That the West has contributed immensely to human progress over many centuries is not in doubt. It is, if you like, a self-evident fact. The Western ideas of individual liberty, democracy, and rule of law especially the notion of due process and presuming someone innocent until proven guilty; and defining marriage as the union between a man and a woman bolstered our civilisation.
Of course, there were excesses in the process notably the practice of slavery. We have to note at the same time, that slavery is a very old concept that preceded the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Even here in Africa, we have to not only recognize but concede that Africans were on both sides of the business. Some acted as brokers and as such were complicit in the abominable business of selling off their brethren to unknown lands. The slave traders did not always have to delve deep into the interior in search of slaves because locals took care of that part of the business. Neither were slave traders exclusively European or American. The museum in Zanzibar for example opens one’s mind to the lesser-known fact that Arabs too were involved in the slave trade
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