text: states which followed oligarchic patterns. The different kingdoms retained independent features in their family organization and in their religious orientation as well. But similarities exist in their economic structures. Although basically agricultural, their favorable geographical and climatic location, combined with a proximity to European trade centers, created societies with a slight surplus economy which in turn permitted the development of specialized professions, analogous to that of the Sudan states. Basket and pottery makers, blacksmiths, copper workers, wood carvers, and weavers, dyers and specialists of various kinds, they all were part of most settlements, and in the markets characteristic for this area traded the works of their crafts against the produce of the peasants.