Question

how did European imperialism lead many colonies to seek independence?

Answer 1

So before the Europeans colonized Africa, for the most part native africans were organized at a local level, villages and small regional polities, with some notable exceptions such as the Zulu, and Ashanti empires to name a couple though there are quite a few more. Many times these regional polities and villages conflicted with other groups that atleast by European standards were of the same ethnicity as them. They simply didn’t have an idea that speaking the same language, and having the same culture meant they were of the same group. That was a nationalistic European idea.