigny, the first president of the Ivory Coast. Alongside detailed analysis of key political issues and events, West Africa spotlighted cultural trends, reporting, for example, on West Africans’ opinions on the British Empire Exhibition of 1924–25, and on the activities of West African social and sports clubs. From 1978, the magazine took a greater interest in poetry and fiction, with the Booker Prize-winning novelist, Ben Okri, serving as Literary Editor from 1981.
As a magazine that transitioned from a colonial publication to a platform for West Africans’ own accounts of their politics, history, and culture, West Africa is an invaluable resource for primary documentation on twentieth-century Africa. Its publication history reflects key trends and transformations that occurred throughout West Africa and beyond, many of which were detailed in the magazine's pages.
Given its extensive English-language coverage of francophone and anglophone affairs across West Africa, it will appeal to those interested in colonial history, particularly histories of decolonisation. It will likewise appeal to students, educators, and researchers situated within the fields of social, cultural, and political history, as well as literary studies.
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Highlights
Licensed to access "We Want the British!" (21 December 1918)
Licensed to access Sierra Leone, Pirates, and the Slave Trade (28 January 1928)
Licensed to access "The Next Fifty Years" (4 February 1967)
Licensed to access Nigeria’s Heritage (6–12 February 1971)
Insights
- The “Africanisation” of West Africa after the Second World War was preceded by a proliferation of African-run publications. For example, The Nigeria Daily Times, established in 1926 and edited by Ernest Ikoli, was frequently critical of the British colonial administration. Nnamdi Azikwe’s West African Pilot and African Morning Post, the latter co-founded with the Sierra Leonean journalist, I. T. A. Wallace-Johnson, were influenced by Azikwe’s encounters with Black radical journalism during his education in the United States. West Africa’s coverage of, and contribution to, nationalist debates emerged from this burgeoning field of radical publishing.
- By 1987, West Africa had achieved an impressive weekly circulation of 22,000, evenly divided between Africa, Europe, and North America. At its peak, the magazine was distributing as many as 14,000 copies per week in Nigeria alone. Read mostly by European expatriates during the 1930s and 1940s, West Africa subsequently attracted a broader readership that included African politicians, intellectuals, and business figures, at home and abroad.
- West Africa became an influential advertising platform, with most British companies operating in the region choosing to market themselves in its pages. From the late 1950s onwards, representations of Africans in ads changed remarkably—earlier portrayals of “traditional” people gave way to ads emphasising Africa’s modernity, professionalism, and participation in global consumer culture. Adverts for companies such as the United Africa Company (UAC) were indicative of this shift, promoting a new image of progressive Africans. For example, UAC’s 1959 “Men of Tomorrow” advertisement depicted progress, transportation, and manufacturing, presenting the archetype of the aspirational African businessman during the so-called “decade of development”. This contrasted sharply with earlier UAC advertisements that referred to Africans as “Colonial Customers” in order to make them more recognisable to European audiences.
- West Africa served as a forum for critical discussion on key topics, such as business, economics, education, culture, and politics. Significantly, the magazine offers an important insight into how race was discussed openly in early twentieth-century West Africa. It highlighted, and contributed to, debates about race relations between Africans and Europeans, challenging the widespread belief in European racial superiority. West Africa often presented race as a central issue that would shape Africa’s future. It was likewise critical of the racial assumptions that underpinned colonial rule.
- West Africa gave voice to a broader debate that developed throughout newly-independent states across the region concerning unity and language. Articles presented Africa’s linguistic diversity as a defining feature and a challenge, often framing it as a “problem” requiring resolution through the adoption of a common language. In the 1970s, with over 300 million people and more than a thousand languages, the continent was described as “heading for a linguistic problem”. The cultural impact of French colonialism—particularly the continued use of French in civil administration and in education—emerges as a recurring theme, with articles highlighting ongoing tensions between colonial legacies and efforts to establish cultural and political independence.
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