West African ethnicity - top countries
West African ethnicity is common in the following countries, according to MyHeritage DNA users' data.
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There are over 340 million West Africans living in the continent, and a further innumerable number of people of West African descent spread throughout the Americas. West Africa was united under the Ghana Empire around 1000 BC and was subsequently affected greatly by the African slave trade and European colonization. People of West African descent are present across the Americas and Europe with some intra-continental migration to other regions of Africa. West Africans developed a rich storytelling and praise-singing tradition, with bards serving as historians charged with transmitting information about royal lineages from generation to generation.