What were some highly successful African civilizations pre Euro-colonialism?

[Kevin]

And furthermore, what was the lifestyle of these civilizations like? Did they have agriculture? Were they hunter-gatherers? What were some achievements?

 

[cactusx]

Well, the Malinese were probably one of the most opulent and powerful. They were Islamic and came from western Africa, and were extremely rich by non-European standards. They were also possibly the most developed, with successful systems of irrigation in the kingdom that drew on the Roman tradition.

There's also the Zulu and the Songhai, fierce warriors who held virtual empires of their own, but I'm not too sure how much they predated colonialism.

There's the Sokoto, now northern Nigeria, who were a powerful Islamic kingdom.

Many others were smaller tribal kingdoms.

 

[tony b]

There were 'civilisations' in East and West Africa (Zimbabwe) and they were very localised, and entirely agrarian. Since then, civilisation has largely been absent from that continent after the colonials were ousted. Africa, for some unaccountable reason, goes backwards, it regresses, gets poorer and more disease ridden, and is beset by violent, megalomaniacal dictators. The rest of the world (apart from some countries in South America) progresses, Africa regresses. Not one country south of the Sahara has improved since the colonial days.