I have actually worked for two months, March-April 1991, in an African university in a former British colony: Fourah Bay College, Freetown, aka the University of Sierra Leone, where I had the status of British Council Visiting Lecturer. I know it will be no use telling Jim or some others around here that I had not a single African colleague who did not regret of the fairly recent era of British colonial government, which had been succeeded by presidents who indulged in such exploits as tearing up the rails of the railway system, left intact on withdrawal by the colonial exploiters and persecutors, selling them for scrap, and keeping the money for themselves, meanwhile leaving the metalled roads to degenerate into dangerous-to-drive dust tracks which were nevertheless the only way to get anywhere; because I can recognise someone whom it is useless to inform of such things as do not fit in with his entrenched & unshakeable "my minds made up, please do not confuse me with facts" attitude.
But that does not alter what actually happened. You may believe me or not as your tastes and preconceptions may dictate; but that happens to be how it was.