But, if they had moved into the continent (as you suggest) diseases would have to be studied and cures would have to be worked towards.
Well let's remember that Portuguese Angola and Mozambique are probably the best places to go in Africa... if there were more areas like Angola, I don't see how Africa WOULDN'T be better off.
I suppose if you want to be pedantic you can also include the Kaap Freistaat, even though white Afrikaeners are the majority, so it's not really culturally african....Don't forget the U.S. state of Liberia.......
The continent would probably be far better off. More European efort would be put into the diseases of the area, for example.
And, we wouldn't have the gray area on maps that we have now- there would be actual states, instead of the two or three recognized states and the thousands of patchwork entities.
Does he even know anything about African tribes? Those borders often seem to make no sense... I don't think the Europeans would be THAT bad.
And in Europe, Austria-Hungary has mysteriously vanished... I suppose they tried to colonize Africa and overstretched themselves? (I haven't read the book)