Interesting article Antonia. I live in Kenya from more than 4 years where I have a company and before I was living in Uganda and many other Africa countries (more than 15), but honestly I never had this perception that Africans “have learned that they are inferior, compared to the western world” or that they “get insecure, sometimes even obeisant“. I have a different view on this point. Often msungu (I also am one) have a distorted interpretation of African attitudes. Here in Kenya for instance, as well as in other East African countries like Ethiopia (where I also lived for long time), when they greet you, sometimes they use to shake your hand while holding their elbow with the other hand, avoiding eye contact. I have heard many white people saying that this is not a sign of submission which is a relic of the colonisation period where black people used to greet whites like this. This is totally wrong, this is just a sign of respect that people use to greet other people who are older than them, of a higher social status or that they meet for the first time (locals use it also with other locals, not only with whites). Respect in Africa is not equated to obsequiousness, but to humanness (universal brotherhood and respect of others as human beings), which is common to most of African culture, like in the Ubuntu phylosophy originating in South Africa.