 The idea of a multinational unifying African state has been compared to various medieval African empires, including the Ethiopian Empire, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, the Songhai Empire, the Benin Empire, the Kanem Empire, and other historic nation states.During the late 19th and early 20th century the majority of African land was controlled by various European empires, with the British controlling around 30 per cent of the African population at its peak.The term "United States of Africa" was mentioned first by Marcus Garvey in his poem "Hail, United States of Africa" in 1924.