I think you did not understand the point of the author at all. Using pre-European would just be as bad as using pre-colonial.

It does matter a lot actually in what framework we talk and think about things. I think the author made a good job of explaining why setting everything in Africa's history in relation to this one event of colonialism by Europeans is ignorant and incorrect.

You may have notized that the author didn't give any alternative to the term per-colonial and for a reason. Just using another term would defeat the whole point of trying to abandon the faulty framework behind the term. We need to get rid of thinking about Africa as unimportant, homogeneous and uncivilized. We need to get rid of our ignorance and biased views!