Measuring deuterium and stable carbon isotopes of higher plant wax extracted from marine sediments offshore of Mauritania, we recovered a record of hydrology and vegetation change in West Africa for two Pliocene intervals: 5.0–4.6 and 3.6–3.0 Ma. We find that changes in local summer insolation cannot fully explain the variations in the West African monsoon and that latitudinal insolation and temperature gradients are important drivers of tropical monsoon systems.