I think this debate is very interesting and must be carried on among people coming from former African colonies. It gives us European more perspectives to look

I think this debate is very interesting and must be carried on among people coming from former African colonies. It gives us European more perspectives to look at and improves the level of the discussion that, in my opinion, has no particular value or chances of persisting new ideas if it takes place exclusively on social networks in the form of slogans and memes. I'm Italian, I ideally descend from the African born emperor Septimius Severus, who was born in Leptis Magna the modern Al-Khums in Lybia. I've always been fascinated by the strong bond that the early Roman empire had with northern Africa and Middle East, where all the modern western civilizations were born. They looked at them in respect, when Septimius Severus became emperor the Egyptians were already older to the Romans than Romans are to us today. Septimium Severus became emperor defeating his opponent, an usurper of the empire, Gaius Pescennius Niger. Niger in Latin means black, dark, but also evil and ill-omened, the latter being the ones that described him better. Niger is also the name of the river that gave name to Nigeria, but the meaning is completely different, yet it sounds exactly the same. When I was a kid studying ancient history at school I was always looking for coincidence like this one, I believed they were magic. Africa at the time of Septimius Severus was a very advanced country, in every aspect of life: they had some of the largest cities in the World, they were good sailors, they had prosperous markets, they had the largest library in the entire World and let's not forget the monumental buildings - still unarrived today. Romans were great engineers, they built roads, infrastructures such as bridges and aqueducts, but also thermal baths ran by geothermal energy (https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquae_Sulis https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquae_Sulis) But Gaius Pescennius Niger usurped the empire and Septimius Severus had to fight him until Gaius was defeated and then killed. I'm fascinated by Roman history and I read a lot about it, but I cannot look the other way when I think at it on a human level: they were constantly killing each other no matter how many advancement they brought to society, engineering, politics, rule of the law, they killed each other, a lot! What I get from this essay is not that there was a good colonialism but that pre colonialism wasn't that good as well. My father used to read me "Roots: The Saga of an American Family" when I was a little kid and I will never condone what happened and the devastation it caused and that's why I ultimately believe that "debate should always serve the ultimate purpose of helping build ... rather than tearing things apart"