194 articles
Owerri
Owerri, capital and largest city of Imo State, southeastern Nigeria, designated state capital in 1976; a fast-growing Igbo urban center with about 716,000 (Africapolis 2015) to 2.9 million (GHS-UCDB 2020) residents, home to FUTO and Imo State University.
Owo
Owo (Ọ̀wọ̣) is a historic Yoruba city and LGA headquarters in Ondo State, Nigeria, center of the Owo Kingdom ruled by the Olowo, midway between Ile-Ife and Benin, famed for 15th-century terracotta and ivory art and the annual Igogo festival.
Oyo, Oyo State
Oyo is a city in Oyo State, Nigeria, seat of Oyo West LGA, about 45 km north of Ibadan, population 736,072 (GeoNames). It is the seat of the Alaafin and the refounded capital of the historic Oyo Empire, whose old capital Oyo Ile collapsed in the 1830s.
Parakou
Parakou (Cité des Kobourou), Benin's third largest city and Borgou department capital, is the cotton-trade and transport hub of northern Benin, with 255,478 urban residents in 2013, a non-functioning railway terminus, and a new dry port.
Pointe-Noire, Pointe-Noire
Pointe-Noire, Republic of the Congo's second city and economic capital, Atlantic deepwater port founded 1922 as the CFCO railway terminus; oil industry seat, CORAF refinery, population about 1.4-1.7 million.
Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State, Nigeria, founded 1913 as a coal-export port; Nigeria's oil city hosting the NNPC refinery, Trans Niger Pipeline hub, and West Africa's largest concentration of petroleum company offices.
Porto-Novo
Porto-Novo (Hogbonu/Hɔgbonu) is the official capital of Benin, on the Porto-Novo lagoon 35 km from Cotonou. Former Goun kingdom, named by the Portuguese in 1752, French protectorate from 1882; UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art.
Praia
Praia is the capital and largest city of Cabo Verde, on Santiago island's southern coast. Settled from 1615 on the Plateau, colonial capital from 1770, city from 1858, national capital since 1975, with rapid post-independence urban growth.
Rufisque
Rufisque (Tëngéej in Wolof) is a port city in Senegal, about 25 kilometers east of Dakar, and one of the four historic communes of French Senegal.
Salaga
Salaga is a town in the East Gonja Municipality of Ghana's Savannah Region, known in the 18th and 19th centuries as one of West Africa's largest inland markets.
San-Pédro, Bas-Sassandra District
San-Pédro, a port city and commune in southwestern Côte d'Ivoire, capital of the San-Pédro region and Bas-Sassandra district; second port after Abidjan, leading cocoa exporter, 390,654 residents (2021).
São Tomé
São Tomé, capital and largest city of São Tomé and Príncipe on Ana Chaves Bay, about 70,000 residents (2012), founded by Portuguese settlers after 1470, with a planned colonial core, peri-urban fringe, and the EN1 corridor carrying 60 percent of GDP.
Sapele
Sapele (Urhiapele) is a port town in Delta State, Nigeria, on the Ethiope River; an Okpe-Urhobo village made a British colonial township in 1891-1917 and a timber port that gave its name to sapele hardwood.
Savalou
Savalou is a royal town in central Benin's Collines Department and the historic seat of the Kingdom of Savalou, founded by the Gbaguidi dynasty, whose kings still reign there.
Sekondi-Takoradi
Sekondi-Takoradi, the Twin-City and Oil City, is the capital of Ghana's Western Region and its third largest city, a port and railway hub governed by the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly with 245,382 residents (2021 census).
Serekunda
Serekunda (Serrekunda), The Gambia's largest urban area, in Kanifing Municipality about 15 km from Banjul; commercial hub around Serrekunda Market and Westfield, 382,096 municipality residents in 2013.
Shagamu
Shagamu (Sagamu) is a town and LGA in Ogun State, Nigeria, founded in 1872 when thirteen Remo Yoruba townlets federated; it is a kola-nut trade and industrial hub hosting Lafarge and Nestle, seat of the Akarigbo.
Sikasso (city)
Sikasso (Sikaso, ߛߌߞߊߛߏ߬), southern Mali city, capital of Sikasso Region; former capital of the Kénédougou kingdom under the Traoré, famed for its tata wall, taken by France in 1898; Mali's second city, cotton and mango trade hub near Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Sinfra
Sinfra is a city and department seat in the Marahoué region of central-western Côte d'Ivoire, a Gouro agricultural center producing cocoa, coffee, and rice, with 245,226 department residents (2021 census).
Sokoto (city)
Sokoto, capital of Sokoto State in northwestern Nigeria on the Sokoto River, founded 1809 as capital of the Sokoto Caliphate of Usman dan Fodio, seat of the Sultan, fell to Britain in 1903, state capital since 1976.
Sumbe
Sumbe (formerly Novo Redondo) is the coastal capital of Cuanza Sul Province, Angola, founded 7 January 1769; renamed after 1975 independence; 240,257 municipal residents in 2024; economy of agriculture, fishing, and port trade. Distinct from Sumé, Paraíba, Brazil.
Takoradi
Takoradi, Ghanaian city forming Sekondi-Takoradi, Western Region capital; home to Port of Takoradi (27.7% of Ghana's seaborne traffic), railway terminus, and oil and gas logistics hub.
Techiman
Techiman, historically spelled Takyiman, is a city in central Ghana, capital of the Bono East Region and of the traditional Bono state, successor to Bonoman.
Tenkodogo
Tenkodogo (Tänküdgo in Moore) is a Mossi kingdom and town in Burkina Faso's Centre-Est region, regarded by oral tradition as the oldest of the Mossi kingdoms and their point of origin.
Thiès (city)
Thiès Nones (Thiès), Senegal's fourth-largest urban area, about 70 km east of Dakar; founded as an 1864 military post, grew around the Dakar–Niger railway, commune created 1904, first mayor Senghor.
Tibati
Tibati is a commune in Cameroon, officially created on 31 December 1960, and the seat of a traditional lamidat ended by German conquest in March 1899.
Tichit
Tichit (Arabic: تيشيت), also spelled Tichitt, is a Saharan oasis town in central Mauritania founded around 1150, a trans-Saharan trade hub now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Timbuktu
Timbuktu (Tombouctou), a Malian city near the Niger River at the Sahara's edge, flourished in the 15th-16th centuries as an Islamic learning center with the Sankore university and famous manuscripts; UNESCO World Heritage site, in danger since 2012 after militant destruction.
Touba, Diourbel Region
Touba (Diourbel Region, Senegal): holy city of the Mouride Sufi brotherhood, founded 1887 by Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba; second-largest Senegalese city (1,120,824 in 2023 census); hosts the annual Grand Magal pilgrimage on 18 Safar, drawing millions and generating over 630 billion FCFA.
Tshikapa
Tshikapa, capital of Kasaï Province, DRC, is a diamond-mining city founded in 1907 at the confluence of the Tshikapa and Kasaï rivers, about 165 km north of Angola, on the RN1 corridor.