This chapter is written by Ivor Wilks, John Hunwick, and Mark Sey

The term “Greater Voltaic Region” is used to refer to that broad belt of country comprising the Volta basin as such, and those contiguous areas drained by the succession of smaller rivers from the White Bandama in the west to the Pra in the east. The Greater Voltaic Region thus embraces Ghana, much of Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso, and parts of Togo. The region is that in which, from the fifteenth century onwards, Muslim merchants of Mali know…