History of West Africa more states. Early human settlers arrived in West Africa around 12,000 BCE. In the fifth millennium, as the ancestors of modern West Africans began entering the area, the development of sedentary farming began to take place in West Africa. The Iron industry, in both smelting and forging for tools and weapons, appeared in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BCE, and by 400 BCE, contact had been made with the Mediterranean civilizations, and a regular trade included exporting gold, cotton, metal, and leather in exchange for copper, horses, salt, textiles, and beads. Culture developed further with the Nok culture (1000 BCE to
Drug trade in West Africa and the demand for drugs kept rising, countries in West Africa specifically Nigeria, Ghana, and Guinea-Bissau were entrusted with cocaine loads as large as 135 to 145 tonnes (according to the UNODC). Since then West Africa has become an important part of the drug trading world. In 2005 historian Emmanuel Akyeampong called our attention by publishing "African Affairs", in which he states that cannabis products in West Africa existed before mid-twentieth century. In 1934 colonial authorities were still testing the cultivation of the coca plant in Calabar and other places in Nigeria. By the mid 1950’s police were arresting some