Map West Africa

Your Guides I’m Olayinka and this is my best friend Baboo. We’re going to show you around our home, West Africa!

Even though most of my West African friends are living in poverty, our region is actually very rich in natural resources, like gold, diamonds, oil and cocoa. A lot of the companies that own these mines are controlled by people in other countries, so West Africa doesn’t benefit very much from them because the profits don’t stay in the region. That’s one reason why so many people are living in poverty.

…people who drill for the oil are still very poor and their jobs are very dangerous.

My uncle Oji lives in Nigeria and works at a mine that drills for oil. Nigeria has a lot of oil that has made the country the richest in West Africa. Oji earns just enough money to buy food for his family and send a few of my cousins to school, but there isn’t enough money to send all five of them.

Most of the world’s chocolate is made in West Africa

Oji tells me the people who drill for the oil are still very poor and their jobs are very dangerous. I worry about my uncle and I hope he’ll be safe.

Have you eaten chocolate lately? Cocoa, which comes from the cocoa tree, is the main ingredient in chocolate. Chances are that chocolate you ate came from Cote d’Ivoire or Ghana, the two largest cocoa-producing countries in the world. Many children work on cocoa farms, and they aren’t treated very well. They are beaten and sometimes work as slaves, with no pay at all.