Part of the country series of articles.
TRAVEL ADVISORY: EXERCISE CAUTIONThe Commonwealth advises travellers to exercise caution in this country. Some areas or circumstances may carry elevated risk. Travellers should monitor local conditions and follow the guidance of local authorities.
| West African Federation | |
|---|---|
| Federal Republic | |
 |
|
| Capital | Accra |
| Languages | English, French, Akan, Ewe, Baoulé, Dioula, and many regional languages |
| Population | 48,000,000 |
The West African Federation is a federal republic on the Gulf of Guinea and one of the largest economies in West Africa. It was formed in the 1970s, when several small coastal states of the Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire region chose federation over separate independence, and it has been famously unstable ever since. It is governed from Accra, which legislates for the whole federation in English and French, despite the older banks and the deeper port sitting four hundred kilometres west at Abidjan. Most private business is done at Abidjan.
It also maintains careful relations with Latin Africa to the north and east, which periodically claims its Francophone states as natural members of its own sphere. It has closer diplomatic and economic ties to Vekllei than to France, a pattern common to the former French colonies of the coast, and Commonwealth doctors, teachers and engineers work throughout the federation. Yorubaland to the east is the only neighbour of comparable economic weight, and relations with it are correct and competitive. Arms treaty negotiations with its neighbours are also held at the International Peace Garden on Maio, which is neutral ground under Commonwealth law.
The federation has substantial mining and agricultural industries despite its instability, and has become one of the foremost cocoa suppliers to Europe and Asia. It exports gold, cocoa and offshore oil (much of which moves through Abidjan, which handles most of the federation’s foreign trade). It is also famous for the gold that gave the old Gold Coast its name, and for its jazz, which is played across the Atlantic republics and sold even to Western countries.