Out flies the goalpost!

Of course Africa got the shit colonized out of it, the development of firearms and cannons will do that. That does not diminish the accomplishments and influence the existing empires posessed. It's as ridiculous as saying there were no relevant cvilisations in the Americas before the Europeans arrived.

When talking about the power and influence of empires everything it relative to the cultures they actually come into contact with. Saying a regional power like the kingdom of Kongo is not relevant because they got conquered by Portugal is like saying the United States is currently irrelevant because it could easily get wiped out by a bunch of space aliens.