Yes, there was an African Empire. In fact, there were lots of African Empires all over the country. There was the Western African Empire and many other African Empires.
The "Great Three" West African empires were Ghana, Mali, and Songhai.
The people that carried goods from Europe to west African empires were Portuguese people.
bananas and chicken
They adopted Egyptian culture.
fear of African empires.
salt and gold
The West African trade empires made their money mainly by trading slaves, salt and gold.
You're suppose to tell me
The Songhai Empire
The main sources of wealth and power of all the West African empires was the armies they built whose superior iron weapons let them take control of the trade in salt and gold.
They were overcome by people with steel weapons.