ABSTRACT
The political structure of West Africa in the twentieth century tends to cut across the history both of the peoples living there and of their earliest contacts with the world beyond. The Yoruba in the south-west, and also their neighbours to the east, the Bini or Edo of Benin, make a transition and a link between these extremes. The origins of the Guinea states are likely to have been as varied as their subsequent histories and institutions. The states which arose in the Guinea forest and immediately to its north all seem to have owed something to the preceding factors, though in greatly varying degrees. The Yoruba of West Africa are a numerous people with many kings, among whom some twenty or more are rulers over what were formerly distinct and independent states, while the rest, amounting in one list to over 1,000, are subordinate rulers whose territories consisted of single towns and groups of villages.
