When looking at the Machu Picchu in Peru or Angkor Wat in Cambodia, I was curious if there are any similar sites in the African Rainforest. If not, why could societies rise up and create them in Asia and South America, but not in Africa?
(Edit) I am aware of other “lost” cities in African continent, but I am not aware of any in the actual rainforests of Africa.
Sites like Ankgor Wat, Machu Picchu and Maya cities like Chichen Itza were not covered in rainforest when they were originally inhabited. Rather, the forest cover had been cleared for intense farming activity to support the food needs of the city populations. It was only after societal collapse when city populations dispersed and farming activity was much reduced that forest cover took over and covered those sites.
There were numerous cities in West Africa that had similar origins as settlements near or at the edge of the West African coastal rainforest. Cities like Kong, Bono-Manso, Begho, or Kumasi.
However, there wasn't a similar demographic collapse for those cities. People kept living there, live there still, and with the advent of 20th century logging practices there has been severe fragmentation of the West African rainforest biome.
So, sites like Angkor Wat or Chichen Itza were "discovered" by European travelers in the second half of the 19th century in their rainforest-covered ruins. But places like Kong or Kumasi were still inhabited, and were surrounded by farmland (i.e. human caused deforestation), so could not be fit into a romantic image of rainforest covered ruins.