It occurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, DRCongo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda.

Produces white or greenish-white flowers with a red or pink stripe in panicles.

[3] The leaves are bright green, about 30 cm long, with 7-17 pairs of elliptic or ovate leaflets.

[7] The building of a reconstructed 9th-century Arab merchantman, the Jewel of Muscat, required thirty-eight tons of Afzelia africana wood, which was supplied from Ghana.

[2] The bark is often used for medicinal purposes in West Africa, and some groups regard the tree as "a refuge of invisible spirits".