The legacy of colonialism

According to economic principals as well as the recorded history there are certain stages in the development of a society or nation. These stages account for the different degrees or levels of knowledge reached by a country as a whole in any given time of it's development.
During the high season of colonial anexation and slavery the European community destroyed the culture of a phenomenal amount of countries and tribes. But this damage could have been reversed, had it not been for their insistence of stamping their own image upon the indigenous people of Africa.
By exposing a country or nation to different mores and beliefs, you cannot but affect them. What made this worse was the fact that most of these nations were not ready in their development to accept or to control the level of advancement demanded.
Most of Europe had progressed beyond the basic levels and was moving into a heavily industrial age when they started to demand the same type or kind of understanding from their subjugated slaves. They failed to realise that they were dealing with a people that were still subsistence farmers, living of the land with the most rudimentary metal working skills, who had not yet advanced beyond it.
Even now, this same lack of understanding has not dawned on the European community, and they have not realised that to expect the nations and countries of Africa to respond in a like manner as they would, is futile. Africa has yet to engender that same level of knowledge in the people and has still to come to the same level of understanding as Europe. As a continent, they are still about 400 years behind in development.
It is easy to reach the same technological level, because there is such a proliferation of communication and information sharing. But having the cellphone and understanding how it works are two different things altogether.
Being given things will not change a person's outlook about them, beyond the use he can get from it. If that same person were to discover the same thing by himself and understood how it works and what it would take to maintain it, he would have a greater understanding about his role in relation.
Teaching a person how to drive will not automatically create an understanding of the inner workings of the engine. But by teaching a person how the engine works, you will give him more information and knowledge about how to drive and he would be a better driver, as he could then use that information to get the most out of the engine.
This is the crux of the problems facing the European communities' inability to communicate with the nations and countries of Africa and their lack of understanding about the problems being faced. Until they can realise and work on it, there will just be talk and rhetoric, without real change.