It is seldom remembered this way, but what followed the long slave-trade era was a remarkably short period of colonial rule, when a neat graft of Western laws and institutions onto Africa’s bodies politic is sometimes imagined to have taken place. The reality was never so promising, however, not even from the outset. During this time, with few exceptions, the European powers committed precious few resources, whether budgetary or human, to developing or even administering Africa.
