This issue has always disturbed my mind over time and I feel I should sample some other people's opinion.

To me we would have developed and be better than the way we are today because we had all the things in place. The whiteman's adventure was to distort our ways and impose theirs on us. Before their coming, we had our own way of running our affairs. We had our own form of democracy. I am Yoruba so permit me to say those things I know about the way we were. I know the East, the North had things similar to that of the Yoruba too
We had the central government which is the Oyo Empire. The Ibadan council which is the administrative center also existed. The Alaafin though the President also had his council of chiefs (legislature) who do checks and balances and the law enforcers - Dongaris . We had the Ifa divinity which was a purely scientific thing based on beliefs and moderates the action of the leaders too. The Oluwo atimes acts as the Judiciary that adjudicates on issues of dispute.

We also had our own Iron ore where we make our hoes and cutlasses as well as other farm implements. We were also engaging in Commerce even though it was trade by barter but it was medium of exchange. We were also engaging in International trade across borders too. People were trekking to perform pilgrimage to Mecca and other places. So by reason of collaboration we would have copied to develop our own technology and even bought from those who had it.

What colonialism has done to us now was to truncate the development and make us jump the gun. Now in our eyes the Whiteman is superior and anything ours is jettisoned. They brought Xtianity and Islam to blindfold us yet what they call idol worshipping is still practised in their place but with a different name , Illuminati and so on.

It is really painful to see the drift in our fortunes but I think on issues like this if we examine them, it might help us in rediscovering ourselves as a race meant for development

Comments are welcome from people on this forum

well he came.have we deleoped?

We would DEFINITELY have developed if the white man had not come with slave ships.

The slave trade and subsequent colonialism did a lot of damage to Africa.

Many of the foreign visitors and explorers to Africa who arrived just before the start of the slave trade reported seeing highly civilized African societies on a par with, and often surpassing what was in Europe at the time. From Benin, Timbuktu, and Kanem in West Africa to Kilwa, Kush and Mombasa in the East and North East, Africa WAS a land of HIGHLY civilized people. In ALL of those lands, the idea of robbing someone or stealing from the public purse was so alien that it was simply never considered a possibility.


Arab explorer Ibn Battutta on the people of Mali in the 12th century:


''The negroes possess some admirable qualities. They are seldom unjust, and have a greater abhorrence of injustice than any other people. Their sultan shows no mercy to anyone who is guilty of the least act of it. There is complete security in their country. Neither traveller nor inhabitant in it has anything to fear from robbers or men of violence. They do not confiscate the property of any white man who dies in their country, even if it be uncounted wealth. On the contrary, they give it into the charge of some trustworthy person among the whites, until the rightful heir takes possession of it.''


Ibn Battuta sails to Mombasa 

''I embarked at Maqdashaw [Mogadishu] for the Sawahil [Swahili] country, with the object of visiting the town of Kulwa [Kilwa, Quiloa] in the land of the Zanj.

''We came to Mambasa [Mombasa], a large island two days' journey by sea from the Sawihil country. It possesses no territory on the mainland. They have fruit trees on the island, but no cereals, which have to be brought to them from the Swahili. Their food consists chiefly of bananas and fish.The inhabitants are pious, honourable, and upright, and they have well-built wooden mosques.''

Kilwa on the African mainland

''We stayed one night in this island [Mombasa], and then pursued our journey to Kilwa, which is a large town on the coast. The majority of its inhabitants are Zanj, jet-black in colour, and with tattoo marks on their faces. I was told by a merchant that the town of Sufala lies a fortnight's journey [south] from Kilwa and that gold dust is brought to Sufala from Yufi in the country of the Limis, which is a month's journey distant from it. Kilwa is a very fine and substantially built town, and all its buildings are of wood.''

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.html

THAT was Africa before the slave ships and colonialists arrived to distort, degrade, and dehumanize our civilization, brainwash our people so thoroughly to the extent that some of us today wonder if we are as human as other races!

Hopefully, more Africans get to study their glorious history of civilization, and jettison the self-limiting racist idiocies taught to them by white people, who were cave-dwelling brutes when the blacks were building pyramids and temples thousands of years ago.

Wouldn't have developed as quickly. More trade and interaction with the world=faster development