The course examines the salient themes in the economic history of West Africa. This because the history of any people cannot be fully grasped without the knowledge of how such a people went about in the ordinary business of life, how they went about eking a living and in trying to make the most out of their physical environment. Besides, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are very critical periods in the history of West Africa, as two crucial transitions were made during this period (1) the end of the slave trade (1830s) and the imposition of the so-called legitimate trade and (2) the beginning of formal colonisation (1900s). These two epochal events were to leave lasting impressions and legacies on the peoples of West Africa. To understand the people of West, especially given the developmental challenges they have had to grapple with since independence in the 1960s and in today’s world of unceasing globalisation, it is imperative to have a rooted knowledge of the economic history of the people in nineteenth and twentieth centuries.