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The Kerma culture or Kerma kingdom was an early civilization centered in Kerma (also known as Dukki Gel), Sudan. Kerma was the capital city of the Kerma culture. It was a large urban center that was built around a large adobe temple known as the Western Deffufa. The Kerma culture flourished from around 2500 BCE to 1500 BCE in ancient Nubia, located in Upper Egypt and northern Sudan. The polity seems to have been one of a number of Nile Valley states during the Middle…

The Land of Punt (Egyptian: pwnt; alternate Egyptological readings Pwene(t)) was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, and wild animals. The region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it. At times, the ancient Egyptians called Punt Ta netjer, meaning "God's Land". This referred to the fact that it was among the regions of the Sun God, that is, the…

The Nok culture is an early Iron Age population whose material remains are named after the Ham village of Nok in Kaduna State of Nigeria, where their famous terracotta sculptures were first discovered in 1928. The Nok Culture appeared in northern Nigeria around 1500 BC and vanished under unknown circumstances around 500 AD. Iron use, in smelting and forging for tools, appears in Nok culture by at least 550 BC and possibly earlier. Data from historical linguistics suggest that…

Dʿmt was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia that existed during the 10th to 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. Given the presence of a large temple complex and fertile surroundings, the capital of Dʿmt may have been present day Yeha, in Tigray, Ethiopia. At Yeha the temple to the god Ilmuqah is still standing. The kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet…

The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient kingdom in Nubia, located at the Sudanese and southern Egyptian Nile Valley. The Kushite era of rule in Nubia was established after the Late Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Kush was centered at Napata during its early phase. After Kashta ("the Kushite") invaded Egypt in the 8th century BC, the monarchs of Kush were also the pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, until they were expelled by the…

The Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXV,alternatively 25th Dynasty or Dynasty 25), also known as the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, was the last dynasty of the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt that occurred after the Nubian invasion. The 25th dynasty was a line of pharaohs who originated in the Kingdom of Kush, located in present-day northern Sudan and Upper Egypt. Most of this dynasty's kings saw Napata as their spiritual homeland. They reigned in…

The Sao civilisation flourished in Central Africa from the sixth century BC to as late as the sixteenth century AD after which the Sao were absorbed into the Bornu Empire. The Sao lived by the Chari River Around Lake Chad in territory that later became part of Cameroon and Chad. They were made up of several patrilineal clans who were united into a single polity. The polity were organized into ranked and centralized societies. Sao artifacts show that they were skilled workers…

Ile-Ife was a powerful Yoruba kingdom dated to the 4th century BC. Yorubaland is the cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo, and Benin. From the 12th to the 15th centuries, Ife flourished as a powerful, cosmopolitan and wealthy city-state in West Africa. The cities were fortresses, with high walls and gates. Ife was an influential centre of trade connected to extensive local and long-distance trade networks…

Kakongo was a former small kingdom located on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, in the modern-day Republic of Congo and Cabinda, Angola. It along with its southern neighbor, Ngoyo, and Loango, its neighbor on the north were important political commercial centers during the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. The people speak a dialect of the Kikongo language and thus may be considered a part of the Bakongo ethnicity. The earliest history of Kakongo is unknown, and…

Numidia (Berber: Inumiden) was an ancient Berber kingdom of the Numidians, located in what is now Algeria and a smaller part of Tunisia and Libya in the Berber world, in North Africa. The polity was originally divided between Massylii in the east and Masaesyli in the west. During the Second Punic War (218–201 BC), Massinissa, king of the Massylii, defeated Syphax of the Masaesyli to unify Numidia into one kingdom. The kingdom began as a sovereign state and later alternated…

The Kingdom of Aksum (Tigrinya: መንግስቲ ኣኽሱም also known as the Kingdom of Axum, or the Aksumite Empire) was an ancient kingdom located in what is now Tigray Region (northern Ethiopia) and Eritrea. Axumite Emperors were powerful sovereigns, styling themselves King of kings, king of Aksum, Himyar, Raydan, Saba, Salhen, Tsiyamo, Beja and of Kush. Ruled by the Aksumites, it existed from approximately 100 AD to 940 AD. The polity was centered in the city of Axum and grew from the…

Alodia, also known as Alwa (Greek: Aρογα, Aroua; Arabic:Alwa) was a medieval Nubian kingdom in what is now central and southern Sudan. Its capital was the city of Soba located near modern-day Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue and White Nile. Founded some time after the fall of the ancient kingdom of Kush in around 350, Alodia is first mentioned in historical records in 569. It converted to Coptic Christianity in 580, the last of the three Nubian kingdoms to convert, the…

Makuria was a Nubian kingdom located in what is today Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt. Makuria originally covered the area along the Nile River from the Third Cataract to somewhere south of Abu Hamad as well as parts of northern Kordofan. Its capital was Dongola (Old Nubian: Tungul), and the kingdom is sometimes known by the name of its capital. By the end of the 6th century, it had converted to Christianity, but in the 7th century, Egypt was conquered by the Islamic armies…

Nobatia was a late antique kingdom in Lower Nubia. Together with the two other Nubian kingdoms, Makuria and Alodia, it succeeded the kingdom of Kush. After its establishment in around 400, Nobadia gradually expanded by defeating the Blemmyes in the north and incorporating the territory between the second and third Nile cataract in the south. In 543 it converted to Coptic Christianity. The kingdom of Nobatia had been founded in the former Meroitic province of Akine, which…

The Ghana Empire (c. 700 until c. 1240), properly known as Wagadou (Ghana or Ga'na being the title of its ruler), was located in the area of present-day southeastern Mauritania and western Mali. It is not geographically realted to Modern Ghana. Complex societies based on trans-Saharan trade with salt and gold had existed in the region since ancient times, but the introduction of the camel to the western Sahara in the 3rd century A.D. opened the way to great changes in the…

The Gao Empire precedes that of the Songhai Empire in the region of the Middle Niger. It owes its name to the town of Gao located at the eastern Niger bend. In the ninth century CE, it was considered to be the most powerful West African kingdom. For much of its history Gao was an important commercial centre involved in the trans-Saharan trade. In the 9th century external Arabic writers described Gao as an important regional power and by the end of the 10th century, the local…

The Kingdom of Nri (also known as Igbo) was a medieval religio-polity within the Igbo area of Nigeria administered by a priest-king called an Eze Nri. The Eze Nri managed trade and diplomacy on behalf of the Nri people, a subgroup of the Igbo-speaking people, and possessed divine authority in religious matters. The kingdom was a haven for all those who had been rejected in their communities and also a place where slaves were set free from their bondage. Nri expanded through…

"The Zagwe dynasty was the ruling dynasty of a Medieval kingdom in present-day northern Ethiopia. The kingdom itself was perhaps called Begwena, after the historical name of the Lasta province. Centered at Lalibela, it ruled large parts of the territory from approximately 900 to 1270, when the last Zagwe King Za-Ilmaknun was killed in battle by the forces of the Abyssinian King Yekuno Amlak. The name of the dynasty is thought to derive from the ancient Ge'ez phrase Ze-Agaw…

The Kingdom of Kano was a Hausa kingdom in the north of what is now Northern Nigeria that dates back before 1000 AD, and lasted until the proclamation of the Sultanate of Kano by King Ali Yaji Dan Tsamiya in 1349. The kingdom was then replaced by the Sultanate of Kano, under the suzerainty of a Muslim Sultan The capital is now the modern city of Kano in Kano State. Our knowledge of the early history of Kano comes largely from the Kano Chronicle, a compilation of oral…

The Hausa Kingdom, also known as Hausaland, was a collection of states started by the Hausa people, situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). Hausaland lay between the Western Sudanic kingdoms of Ancient Ghana and Mali and the Eastern Sudanic kingdoms of Kanem-Bornu. Hausaland took shape as a political and cultural region during the first millennium CE as a result of the westward expansion of Hausa peoples. They arrived to Hausaland when…

The Mossi Kingdoms, sometimes referred to as the Mossi Empire, were a number of different powerful kingdoms in modern-day Burkina Faso which dominated the region of the upper Volta river for hundreds of years. The kingdoms were founded when warriors from the Mamprusi area, in modern-day Ghana moved into the area and intermarried with local people. Centralization of the political and military powers of the kingdoms begin in the 13th century and led to conflicts between the…

The Kingdom of Rwanda was a pre-colonial kingdom in East Africa beginning in c. 1081, which survived with some of its autonomy intact under German and Belgian colonial rule until its monarchy was abolished in the Rwandan Revolution. After a 1961 referendum, Rwanda became a republic and received its independence in 1962.

The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (1075–1220) was a pre-colonial state in Southern Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers, south of Great Zimbabwe. The name is derived from either Venda or Shona. The name may mean "Hill of Jackals". The kingdom was the first stage in a development that would culminate in the creation of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 13th century, and with gold trading links to Rhapta and Kilwa Kisiwani on the African east coast. The…

Great Ardra was a coastal West African kingdom in what is now southern Benin. It was named for its capital, the modern Allada, which was also the main city and major port of the realm. The city and kingdom were supposedly founded by a group of Aja migrants in the 12th or 13th century. Its kings "ruled with the consent of the elders of the people". The state reached the peak of its power in the 16th and early 17th centuries, when it was an important source of slaves for the…

The kingdom of Benin was a pre-colonial kingdom in what is now southern Nigeria. It began in the 900s when the Edo people settled in the rainforests of West Africa. The rulers, known as the Oba were established through hereditary succession. Under these obas Benin became a highly organized state. Its numerous craftsmen were organized into guilds, and the kingdom became famous for its ivory and wood carvers. Its brass smiths and bronze casters excelled at making naturalistic…

The Sultanate of Ifat was a medieval Muslim state in the eastern regions of the Horn of Africa between the late 13th century and early 15th century. Led by the Walashma dynasty, it was centered in ancient city of Zeila and Shewa. The kingdom ruled over parts of what are now eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and north eastern Somalia.

The Empire of Kitara (Empire of Light), also known as Bunyoro-Kitara, refers specifically to the Kingdom of the Bakitara at the time of its greatest expansion, which had rulership that stretched throughout the Nile valley and beyond. The Chwezi Empire had fragmented into various autonomous states towards the 1300s. The Kitara Empire included what corresponds to modern Uganda, northern Tanzania, eastern Congo (DRC), Rwanda,Burundi, Zambia and Malawi.

The Sosso Empire was a twelfth-century Kaniaga kingdom of West Africa. The Kingdom of Sosso, also written as Soso or Susu, was an ancient kingdom on the coast of west Africa. During its empire, reigned their most famous leader, Sumanguru Kante. Sumanguru Kante was said to be a cruel, harsh leader of his kingdom according to old African historians. His harsh leadership style kept the empire in balance and led to organization within the nation states. There was also strong…

The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1220–1450) was a medieval BakaLanga kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, Lusvingo, now called Great Zimbabwe is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. This kingdom came about after the collapse of the Maphungubwe kingdom. The rulers of Zimbabwe brought artistic and stonemasonry traditions from Mapungubwe. The construction of elaborate stone buildings and walls reached its apex in the kingdom. The Kingdom of…

The Mali Empire was an empire in West Africa from c. 1230 to 1670. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Musa Keita. The Manding languages were spoken in the empire. It was the largest empire in West Africa and profoundly influenced the culture of West Africa through the spread of its language, laws and customs. The empire began as a small Mandinka kingdom at the upper reaches of the Niger River, centred around…

The Ethiopian Empire, also known as Abyssinia (derived from the Arabic al-Habash), was a kingdom that spanned a geographical area in the current states of Eritrea and Ethiopia. It began with the establishment of the Solomonic dynasty from approximately 1270 and lasted until 1974, when the ruling Solomonic dynasty was overthrown in a coup d'état by the Derg. The Solomonic dynasty was a bastion of Judaism and later of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. The dynasty's members claim…

Before the arrival of Europeans in the region, Buganda was an expanding, "embryonic empire". It built fleets of war canoes from the 1840s to take control of Lake Victoria and the surrounding regions, and subjugated several weaker peoples. These subject peoples were then exploited for cheap labor.

The Oyo Empire was a Yoruba empire established in the 15th century in what is today Benin and North central Nigeria. It rose through the outstanding organizational and administrative skills of the Yoruba people, wealth gained from trade and its powerful cavalry. Its foundation myth draws upon Yoruba religious beliefs and holds sacred the original settlement of Ile-Ife, which continues to be upheld as the creation site for the Yoruba people with significance to local…

The Serer people have been historically noted as a matrilineal ethnic group that long resisted the expansion of Islam, fought against jihads in the 19th century, then opposed the French colonial rule. In the 20th century, most of them converted to Islam (Sufism), but some are Christians or follow their traditional religion. The Serer society, like other ethnic groups in Senegal, has had social stratification featuring endogamous castes and slaves. The prehistoric and ancient…

The Jolof Empire (French: Djolof or Diolof), also known as the Wolof or Wollof Empire, was a West African state that ruled parts of Senegal from 1350 to 1549. Following the 1549 battle of Danki, its vassal states were fully or de facto independent; in this period it is known as the Jolof Kingdom. The Portuguese arrived in the Jolof Empire between 1444 and 1510, leaving detailed accounts of a very advanced political system. There was a developed hierarchical system involving…

The Kingdom of Bamum (also spelled Bamoum, Bamun, Bamoun, or Mum) (1394–1884) was a pre-colonial Central African state in what is now northwest Cameroon. It was founded by the Mbum, a Bantu ethnic group from northeast Cameroon who claim descent from the Tikar of the Cameroon highlands. Its capital was the ancient walled city of Fumban. The Bamum kingdom was founded by emigrants related to the Tikar royal dynasty of Nsaw. The founding king (called a "fon" or "mfon") was Nchare…

The Kingdom of Dagbon is a traditional kingdom in northern Ghana founded by the Dagomba people in the 15th century. The First Kingdom of Dagbon, from the mid 15th century to the late 17th century, is known to history almost entirely through oral tradition, especially drum chant. The Second Kingdom, from around 1700 to 1900, is better known, because, in addition to drum chant, there are other sources of information, some of them independent of events in Dagbon itself. Oral…

Medri Bahri was a medieval semi-unified political entity in the Horn of Africa. Also known as Marab(Merab) Melash was situated in modern-day Eritrea, it was ruled at times by the Bahri Negus (also called the Bahri Negasi or Bahr Negash) and lasted from the 15th century to the Ethiopian occupation in 1879. It survived several threats like the invasion of Imam Gran and the Ottoman Red Sea expansion, albeit Medri Bahri irretrievably lost its access to the Red Sea due to the…

Ngoyo was an Iron Age kingdom state of the Woyo tribe, located in the south of Cabinda (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola). Located on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, just north of the Congo River, it was founded by Bantu-speaking people around the 15th century. Ngoyo tradition held that the kingdom's ancestors were among the earliest settlers in the area, leading their chiefs to title themselves the nfumu nsi ("lords of the earth"). The capital…

Owo is a city in Ondo State of Nigeria. Between 1400 and 1600 AD, it was the capital of a Yoruba city-state. In their oral tradition, Owo traces its origins back to the ancient city of Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba culture. Oral tradition also claims that the founders were the sons of the Yoruba deity Odudua, who was the first ruler of Ile-Ife. The early art-historical and archaeological records reinforce these strong affiliations with Ife culture. Owo was able to maintain…

The Kingdom of Mutapa (sometimes referred to as the Mutapa Empire, Mwenemutapa) was a Bantu kingdom of the Zezuru people centered in the Zambezi valley in what are the modern states of northern Zimbabwe, north western Mozambique and south eastern Zambia . According to Shona oral tradition, the Mutapa Empire was founded by a prince of Great Zimbabwe named Nyatsimba Mutota who in 1430 traveled north in search of salt. After defeating a tribe of elephant hunters who had the…

The Kingdom of Butua or Butwa (c. 1450 - 1683) was a pre-colonial African state located in what is now southwestern Zimbabwe. It arose from the collapse of Great Zimbabwe in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Butua was renowned as the source of gold for Arab and Portuguese traders. The region was first mentioned in Portuguese records in 1512. The kingdom was governed by the Torwa dynasty of the BakaLanga people until 1683. The ruling dynasty based its capital at the stone…

The Songhai Empire (also transliterated as Songhay) was a state that dominated the western Sahel in the 15th and 16th century. At its peak, it was one of the largest states in African history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its leading ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai. Sonni Ali established Gao as the capital of the empire, although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century. Other important cities in the…

Akwamu (also called Akuambo) was a state set up by Akan people (in present-day Ghana) that flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. The name was also applied to its people. Originally emigrating from Bono state, the Akan founders settled in Twifo-Heman. The Akwamu led an expansionist empire in the 17th and 18th centuries. At the peak of their empire, the Akan created an influential culture that has contributed to at least three countries in West Africa. Akwamus are the…

The Empire of Great Fulo, also known as the Denanke Kingdom or Denianke Kingdom, was a pre-Islamic Pulaar kingdom of Senegal, which dominated the Futa Tooro region. Its population dominated its neighbors through use of cavalry and fought wars against the Mali and Songhai empires. The state began as a violent migration of Fula nomads from Futa Djallon into the Gambia led by Tenguella, their first king or mansa, in 1490. His attack was directed against the remaining Atlantic…

The Shilluk Kingdom was located along the banks of the White Nile river in modern South Sudan. Its capital and royal residence was in the town of Fashoda. According to their folk history and neighboring accounts, the kingdom was founded during the mid-fifteenth century CE by its first ruler, the demigod Nyikang. During the nineteenth century, the Shilluk were affected by military assaults from the Ottoman Empire and later British colonization in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The…

The kingdom of Fazughli was a precolonial state in what is now southeastern Sudan and western Ethiopia. Oral traditions assert its establishment to refugees from the Nubian kingdom of Alodia, after its capital Soba had fallen to Arabs or the Funj in c.1500. Fazughli was famous for its gold. Centered around the mountainous region of Fazughli on the Blue Nile and serving as a buffer between the Funj sultanate and the Ethiopian empire, the kingdom lasted until its incorporation…

The Kotoko kingdom was an African monarchy in what is today northern Cameroon and Nigeria, and southwestern Chad. Its inhabitants and their modern descendants are known as the Kotoko people. The rise of Kotoko coincided with the decline of the Sao civilisation in northern Cameroon. A king headed the nascent state, which came to assimilate several smaller kingdoms. Among these were Kousséri, Logone-Birni, Makari, and Mara. Kotoko spread to parts of what is today northern…

The Mandara Kingdom (sometimes called Wandala) was an African kingdom in the Mandara Mountains of what is today Cameroon. The Mandara people are descended from the kingdom's inhabitants. Tradition states that Mandara was founded shortly before 1500 by a female ruler named Soukda and a non-Mandarawa hunter named Gaya. The kingdom was first referred to by Fra Mauro (in 1459) and Leo Africanus (in 1526); the provenance of its name remains uncertain. For the kingdom's first…

Maravi was a kingdom which straddled the current borders of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, in the 16th century. The present-day name "Maláŵi" is said to derive from the Chichewa word "malaŵí", which means "flames". At its greatest extent, the state included territory from the Tonga and Tumbuka people's areas in the north to the Lower Shire in the south, and as far west as the Luangwa and Zambezi river valleys. Maravi's rulers belonged to the Mwale matriclan and held the…

The Kingdom of Ndongo, formerly known as Dongo or Angola, was an early-modern African state located in what is now Angola. The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of a number of vassal states to Kongo, though Ndongo was the most powerful of these with a king called the Ngola. The Kimbundu-speaking region was known as the land of Mbundu, and according to late sixteenth-century accounts, it was divided into 736 small political units ruled by…

The Wadai Sultanate (Arabic:Saltanat Waday, French: royaume du Ouaddaï, Fur: Burgu or Birgu; 1501–1912) was an African sultanate located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad and the Central African Republic. It emerged in the seventeenth century under the leadership of the first sultan, Abd al-Karim, who overthrew the ruling Tunjur people of the area. It occupied land previously held by the Sultanate of Darfur (in present-day Sudan) to the northeast of the Kingdom of…

The Sultanate or Kingdom of Bagirmi or Baghermi (French: Royaume du Baguirmi) was a kingdom and Islamic sultanate southeast of Lake Chad in central Africa. It was founded in either 1480 or 1522 and lasted until 1897, when it became a French protectorate. Its capital was Massenya, north of the Chari River and close to the border to modern Cameroon. The kings wore the title Mbang. The Bagirmi carried a tradition that they migrated from far to the east, which is supported by the…

The Kaabu Empire (1537–1867), also written Gabu, Ngabou, and N’Gabu', was a Mandinka empire of Senegambia centered within modern northeastern Guinea-Bissau, Larger parts of today's Gambia; Kingdom of Saloum, extending into Koussanar, Koumpentoum regions of South Eastern Senegal, and Casamance in Senegal. It rose to prominence in the region thanks to its origins as a former imperial military province of the Mali Empire. After the decline of the Mali Empire, Kaabu became an…

The Kingdom of Loango was a pre-colonial African state, during approximately the 16th to 19th centuries in what is now the western part of the Republic of the Congo and Cabinda. Situated to the north of the more powerful Kingdom of Kongo, at its height in the 17th century Loango influence extended from Cape St Catherine in the north to almost the mouth of the Congo River. Loango exported copper to the European market, and was a major producer and exporter of cloth. The…

The Kingdom of Luba or Luba Empire (1585–1889) was a pre-colonial Central African state that arose in the marshy grasslands of the Upemba Depression in what is now southern Democratic Republic of Congo. The government was based on a complex Kingship system which was durable enough to withstand the disruptions of succession disputes and flexible enough to incorporate foreign leaders and governments. The economy was based on a tribute system where nobles monopolized trade of…

The Anziku Kingdom, also called the Teke Kingdom, the Tyo Kingdom or Tio Kingdom, was a pre-colonial West Central African state of modern Republic of Congo. The word Anziku comes from the KiKongo phrase "Anziku Nziku" meaning "to run" referring to inhabitants who leave the interior to protect the border. The term was applied most famously to the Bateke, which is why the state is sometimes called the kingdom of Teke or Tiyo. Other groups within the Anziku included the Bampunu…

The Kingdom of Dahomey was an important regional power that had an organized domestic economy built on conquest and slave labor, significant international trade with Europeans, a centralized administration, taxation systems, and an organized military. Notable in the kingdom were significant artwork, an all-female military unit known as the Dahomey Amazons, and the elaborate religious practices of Vodun with the large festival of the Annual Customs of Dahomey. Common art…

The Kuba Kingdom, also rendered as the Kingdom of the Bakuba, Songora or Bushongo, was a pre-colonial kingdom in Central Africa. The Kuba Kingdom flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries in the region bordered by the Sankuru, Lulua, and Kasai rivers in the south-east of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Kuba Kingdom was a conglomerate of several smaller Bushongo-speaking principalities as well as the Kete, Coofa, Mbeengi, and the Twa Pygmies. The…

The Kasanje Kingdom, also known as the Jaga Kingdom, (1620–1910) was a pre-colonial Central African state. It was formed in 1620 by a mercenary band of Imbangala, which had deserted the Portuguese ranks. The state gets its name from the leader of the band, Kasanje, who settled his followers on the upper Kwango River. The Kasanje people were ruled by the Jaga, a king who was elected from among the three clans who founded the kingdom. The Jaga or Jagas were terms applied by the…

The Kingdom of Matamba (1631–1744) was a pre-colonial African state located in what is now the Baixa de Cassange region of Malanje Province of modern-day Angola. It was a powerful kingdom that long resisted Portuguese colonisation attempts and was only integrated into Angola in the late nineteenth century. The first documentary mention of the Kingdom of Matamba is a reference to it giving tribute to the King of Kongo, then Afonso I of Kongo, in 1530. In 1535 Afonso…

Gondar is a city and separate distirct in Ethiopia which served as a strong Christian kingdom for many years. Gondar previously served as the capital of both the Ethiopian Empire and the subsequent Begemder Province. The city holds the remains of several royal castles, including those in Fasil Ghebbi (the Royal Enclosure), for which Gondar has been called the "Camelot of Africa". Until the 16th century, the Solomonic Emperors of Ethiopia usually had no fixed capital town…

The Rozvi Empire (1684–1834) was established on the Zimbabwean Plateau by Changamire Dombo. After Dombo's death, his successor adopted the title Mambo. The term "Rozvi" refers to their legacy as a Warrior Nation known as the plunderers. The Rozvi were formed from several Shona states that dominated the plateau of present-day Zimbabwe at the time. They drove the Portuguese off the central plateau, and the Europeans retained only a nominal presence at one of the fair-towns in…

The Nation of Lunda (c. 1665 CE – c. 1887 CE) was a confederation of states in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, north-eastern Angola, and north-western Zambia, its central state was in Katanga. The Lunda Kingdom controlled some 150,000 km2 by 1680. The state doubled in size to around 300,000 km2 at its height in the nineteenth century. The Mwata Yamvos of Lunda became powerful militarily from their base of 175,000 inhabitants. Through marriage with descendants of…

The Ashanti Empire (also spelled Asante) was an Akan empire and kingdom in what is now modern-day Ghana from 1670 to 1957. The empire also encompassed parts of modern day Côte d'Ivoire and Togo. The empire was known for its military prowess, wealth, architecture, sophisticated hierarchy and culture. The Ashanti state, in effect, was a theocracy. The election of Kings and the Asantehene (King of Kings or emperor ) himself followed a pattern. The senior female of the kingly…

The Kingdom of Burundi (French: Royaume du Burundi) or Kingdom of Urundi (Royaume d'Urundi) was a polity ruled by a traditional monarch in modern-day Republic of Burundi in the Great Lakes region of East Africa. The kingdom, majority ethnic Hutu, was ruled by a monarch from the Tutsi ethnic group with the title of mwami. Created in the 17th century, the kingdom was preserved under European colonial rule in the late 19th and early 20th century and was an independent state…

The Kingdom of Orungu (c. 1700–1927) (Portuguese: Reino da Orungu, French: Royaume d'Orungu) was a small, pre-colonial state of what is now Gabon in Central Africa. Through its control of the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was able to become the most powerful of the trading centers that developed in Gabon during that period.

Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, Southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom or chieftainship of the Kiluba-Chibemba, speaking the Swahili language (a Bantu language with Arabic superstratum) or the language of the Eastern Luba-Lunda people of south-central Africa(also known as the Luba, Luunda, Eastern Luba-Lunda, and Luba-Lunda-Kazembe). Its position on trade routes in a well-watered, relatively fertile and well…

The Kingdom of Zulu , sometimes referred to as the Zulu Empire or the Kingdom of Zululand, was a monarchy in Southern Africa that extended along the coast of the Indian Ocean from the Tugela River in the south to Pongola River in the north. The kingdom grew to dominate much of what is today KwaZulu-Natal and Southern Africa. In 1879, the British Empire invaded, beginning the Anglo-Zulu War. After an initial Zulu victory at the Battle of Isandlwana in January, the British Army…