The beauty of Africa is grandiose, and the potential excepting the upper third, is huge however it is quickly eroded by tribalism, corruption, uncle zoeee and his marriage to islam and their ability to relate to voodoo. Throughout africa the black heart and related corruption still prevails and their ability to get ahead is thereby limited.
The best thing that happened to them IS colonialism as bad an experience as it was. Look to Canada and Australia as examples of what colonialism can produce!
The biggest problem in Sub-Saharan Africa today is the almost complete breakdown of the family caused by resource extraction based colonial enterprises; it pulls men off of the farms and crams them into cities where all kinds of trouble can be found. In the meantime, the womenfolk back home are stuck doing all the work without any support from the local (often corrupt) patrons. And comparing Africa to Canada or Australia is foolish; for one thing barely anybody lived in those places when they were colonized, definitely not the case in Africa. The other thing people don't seem to grasp is Africa's shear size - it takes 10 hours to fly from the Mediterranean coast to the Cape - twice the flight time from Seattle to Honolulu.