I'm sure those living in Timbuktu were writing books about how the English living in London at the time were barbarians in capable of learning to read or write.
You're sure about that, even though there is zero evidence whatsoever for it?
Also, nowhere in this discussion has anyone said that anybody was incapable of learning to read or write. But rather that this was a skill imparted to the Africans by the Europeans.
> But rather that this was a skill imparted to the Africans by the Europeans.
Well, wow. Nope. Africans have been reading and writing before there even was such a thing as Europe. They had Aramaic and Arabic by way of Egypt and Ethiopia alone.
The only people that think Africa was devoid of culture or civilization are those that look only at the debris that was left after the colonial powers beat everyone down into submission and stripped everything bare.
Reading about what the colonial powers did is just plain depressing. Being ignorant of this past and blaming the victims is also a pretty severe injustice.
http://www.siliconafrica.com/terra-nullius/