There are presently as many as 165 monarchies in Africa; that is: self-governing states, territories, or nations on the continent of Africa where supreme power resides with an individual, who is recognised as the head of state. All are similar in that the sovereign inherits his or her office and usually keeps it until death or abdication. However, only five are sovereign, while the remaining are sub-national monarchies. Of the former, four are constitutional monarchies, wherein the sovereign is bound by laws and customs in the exercise of his or her powers, and one is an absolute monarchy, wherein the sovereign rules without bounds; currently three of these monarchies are independent states, while the remaining two are dependencies of European monarchies. Those monarchies that are sub-national in nature are not sovereign, and exist within larger political associations.

Some Contemporary Monarchies[link]

State	Dependency	Succession	Monarch	Reign since	Heir apparent
Lesotho	Kingdom; constitutional	Elective	Letsie III	12 November 1990	TO be determined by Senate of Lesotho when necessary
Morocco	Kingdom; constitutional	Agnatic primogeniture	Mohammed VI	23 July 1999	Moulay Hassan, Crown Prince of Morocco
Swaziland	Kingdom; absolute	Elective	Mswati III	25 April 1986	Unknown
Territory	Type	Succession	Monarch	Reign since	Heir apparent
Canary Islands (Kingdom of Spain)	Autonomous community	Cognatic primogeniture	Juan Carlos	22 November 1975	Felipe, Prince of Asturias
Ceuta (Kingdom of Spain)	Autonomous community	Cognatic primogeniture	Juan Carlos	22 November 1975	Felipe, Prince of Asturias
Melilla (Kingdom of Spain)	Autonomous community	Cognatic primogeniture	Juan Carlos	22 November 1975	Felipe, Prince of Asturias
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom)	British overseas territory	Male primogeniture[N 1]	Elizabeth II	6 February 1952	Charles, Prince of Wales[1]
Nation[N 2]	Type	Succession	Monarch	Reign since	Heir apparent
Zululand (South Africa)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu	17 September 1968	Misuzulu Zulu
Ashanti (Ghana)	Sub-national monarchy	Elective	Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II	26 April 1999	Unknown
Barotseland (Zambia)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Lubosi Imwiko II	October 2000
Buganda (Uganda)	Sub-national monarchy	Elective	Muwenda Mutebi II	31 July 1993	Unknown
Bunyoro (Uganda)	Sub-national monarchy		Iguru I	1994
Busoga (Uganda)	Sub-national monarchy	Elective	TBA		Unknown
Kano (Nigeria)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Ado Bayero	October 1963
Kanongesha-Lunda (Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Mbumb II Muteb	1997
Toro Kingdom (Uganda)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Rukidi IV	5 September 1995	TBA
Rwenzururu (Uganda)	Sub-national monarchy	Cognatic primogeniture	Charles Mumbere	2009

• African monarchs
• 

  Mohammed VI, King of Morocco

• 

  Mswati III of Swaziland

Former Commonwealth realms[link]

•  The Gambia (abolished 1970)
•  Ghana (abolished 1960)
•  Kenya (abolished 1964)
•  Malawi (abolished 1966)
•  Mauritius (abolished 1992)
•  Federation of Nigeria (abolished 1963)
•  Sierra Leone (abolished 1971)
•  South Africa (abolished 1961)
•  Tanganyika (abolished 1962)
•  Uganda (abolished 1963)

Former monarchies[link]

Pre-colonial Africa[link]

• Iron Age empires of North Africa
• Medieval (8th to 13th century) Islamic empires (caliphates) in North Africa
• the medieval Sahelian kingdoms
• The Ethiopian Empire is notable as an empire in continuous existence from the 13th to the 20th centuries, succumbing neither to the Islamic conquests nor to European colonialism.
• empires of the "transitional period" of the 15th to 19th centuries.
  • Islamic sultanates of the Sudan and the Horn of Africa
  • kingdoms of West Africa succeeding the Sahelian kingdoms
  • kingdoms of Central and Southern Africa such as the Kongo Kingdom and the Mutapa Empire.
• The Merina Kingdom of Madagascar.

20th century[link]

• Ankole (Uganda) (abolished 1967)
• Burundi (Kingdom of) (abolished 1966)
• Central African Empire (abolished 1979)
•  Congo Free State (annexed by Belgium 1908)
•  Egypt (Kingdom of) (abolished 1953)
•  Ethiopia (Empire of) (abolished 1975)
•  Libya (Kingdom of) (abolished 1969)
•  Rhodesia (not recognized; abolished 1970)
•  Rwanda (Kingdom of) (abolished 1961)
•  Tunisia (Kingdom of) (abolished 1957)
• Zanzibar (Sultanate of) (abolished 1964)

Notes[link]

1. ^ Equal primogeniture is being considered.
2. ^ Nation here refers to the more strict usage of the word, meaning a body of people or a community. The monarchies in this column are all sub-national monarchies, and do not constitute sovereign states.

References[link]