Give a man a fish and he'll be satisfied for a day.

Teach a man to fish and he'll not be hungry for the rest of his life.

Force a man and his friends to catch fish for you in big fish farms for your cronies back home to enjoy, but don't teach them how to run fish farms, instead make them dependent on your farm destroying their previous way of life, create some wars and kill a couple of millions, then exit leaving behind a vacuum and you get to write smug, pseudo-provocative pieces in time magazine bemoaning the white man's burden.

As with most historical events the truth lies somewhere between the extreme narratives. Conquests have brought suffering and suppression since the dawn of time, but it has also brought new ideas, technologies and development. While Europeans were exploited by the Romans, we also gained a lot of advantages from the Roman empire. Napoleons conquest of Europe also ultimately brought benefits like modern standards for measurement, modern set of laws and administration.

Colonial Africa is no different. It is a mixed bag. It was exploitative but it also brought development, not because European necessarily wanted to help Africans but because getting hold of resources required building ports, roads, railroad etc. They could not exploit agricultural resources without actually building farms and hiring locals. And of course there was always people with different ideas. Some wanted to help Africans and brought modern medicine e.g.

The chief error the western powers did when they left Africa was to not allow for any transition period. They left countries were whites had managed everything and no African had experience or education in managing operations from the top level. They should have given Africans education in white institutions and let them work with the white administration to learn how things were managed.

We see the same disaster in South Africa. Suddenly blacks are put in power but they have no previous experience in having power since they were never given a chance. White rule should not have ended abruptly. There should have been a gradual winding down.