Abundance of natural resources can be a curse as well as boon. Dependence upon a single form of commidity to fuel a society, whether by the natives or by conquerors, produces little difference in the negative consequence of such dependence. Even had the various African tribes and kingdoms could have monopolized diamonds or gold mines, over-reliance of such mineral deposit exploitation would have reduced these natives into economic colonial states.

As a historical example, consider Spain at her height, an empire where the sun never set. After three centuries of gold and silver mine exploitaion, and having transformed her society into essentially resource excavator/mining economy, Spain was and remains, one of the poorest nation-state in Europe. Much of the precious metals flowed directly onto Dutch, French, and English coffers, not due to pirate raids, but due to Spanish economic stagnations and dependence upon foreign imports.