The Hierarchy and the Multi and Super-ethnic Regional Formation concerning African Traditional Kingdoms

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First we have demonstrated that although the image of Ethnic Africa is still dominant about the traditional Africa, this latter has known rich histories of State formation and many traditional kingdoms or chiefdoms have survived till now and played important roles for the development of the welfare of the peoples' life under the system of the independent modem nation state,Secondly we have studied the state formation especially from the point of view of regional formation or integration of multi-ethnic groups into a wider local society. Thus we have analyzed the reason by which the image of traditional Africa is 'ethnic' or tribal one and the particular logic of African State formation. Africa is a continent with the biggest forest in the world at its center and drier savanna and desert in its prophetical zones. We consider that the State formation as regional formation was easily realized in the dry zones. Its reasons are 1) existence of domestic animals used as means of transport, mo … More vement, communication and even military activities 2) absence of material obstacles for communications and movement such as deep forests, rivers and swamp. In the forest regions the state formation was very difficult especially because of the absence of domestic animals and the existence of ecological obstacles for the movement and the transport. This is why the African State formation has been mainly realized in the prophetical zones like Sahel Region. It was as if Africa has not known her own state formation. We can generally confirm the lack of internal communication in Africa.However Africa was not the continent of mosaic of ethnic atoms. Ethnic groups have existed in inter actionable relationship with each others; they formed wider regional societies. It was therefore continual from the ethnic world to the state society which has more institutionally integrated multi-ethnic relationships in wider regional societies. Or this kind of Rethinking Ethnic Africa was a guide line for Japanese ethnologists' works which started from 1960. Mainly editing the papers written in French or English by Japanese ethnologists we have published 5 volumes of African Kingdoms Collection.We have also developed international cooperation with foreign scholars, especially African ones. Less