The political landscape of African countries is complex and difficult to understand in terms of modern concepts of political sociology. Neo-patrimonialism makes use of Weber’s classical trinity of political legitimacy – and immediately violates it as the trinity does not sufficiently capture the daily political realities on the African continent. Anthropology has developed a series of types and concepts that seem to be more appropriate to analyse political and social life in Africa. However, the realities on the ground again do not comply to these types. Acephalous societies co-exist with centralised polities under the umbrella of a state that seems to be absent in everyday life and leaves its core functions to private actors and institutions. More often than not, attempts to establish hegemonic regimes meet generalised attitudes to refuse all kinds on domination. Autonomy seems to be the hallmark of their social and economic constitution – that is, the unwritten basis of their mere existence. Sometimes, local communities but also larger areas linger between hegemonic and autonomous tendencies, leaning towards one or the other, depending on the circumstances and imponderabilia of the historic situation. This talk asks how such complex figurations and their transformations can be analysed and conceived in ways that do not build on preconceived modern concepts.