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Comment by newnewnew | Hacker News Reader

Their "prosperous kingdoms" didn't have written language or the wheel. There wasn't that much pre-existing structure to destroy.

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I used to think the lack of the wheel was a valid argument against the prosperity of Africa, but then I saw how wheels performed in such arid conditions.

The soil is so volatile that wheels end up being dragged in the dirt, hence camels. It would have been cool if they had invented primitive AT STs though!

> There wasn't that much pre-existing structure to destroy.

That is a myth that the colonizers were very happy to bolster, for obvious reasons.

That "wheel" remark was quite poignant, though :)

Like how the Inca or the Maya never were any real civilizations because they didn't use wheels?

Well, they were real civilizations, bu I doubt anyone would dare to equate their achievements and influence with the Ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese or Egyptians. Especially for the Incas, it's hard for me to be impressed by their achievements around the year 1400 AD considering what the Egyptians already had achieved by the year 2000BC...

The point is that they were organized societies, not the utter chaos that was left behind when the European powers left Africa.

Don't even bother with the user "newnewnew". Look through a few pages of his comment history. He makes condescending remarks about liberals & keeps trying to prove Africa(and African-americans) are the cause of their own problems. And if you read a couple of pages of his comment history, it's not clear if he sees women as equal to men and/or doesn't understand how strong gender-discrimination is. But don't take my word for it. Seriously, look at his comment history. Here's just one, of many examples, of his mind set: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6360762

If you can't counter the argument attack the person.

"Don't even bother with the user "newnewnew"" - Ignore and ostracise those with opposing views. How open minded of you.

It was a trade-off but those kingdoms weren't the ones making the choice. It was made for them by the occupiers.

They had perhaps some authority structures, some nation and ethnicity based borders, perhaps less civil war type conflicts. At least that was taken away. Whether it would have been better for British and others to stay away is hard to say.

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