This means that the Europeans had imperialism but not colonialism over the African countries.
The fact that the Europeans left the native regimes in the African territories in which they expanded, means that they did not colonized the countries, but instead let the locals to function in a manner similar to what they had until than. Also, that means that they did not brought lot of settlers with them in order to change the demographics of the regions, as that was not their intent.
The Europeans though had strong impact on the societies, be it in the usage of their languages, the cultural elements, the technology, which mean that the Europeans were the imperial overlords that gradually were implementing things into the African societies, and controlled the strings, but usually from their motherlands.
