Quote Originally Posted by Viking View Post
That the idea of exploring the world and finding out what's out there could actually have struck them, as well as any other person on the planet. Most people are primarily concerned with what's right in front of their noses (except the stuff that's popular parlance, like global warming currently). There are downsides and upsides to this, like everything else.

One downside is that outside forces stronger than you might come apparently out of nowhere and attack you when you are unprepared - whether they are called Huns or Europeans.
Europeans discovered the Americas and became global colonizers because they wanted to find a sea route to the Indies and become rich trading in spices and other goods, not because they were naturally curious. The East coast of Africa already had sea routes to the Indies, where the wealthy Swahili city-states served as hubs for Arab traders. Europeans had reasons to explore that Africans didn't.

And besides that, the colonization of Africa happened a long time after Europeans made contact, the Europeans didn't just suddenly come out of nowhere.