It is not uncommon today for some scholars to claim that insofar as post-colonial African leaders framed their political projects in terms of development as well as the “enlightenment of the masses” (through expanding literacy, and through the dissemination of “enlightened” or “modernist” discourse through various media, i.e., print, radio, cinema, etc.) they remained beholden to colonialist assumptions and practices. We detect this orientation, for example, in some of the post-development theorists. Post-development discourse tends to be explicitly “anti-modern”. We also find it in some of the proponents of “decoloniality” as a theoretical framework. Like post-development discourse, this “decolonial” discourse also tends to collapse modernity into coloniality. Some scholars working in a Foucauldian vein also collapse the distinction between modernity and colonialism. The decolonial critique of Hountondji accuses him of accepting the “civilizing mission” associated with colonialism. In this Chapter, I argue that the decolonial standpoint fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between colonialism and modern science on the African continent. I show that colonial policy systematically sought to prevent Africans from accessing and mastering modern science. Thus, on this front, Hountondji's project is a thoroughly anti-colonial one that involves a revolt against the structures of colonialism.