As I once indicated, it was through the much maligned European colonialism that Afrikans first encountered modernisation through Western civilization. Without this encounter, Afrikans would still be backward.
The reason for European colonialism n Afrika (and to a limited extent, Arab colonialism – but Arabs were more interested in proselytising the natives into Islam) was that the continent was replete with natural resources that Europe required for its Industrial Revolution. Afrikans were not utilising their natural resources at scale, and to Europeans, they were unexploited and their factories were in dire need of them. To justify the plundering, Afrikans were not regarded as humans, but as savages undeserving of the resources.
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