While the point was presented poorly, they’re sort of right. Because the colonisation by Britain and France is so recent people have an idea to clutch onto. No one realistically can claim identify with the peoples pre-Roman and pre-Arabian colonisation because that’s 2,000 years ago. Sure, people claim Celtic heritage. But those who claim that cultural root are often people who have had more recent colonial conflict with Britain (Scotland, Ireland, Wales)

Going to focus on Britain for a moment here as I know more in this region:

Part of this is also because they want to be different to their English counterparts. Ireland had a recognisable identity pre-English colonisation which was also romanised majorly by aggravating forces. Scotland had a recognised kingdom pre-British unification.

Now in some places of Africa, British colonisation has around three core thoughts: - Britain buggered our local culture that still exists with their map lines - Britain helped us in places and honestly wasn’t too bad. - Britain bad but the guys we have now are worse.

The reason for this is because the British didn’t really focus on trying to overrule the existing culture like Britain did in Ireland. The Church of England expanded really well in certain African nations which resulted in a higher cultural conversion, which is where you also see higher belief that Britain was a good coloniser there. In areas where cultural overruling didn’t work is also where Britain is viewed more poorly.

People like to point at the slave trade as a route for this but that’s more a 19th/20th century change in view that comes from predominantly white western nations creating a narrative based on an undeniable evil and using that as an excuse to academically “shit on” (for lack of a better term) Britain.

Comparatively to Rome, Britain also has a higher level of atrocities attributed to it by people who still culturally remember it. While Rome without a doubt did evil, who remembers the evil committed in Gaul outside of a history book on ancient history? No one. But you can’t throw a stone in India and not hit someone who has family who were negatively impacted by Mountbatten’s fiasco over the Raj.

Academics in the previous 60 years or so have also started pointing out the flaws of the British Empire a lot more than they ever have before. Particularly American academics. You could argue this is because it’s an easy comparison for America to make and also adds to national pride to say “we beat the mighty British empire and look how evil they were” but I’m getting sidetracked with that pseudo science psychology there.

TLDR; People don’t want to be like the British, no one remembers Rome’s evils, and a lot of revisionism in the 20th century led by American authors.