Pre-Colonial Africa: Empires and Kingdoms
Long before European colonization Africa was home to sophisticated empires, kingdoms and trade networks. This page maps the major pre-colonial African states.
West African Empires
A succession of three great empires dominated the West African Sahel for almost a thousand years, growing wealthy on the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade:
- Ghana Empire (c. 300–1200 CE) — in present-day Mauritania, Mali and Senegal, not modern Ghana
- Mali Empire (c. 1235–1670) — included the legendary city of Timbuktu and the famous emperor Mansa Musa
- Songhai Empire (c. 1430–1591) — the largest of the three, eventually defeated by a Moroccan invasion
- Hausa city-states (Kano, Katsina, Zaria) — major trading centres of northern Nigeria
- Kanem-Bornu Empire (c. 700–1893) — straddled today's Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Libya
- Asante Empire (c. 1670–1900) — gold and forest empire of modern Ghana
- Oyo and Benin — Yoruba and Edo kingdoms of southern Nigeria
Central African Kingdoms
The forest and savanna zone of Central Africa produced powerful kingdoms organised around long-distance trade in copper, ivory and (later) enslaved people:
- Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390–1914) — converted to Christianity in 1491, devastated by Portuguese slaving
- Lunda and Luba empires — interior Central Africa
- Kuba Kingdom — famed for art and political structure
Eastern and Southern African States
The Indian Ocean coast supported a chain of Swahili city-states, while the interior produced inland empires:
- Aksum (Axum) (c. 100–940 CE) — early Christian empire in modern Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Ethiopian Empire (c. 1270–1974) — direct descendant of Aksum, never colonised
- Swahili city-states — Kilwa, Mombasa, Lamu, Zanzibar — Indian Ocean trading centres
- Great Zimbabwe (c. 1100–1450) — stone-built city of southern Africa
- Mutapa Kingdom (c. 1430–1760) — successor to Great Zimbabwe
- Buganda and Bunyoro — kingdoms of the African Great Lakes
- Zulu Kingdom (c. 1816–1897) — Shaka Zulu's military power in southern Africa
North African Caliphates and Sultanates
North Africa was politically integrated with the wider Islamic world, ruled by a succession of Arab and Berber caliphates and dynasties — Umayyad, Fatimid, Almoravid, Almohad, Marinid, Ottoman, Mamluk, Saadi, Alaouite — all of which left their mark on modern Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Sudan.