The Biafran civil war in Nigeria breaks out in 1967. Biafra was the name given to the region inhabited by the Igbo people who wished to create their own independent country. The Igbo were defeated by the Nigerian army by 1970 in one of the worst wars in modern African history. More than 1 million died, most because of starvation. A new Nigerian federation is created after the war, but stability is not achieved.

In 1970, 15 West African states form an economic union ECOWAS in an attempt to improve regional co-operation, but internal problems of a number of countries, such as the after effects of the Biafran war, continue to hinder economic growth.

The former colony of Spanish Western Sahara is granted the right of self determination in 1976, but is attacked by Mauritania and Morocco. Mauritania is defeated, but fighting against Morocco continued beyond 1980. Western Sahara, and the northern tip of West Africa, is rich in minerals.

Born in Nigeria in 1941, Kenule B. Saro-Wiwe was one of West Africa's most influential artists. He worked as an English teacher, businessman, environmentalist and political activist for the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni Peoples. He wrote a large number of plays and children's books, and produced a popular television comedy series. Saro- Wiwe was killed in 1995 for his opposition to the military government that currently rules Nigeria. Oil, discovered in Ogoni land in 1958, has led to economic exploitation of the Ogoni people and much environmental damage.

Other noted West African artists include Buchi Emecheta, born in 1944 in Nigeria, noted for her fiction writing dealing with issues on the effects of colonialism, and women in modern society. Ayi Kwei Armah, born in 1939 in Ghana, a member of the Fante people, also deals with post-colonial problems in his writings by looking at a the experiences of one family. His most well known book is called The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, published in 1968. A fellow Ghanian is Kofi Awoonor, born in 1935. His parents were of the Ewe people, and his grandmother was a traditional dirge singer. Awoonor's early poems are based on this folk tradition of oral poetry. This traditional poetry, found among many of the peoples of West Africa, is a direct ancestor of modern rap.