If you don't know much about Africa in Antiquity, you can start your search by referring to this by-no-means-complete list of various orginal African states and peoples:
- Aksum or Axum: pre-Christian and early Christian state based in what is now Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Bamana: an empire based in what is today Mali
- Benin or Edo, a West African kingdom in what is today Nigeria, producer of the world-famous Benin Bronzes (and not to be confused with the modern Republic of Benin)
- Ghana: An empire based in what is now Mali and Mauritania, and namesake of the modern Republic of Ghana
- Great Zimbabwe: builders of the Great Zimbabwe fortification in what is now Zimbabwe
- Kanem or Bornu Empire, based around modern-day Chad
- Kemet: original name of Egypt. Translates to "Black Land" based on the color of the soil around the Nile River
- Kingdom of Kongo: based on the lower Kongo/Congo River
- Kitara, also known as Banyakitara or the Chwezi Union in East Africa
- Khoisan: the hunter-gatherer peoples of southeastern Africa, famous for speaking "click" languages
- Luba: a kingdom in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Lunda: another kingdom in what is today the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Nubia: a region in what is now northern Sudan and southern Egypt, various African Kingdoms have existed here, from the Kingdom of Kush and Meroë
- Songhai: a fifteenth-sixteenth century empire based in West Africa