What tasks did African rulers perform in exchange for loyalty from their people?

Africa is a big place. In fact, it is the second-largest continent on earth. Only Asia is bigger. This vast land is shaped roughly like a soup bowl. Forming the bowl’s northwestern rim are the Atlas Mountains. The Drakensberg range forms the southeastern edge. In eastern Africa mountains extend alongside great rifts. These rifts are long, deep valleys formed by the movement of the earth’s crust. From all these mountains the land dips into plateaus and wide, low plains.