I can’t change the past. I fully support changing the course of Africa towards more education, but that doesn’t make Africans suddenly super proficient software engineers, and doesn’t teach them "how to work productively with western companies" (if you get what I mean - there’s more to work than pure manpower).

Does that make me a colonialist?

It's the opinion (that their reduced opportunities / economic bargaining position mean they _should_ be paid orders of magnitude less) that's colonialist, rather than you as a person. By 'colonialist' I of course mean to imply "regressive and repugnant". It is not an immutable economic fact that wages should be where they are relative to each other.

How about starting by making software cheaper for people in Africa?