as a Pan African I don't think we grasp the level of tribalism that was going on which is ironic because we have phony levels of tribalism based on countries, languages, cities, neighborhoods and other political borders we didn't define.

It's hard to say they sold us when you look at the level of infighting that was going on.

One primary example is the case of Abdulrahman ibrahim ibn Sori.

Abdulrahman a Pularr(Fulani via modern day Guinea) was captured by Mande enemies(both of who were muslim but were enemies) and sold to Europeans. Now multiply that by dozens if not hundreds of conflicts between cultural groups.

Another example is Queen Nzingha and her conflict with the Portuguese, Kongo and other indigenous cultural groups in Africa.