So, one of the early advantages that African civilisation had was the earliest known discovery and production of carbon steel, developed by the Bantu all the way back in 500 BC. Yet this innovation, which could have a crucial military advantage over anyone else in the world at this time, was never utilised to its full potential. Significant parallels can be drawn between Bantu East Africa and their contemporaries in early Yayoi period Japan at this time- how far could the parallels continue to run in an ATL? Would it be plausible to conceive of the emergence of what would essentially be an African equivalent to the Shogunate, with the Hima or a parallel group filling the niche of the samurai on the top rung of their caste system?