"The first communities in West Africa were made up of extended families. An extended family included you parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. These groups may be as many as 20-25 people and usually the group was lead by a male elder. As time went on the groups found that there were times where they needed more people to accomplish something. They may have needed to do some large scale farming, fend off an attack, or stop a flood. Permanent villages, towns, and cities sprung up in areas where there was lots of resources or trade routes. Sometimes these areas were able to conquer their neighbors due to their wealth and ability to hire soldiers. These areas then turned into the first kingdoms of West Africa such as Mali, Ghana, and Songhai."
Source:http://msgotthelf.weebly.com/early-communities-in-west-africa.html
