Why is the African continent poor?

[Art_from_Ark]

67. Benin had slaves before the Europeans came

It was an extensive empire, which like all empires, was maintained by force. Slaves were very much a part of that, as they were in virtually all empires that had existed up until then. Benin certainly was not a group of poor innocent Africans who were forced into the slave trade by nasty Europeans. To wit (from my link):

"Slavery and the slave trade in Benin preexisted the arrival of the Europeans. Slaves were never the only, and until the mid-17th century were not the principal, article purchased by the Europeans (others included pepper, ivory, cloth, etc.). The slave trade from Benin continued until the late 19th century, long after the official abolition of the overseas slave trade, and slavery existed within Biniland till the 1920s. Most significantly, the course of Benin’s socio-cultural development was firmly established before the Europeans arrived. Unlike some West African societies such as Ouidah and Calabar, Benin’s rise and decline were not determined primarily by the slave trade, although the European presence in general and the slave trade in particular did accelerate or hinder specific social, economic, political, and cultural processes. In particular, the rise of Benin, accompanied by intensive military expansion and the growth of inland trade -- both preconditions for obtaining growing numbers of slaves -- began several decades before the Europeans’ arrival and ended in the early 17th century, long before the slave trade’s end."