Atlas international de l'Ouest Africain

This note introduces the first eight map sheets of the International Atlas of West Africa, outlining the project’s origins, production, contents, and scholarly significance. Conceived at the 1945 Conference of West Africanists and coordinated by IFAN, the initiative was later endorsed by an Organization of African Unity scientific body and supported by the Ford Foundation. The initial installment covers West Africa’s global setting, seas and coasts, climate, political and administrative divisions, and zoogeography, using several cartographic scales and bilingual French-English explanatory notes. Although this release addresses regional documentation needs only partially, the planned atlas will eventually comprise about fifty sheets, including relief, land use, education, and health facilities. By treating West Africa as an integrated geographical region, the atlas promises to illuminate both contrasts and similarities across political boundaries while demonstrating the importance of sustained institutional and scholarly collaboration.

Reviewing the atlas’s first delivery, the author highlights its large-format maps and bilingual explanatory texts. The climate plates are judged especially effective, notably the seasonal rainfall map and the 48 monthly maps comparing precipitation, temperature, humidity, and surface winds. The zoogeographical plates receive sharper criticism for errors in species ranges and for a questionable contrast between mammalian and avian distribution types that underestimates mobility and ecological or geographical barriers. The reviewer also notes awkward English and avoidable translation errors, while regarding the atlas as a valuable synthesis whose details deserve more careful polishing.

This article introduces the International Atlas of West Africa, a long-planned and ambitious bilingual cartographic work whose first sheets were published in autumn 1968. Comprising some 50 maps, the atlas covers a wide range of themes, including geoscientific topics (relief, geology, geomorphology, pedology, climate) and human geography (history, languages, cultures, peoples, industrialisation, urban and regional planning). Compiled by the geographical department of IFAN (formerly Institut Français d'Afrique Noire) in Dakar, the atlas is published under the auspices of the OAU and with support from the Ford Foundation. The article also briefly reviews the history of Swedish globe-making, from the oldest globe in Erik XIV's royal orb to the establishment of the Cosmographical Society in Uppsala and the successive globe-makers Åkerman, Åkrel and others.

This is an academic review of the first issue of the International Atlas of West Africa, published by IFAN. The atlas covers 18 countries and includes eight maps on topics such as Africa's physical geography, major climatic elements, zoogeography, and administrative divisions, each accompanied by bilingual French-English texts. The review highlights the climate and zoogeography plates as particularly relevant to entomologists, noting their detailed presentation of annual and monthly precipitation, temperature, humidity, and wind data. In the zoogeography section, vertebrates—especially birds—receive primary attention, while four insect groups (Pimeliinae beetles, Colotis and Bicyclus butterflies, and Catantops grasshoppers) are used as examples. The author concludes that this atlas is a rich documentary resource and an invaluable working tool for both taxonomic and ecological entomologists.