Not only were they worse than Hitler, they and the French drew arbitrary lines across the continent, trapping opposing ethnic groups together, leading to genocides such as what idi amin did to Uganda.
Moreover, they took sustainable economies and forced countries to overhaul into the spice and tea trade, which they then traded for food. After the older generations that remembered the old ways had all died off, the Europeans pulled out leaving entire countries with spice and tea crops no one wanted and which they couldn't eat, leading to civil wars, famine and disease.
Now, we smugly look at the Africans as if they are just some sort of lost cause to be blamed for their own failures.