ABSTRACT
It was historically short and was only one of a large number of outside influences experienced by Africa. in favoured natural conditions, with the great river providing flood irrigation combined with rich nutrient replenishment in the form of silt, a large and regular food surplus could be grown by only a small proportion of the total population, so permitting the growth of a complex society and polity. The events of pre-colonial African history are most relevant to the modern political geography of the continent. Some pre-colonial African nations', such as the Ashanti, the Baganda and the Ndebele, play important roles as cultural and political minorities within modern African states and materially affect the well-being of the states of which they are now part. Great though its immediate impact has been, European colonialism, encapsulated within a single century, has to be placed properly in the context of a very long, complex and still influential pre-colonial African history.
