5 Ancient African social structures that thrived before colonisers imposed western versions

Kingdom/ Empires

By the 4^th century, kingdoms and empires were the most popular forms of social structures that existed in Africa. They were very powerful societies with a huge number of citizens and defined land territories and were ruled by a king who had the highest power of government.

Kingdoms and empires were a mixture of settled hunters and gathers and social class societies. Their leadership developed into a monarchical system and were referred to as royals. They developed powerful armies and trade markets which made a majority of their citizens very wealthy. Kingdoms and empires expanded their territories through wars and invasions often capturing smaller city-states and settlements whose citizens then became labourers and slaves. After a while kings and their royal court were not able to run their kingdoms well due to great expansion and this led to the development of a government structure and selection of governors, statesmen and ministers.

The rise of empires began the proper demarcation of Africa before European presence. Many of these empires went on to develop their own languages and culture and became distinct civilizations. Kingdoms were hard to fall and existed for many centuries before being conquered by other kingdoms through war or at the start of the invasion of the Europeans who had the advantage of advanced war ammunition.