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African Pre-colonial City-States: Why we need to look back to move forward

Heba Elhanafy

The African cities we live in today are a result of many years of development, progress, and sometimes distortions. They are a product of colonial powers, poor policies, and ill-capacitated institutions. However, African cities are also shaped by people, cultures, and traditions. The stories of African cities are as old as Africans and their civilizations. For a long time, literature on African cities has concentrated on the post-colonial and colonial periods. It has deprived the world of essential knowledge and understanding of African cities. The lack of research on pre-colonial African cities has created a blind spot in understanding the intricate organizational and governance structure. Those structures resulted in cities that were trade, learning, and culture centers. They had sophisticated urban planning and impressive architecture. Those stories are often overlooked, while the stories of how things went wrong in African cities are frequently highlighted.

City-states rose in both West and East Africa. Some evolved into great empires like the Ashanti Empire in West Africa, some controlled trade routes like Zanzibar and Kilwa, and others managed to maintain their anonymity under strong empires like Lagos under the Benin Empire. They also emerged for different reasons. 

While fertile land and iron mining attracted people to Kano, it was the Indian Ocean trade that shaped most of the East African city-states. Food surplus that was sold and taxed helped form Lagos. While every city-state had its own economic and governance models, which helped in the evolution of those cities, they all have a shared legacy of being indigenous creations sustained by trade, urban agriculture, and a strong connection with rural villages. Those African urban centers were dynamic, complex, diverse, and adapted to each era with different socioeconomic features and governance models.


Pre-colonial African City-States were complex, sustainable, and diverse in their structures. City-states in pre-colonial Africa were quite diverse in their formation

For instance, cities like Timbuktu and Gao in the Mali Empire grew to serve Saharan trade routes. Timbuktu was divided into different quarters, each serving distinct functions such as trade, education, and residential purposes. The city often established and maintained public routes that facilitated the movement of traders and goods and encouraged more trade.

Similarly, the Hausa city-states, such as Kano and Katsina, featured fortified walls and gates, which provided security and controlled access to the city. They included specialized zones for craft production, trade, and residential quarters. Some of those specialized divisions can be seen to this day. 

On the Swahili east coast, city-states like Kilwa and Mombasa were built with narrow, winding streets that helped to mitigate the coastal heat. Large public spaces and markets facilitated social interaction and trade. The cities used local coral stones in their construction, forming durable and beautiful architectural designs. City growth responded to various purposes: trade, defense, and governance. It reflected a high degree of social and economic organization.


Pre-colonial African City-States were centers of trade and economic hubs. Pre-colonial African city-states were vibrant economic hubs. They were often located along trade routes

Their location facilitated the exchange of goods, and trade. Cities like Timbuktu and Gao were located along the trans-Saharan trade route. They connected West Africa with North Africa and the Mediterranean. Tax money went into building institutions, mosques, and libraries. The Swahili city-states played a major part in the Indian Ocean trading network. They traded ivory, gold, spices, fabrics, and even slaves. For example, Zanzibar and Kilwa controlled trade between the interior of Africa and the other parts of the Indian Ocean basin. These city-states also did business with Persia, India, China, and the Arabian Peninsula. Immigrants from the Arab Peninsula and Persian merchants went to those cities, thus creating a mixture of cultures between them and native people, leading to the development of the unique Swahili culture.

View of Benin City as depicted in the 17th century publication by the Dutch writer Olfert Dapper (2020 © Trustees of the British Museum)
View of Benin City as depicted in the 17th century publication by the Dutch writer Olfert Dapper (2020 © Trustees of the British Museum)

Pre-colonial city-states were independent and sovereign

Pre-colonial African city-states exhibited a diversity of governance structures. Authorities often governed on the city level, not the nation or the kingdom level. For example, the Yoruba city-states of Ife and Oyo in present-day Nigeria were ruled by their own Oba (king). The Oba governed with the support of councils of chiefs and other titled officials, each responsible for specific administrative functions such as finance, justice, and defense. Government officials collected taxes, regulated trade, and kept security. 

The Swahili city-states along the East African coast were governed by sultans or sheiks who controlled trade monopolies and diplomatic relations. While the governance systems varied across the city-states, they all maintained independence, were well-governed, and were well-supported by these local indigenous governing structures.


Pre-colonial African urban settlements have a long and proud past; some still maintain some pre-colonial structures and organizational patterns till this day

A number of those city-states, such as Benin City and Kumasi, were destroyed or absorbed by colonization, but many managed to survive. Lagos survived and expanded and is now the largest city in Africa. Some governance structures managed to survive as well. For example, many Nigerian cities still retain their monarchical rulership in addition to democratically elected leaders. Lagos still recognizes the «Oba» (king) as a monarchical ruler. Benin also has an «Oba», Kano has an «Emir», and Sokoto has a «Sultan». 


Some of the elements of pre-colonial economies can also be seen in former city-states like the Kurmi Market in Kano. If we skip forward to 2024, the state of African cities is deteriorating. Seventy percent of cities are informal, with limited water, sanitation, and electricity access. While, in general, cities have better access to labor markets than rural areas, most jobs remain unproductive, and wages remain insufficient to meet basic living standards. So, how did African cities go from independent, self-sufficient, and productive cities to the cities we have now?

Yes, you guessed it right. European civilization uprooted our urban development progress. European colonization was a shock to African systems in general, but it was even a greater shock to our governance and urban systems. New cities, such as Nairobi and Lusaka, were built from the ground up to serve the newly incoming white population. 


Those cities were designed around segregation (e.g., till 1947, the native population in Lusaka could not access cities without special passports/ permits). They were also designed around control; colonial governments often took seats in major cities, and those cities were entirely under the control of national-level colonial governments. Colonialism also brought a set of building and design regulations, often copied from European laws. The cities were governed, occupied, and designed for European settler populations.


Post-colonial leadership did not change much to the governance systems of African cities.

In the fifties and sixties, national governments started gaining independence. Native populations flooded the city, searching for better work opportunities and access to services. But colonial approaches towards cities haven’t changed. The newly rising African elite replaced the white settlers.


The poor remained in compounds and increased many folds on top of that. The laws remained unchanged; building regulations and impossible permits kept most newcomers from entering the formal market. Most importantly, in an attempt for the newly found independent national governments to form a tighter grip on their countries, they tightened the grip on cities, and local municipalities remained underfunded and incapacitated. As they stand, African cities need significant policy changes to transform into sustainable, productive human settlements. They also need infrastructure, jobs, and capacity building. The needs of African cities are covered well in all the literature, the press releases, the political statements, and the meetings.


The United Nations (UN) projects that the world’s urban population will increase by over 2 billion people by 2050. 90% of Urbanization will happen in African and Asian Cities

There are tons of new cities in Africa to absorb that urban growth in conception or under construction. Those projects often lack the knowledge of how our cities used to work. They also lack the idea of what our cities can be like.The best way to move forward is by looking at the past and realizing how sustainable, pragmatic, productive, and independent pre-colonial city-states were. If there is a clear lesson from reading into the history of these city-states, it is how a certain level of autonomy over the economics and governance gave room for them to rise and be self-sustaining.


View of Benin City as depicted in the 17th century publication by the Dutch writer Olfert Dapper (2020 © Trustees of the British Museum)

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