The Sultanate of Darfur was a pre-colonial East African state in what is today Sudan.

History has shown that the Onikwu/Ndoni people are immigrants from Benin during pre-colonial African state.

The Merina Kingdom (ca. 1540-1897) was a pre-colonial southeastern African state that dominated most of what is now Madagascar.

With these pre-colonial states the Taukei ni Waluvu has the traditional veibatiki relationship which is still extant today.

Benin Empire (1440-1897), a large pre-colonial African state of modern Nigeria.

The Mankessim Kingdom (1252-1844) was a pre-colonial African state in modern-day Ghana.

As was the case with most non-Javan pre-colonial states, Acehnese power expanded outward by sea rather than inland.

The Baté Empire was a pre-colonial state centred around Kankan in what is today Guinea.

The Benin Empire (1440-1897) was a pre-colonial African state in what is now modern Nigeria.

Geertz argues that the pre-colonial Balinese state was not a "hydraulic bureaucracy" nor an oriental despotism, but rather, an organized spectacle.