text: # Hamites in West Africa  
  Several invasions from northern Africa have had great effect upon the ethnic and political structure of West Africa, where at various times large and powerful states came into existence. As a result of the close proximity between Negroes and Hamites, physical and cultural interrelation must always have been intimate, so that many ethnic and cultural waves into West Africa are no longer discernible, nor will it be possible to measure the extent of West African influences upon the north.