I-IV -- General Editor's Preface -- Preface -- PART ONE Archaeology -- Introduction: Some Formulations on the Prehistory of West Africa -- Processes of Coastal Evolution in West Africa During the Quaternary -- The Status of Guinea Coast ?aleoarchaeological Knowledge as Seen from Legon -- Excavations at Rim, North-Central Upper Volta: A Paleoecological Study -- The Origins and Domestication of Yams in Africa -- The Kintampo Culture and Its Place in the Economic Prehistory of West Africa -- Archaeological Data on the Origins of Cultivation in the Southwestern Sahara and Their Implications for West Africa -- Comments on the Advent of Plant Cultivation in West Africa -- History of Crops and Peoples in North Cameroon to A.D. 1900 -- The Sahara as a Center of Ceramic Dispersion in Northern Africa -- Archaeology East of the Niger: A Review of Cultural-Historical Developments -- The Ntereso Culture in Ghana -- The Emergence of Iron Technology in West Africa, with Special Emphasis on the ?ok Culture of Nigeria -- The Geographic Distribution of Footed Bowls in the Upper and Middle Niger Region -- Speculations on Functions of Some Prehistoric Archaeological Materials from Sierra Leone -- PART TWO History -- Introduction: Research Trends in West African History -- Prolegomena to the Study of the Culture History of the Igbo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria -- An Ethnohistorical Reconstruction of Traditional Igbo Society -- Old Akyem and the Origins of Akyems Abuakwa and Kotoku 1675-1775 -- Administration and Trade in the Akwamu Empire, 1681-1730 -- The Dynamics and Symbolism of Idoma Kingship -- Gao and the Almoravids: A Hypothesis -- Timbuktu: A Case Study of the Role of Legend in History -- The Julas in Western Sudanese History: Long-Distance Traders and Developers of Resources -- Slave Acquisition and Delivery in Precolonial Hausaland -- Accommodation and Assimilation in the Landlord-Stranger Relationship -- Some Paradoxes of Pacification: Senegal and France in the 1850's and 1860's -- Changing Perspectives on African Resistance Movements and the Case of the Baule Peoples -- Nation Building, Ethnicity, And the New Imperialism: Dilemmas of Political Development in Liberia -- Long-Term Structural Change in the Economy of Central Niger -- Biographical Notes -- Index of Names -- Index of Subjects