Mentioning previous answers is not to discourage any questions. Please ask any questions that may occur to you.

There's a section of the FAQ that has several comments on this subject: Why is Africa "less developed"?

• What caused Africa to be so poor and corrupt?: /u/Fjosnisse
• Why are former African colonies generally much less developed than former Asian colonies?: too many to list. Not as applicable, being focused on Africa versus Asia specifically.
• Why did all of the other continents develop so much quicker than Africa?: I wouldn't pay much attention to "Guns, Germs, and Steel", but rather /u/khosikulu, starting from their questioning "development as a paradigm for linear comparison" and going on to provide facts about African history.
• Why is Africa not as developed as the other continents besides Antarctica?: /u/snackburros defends his wicket against a lot of balls.

Well you might benefit from reading these previous threads on the kingdoms, empires, cities and cultures which emerged in Sub-Saharan Africa:

If a Western European at the beginning of the second millennium saw a typical city in West Africa, would they think it was advanced? Somewhat archaic? Or familiar?, We hear a lot about the names Timbuktu and Swahili city-states, but less about the cities themselves. How important were urban centers in medieval and early modern sub-Saharan Africa?, What empires existed in Central Africa?, Why is modern day Ethiopia so poor?, What happened to Africa's ancient empires? Why is the Ghana Empire not in Ghana? by /u/commustar

Did early European travelers to West Africa view the polities they observed there as equal in dignity to the ones back home? by /u/terminus-trantor

What did European Christians in the Middle Ages think of Ethiopia, and vice-versa? by /u/compieuter

AMA on Swahili and Sudanic states

Adding more below but Reddit only allows users to ping three users in a single comment

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