It's not a matter of being superior, like there's a contest between cultures. I'm saying their culture is adapted to their environment and climate. They figured out how to build boats and make fishing nets on their own. They figured out how to weave magnificent cloth, cast metal, basically fulfill all their needs. They have their own methods and their own system of value, which isn't based on self enrichment. Maybe they prefer to play once their needs are taken care of, instead of working more to build a retirement nest egg. You can't compare 2 civilizations and 2 races and say one is better than the other. You think yours is better because of the values you were taught which are always biased and self-aggrandizing but in the long run, all the garbage and pollution we create may poison our water and oceans and kill us all, and all the sand we suck out of the ocean floor to make concrete is killing ocean life, human livelihood and sinking islands. So who has the best civilization? Africa receives a lot of our e-waste and toxic chems, the oil industry has devastated their life and country (in Nigeria), and you're saying our civilization is better than theirs?
I beg to differ in part, to the extent that Africans have been very creative in arts like sculpture, weaving, dyeing, music and dance. Especially music which in Western culture has given rise to Jazz. Also Africans built the kind of houses that was adapted to their climate and their lifestyle. Building in concrete doesn't prove a civilization superior to one that builds in mud, grass and wood. We're all about ecofriendly houses now and Africans have been doing nothing but ecofriendly.
Though I like Manning very much he's assuming technology is a proof of superiority, but it's not if it costs humans their humanity.