ABSTRACT
Since the turn of the nineteenth century, West Africa has undergone profound socio-economic changes resulting from increased contact with the Western world. Although trade with West European countries dates back to about three centuries, trading contacts did not significantly affect the traditional social structure before the close of the nineteenth century. The traditional ways of life remained largely unaffected by trading contacts. The trade in primary commodities which developed in place of the slave trade from the middle of the nineteenth century was in several respects the beginning of West African urbanization. At first, the trading-posts served as assembly and storage points for commodities many of which were produced in the hinterland. To protect the interests of their traders, the metropolitan countries converted their trading-posts into colonies. Everyone was an immigrant and had to adjust to the ways of other immigrants.
