Ancient Origins. West Africa was once part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, a single landmass that included Africa, North and South America, southern Asia, and Australia. That continent gradually moved and broke into its separate modern divisions. Africa sits on an extremely old land platform of fold-and-basin structures eroded and leveled by large variations in temperature and humid to arid climates. This environmental dynamic created unevenly distributed sedimentary formations of rough, sandy soil, vast low-lying plains, deserts, huge rift valleys and scattered but spectacular mountains created by volcanic activity. In West Africa, Mount Cameroon is 4,100 meters tall and is the only sizeable mountain in the region. In the western part of the region the primarily sandstone soils and river basins were produced as sedimentary formations.

The Sahara. At the northern edge of the region, the Sahara Desert has consistently challenged the inhabitants...