Well European countries did actually first colonize Africa before the America’s ! The first step was the colonization of the Canary Islands starting in 1402 and not finalizing until the end of the century. And then there is the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta in 1415.

Further the Portuguese set up many forts and other holdings such as small colonies all over the African cost with many being very similar to colonies in the Americans especially in the mid -of the 16th century forward. For example the city of Luanda.

Other European powers like the French, Dutch and British would follow in the late 16th century doing the same. The Dutch Cape Colony for example acted in many ways like a settler style colony.

But to answer a related question of why Europeans didn’t expand into African in the 16th century there are 3 main reasons.

1. the earliest European power to colonize Africa was Portugal. They lacked the manpower compared to places like Spain and England who had an early focus (generally speaking) in the West. Thus they could not push too inland, rather maintaining a string of cities and forts in the coast and islands until much later. Even in Brazil the Portuguese really didn’t push into the inland areas until the mid/late 17th century.

2. African powers were generally speaking more advanced in terms of military technology and presented European powers more of a challenge then American Natives. There were also more developed societies in Africa the in the Americas which could muster large armies (think of places like Ethiopia, Adal, Mali, Ghana, Songhai, Kongo and the Trading powers of the central east African cost in sub-Saharan Africa vs Aztecs and Incas in the Americas at the time of colonization).

3. disease played a huge role in both places. While in the Americas it generally helped Europeans by killing many natives (mostly unintentionally from the European perspective but sometimes also intentionally) and weakening any potential challenger. While in Africa the opposite was true. Going further inland exposed Europeans to many illnesses (malaria being a very important one) which made colonization there a huge challenge.

To sum up everything, Europe did begin its colonial experience in Africa. However for the 3 reasons above their expansion there was more limited compared to rapid expansion of their colonies in the Americas. Further I’d like to point out that in many places in Africa the colonial experience was not very different to the Americas. Places like the canary island, parts of modern day Angola, the Portuguese islands off the coast of Africa and the Cape Colony all operated like settler colonies. While other parts had a much more different experience serving as small trading and military posts early on and then later 19th century style colonialism.

Some sources (mostly books since they are less jargon filled then peer reviewed articles and therefore usually easier to read if you’re interested):

Fernández-Armesto, F. (2007). Before Columbus: exploration and colonisation from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic 1229-1492. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Russell, P.E. (2000). Prince Henry 'the Navigator': a life. New Haven, CN: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300082333.

Aldrich, Robert. Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion (1996)

Curtin, Philip D. Disease and empire: The health of European Troops in the Conquest of Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1998)