West Africa West Africa West Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. West Africa has been defined as including 17 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, the island nation of Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the islands of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. The population of West Africa is estimated at about /1e6 round 0 million people as of . Studies of human mitochondrial DNA suggest that all humans share common ancestors from Africa, originated in the southwestern regions near the coastal border of Namibia and Angola at the
Portuguese Mozambicans more white emigration and settlement to the region, and Mozambique had 370,000 Portuguese settlers, who improved its economy, by the 1960s. It was during this time that António de Oliveira Salazar led Portugal, in which several thousands of Portuguese citizens fled to other countries, especially neighbouring Rhodesia and South Africa as well as Brazil and the United States. Blacks and some "mestiços" and whites revolted against Portuguese rule in 1974. The return to liberal democracy in Portugal led to the independence of its overseas colonies in 1975. By July 1975 around 80,000 Portuguese Mozambicans were left in the country from