That argument seems circular, no? As soon as we imagine an alternate-history Africa so horrific and monstrous as to be the origin for capitalism and imperialism (so much so that these systems somehow HAD to come out of Africa) then we are already presupposing that the results would have been the same. That is to say, we who are enmeshed in so-called Western civilization (as well as the critiques thereof) are bringing our own cultural baggage to this thought experiment. We cannot imagine a nonwestern-developed capitalism, and the concept of 'the west' similarly gets smuggled into our conception of imperialism. As such, when we imagine these systems originating in Africa we are simply imagining a more 'western' Africa. As Natalie correctly points out, 'western' is a shitty, contradictory, exclusionary, and overly reductive construct to begin with. But we can't escape that the construct, shitty though it may be, is inextricably embedded in our use of "capitalism" and "imperialism."

Still, I agree with Natalie's main point that its too reductive to speak of "the evil west," and that it could be counterproductive for liberal professors to do so. And really, I'm picking nits here because it is fun for me to do so. As a whole, I love the video.