Note: I am not from western Africa, nor have I ever visited. I know there's much more that
needs to be said! Here's an humble start.
This region generally includes:
Benin
Burkina Faso
Cape Verde
Côte d'Ivoire
The Gambia
Ghana
Guinea
Guinea Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Mauritania
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Togo
This is a case where a
map would be really helpful. The only three
landlocked nations
on this list are
Mali,
Niger and
Burkina Faso . All the others share the
western
coastline of
Africa. By my rough estimation eyeballing the map at
http://www.mapquest.com/cgi-bin/ia_find?link=btwn/twn-map_atlas&uid=u7m601r0rbj3w2me:rwhwrwqft&atlas=africa,
the countries in this list probably make up a fifth of the African coast. The northermost
countries are Mauritania, Mali and Niger. The easternmost are Niger and Nigeria.
Many of the nations of West Africa are renowned for their arts, inlcuding music and
dance. Some of the best djembe players in the world hail from western Africa.