IGN really aren't good journalists.
The N’Gai Croal article they mention was specifically talking about the trailer. It was a knee-jerk reaction by Croal that what he was seeing was just a "white man killing legions of black people" trope. Later though, Capcom revealed Sheva as the second playable character, who is with Chris for the entire game for the co-op to work. Not exactly a 'white savior' then when it's a mixed race and gender duo. Subsequent promotional material also showed that RE5's Africa was very artificially diverse. Every other Majini zombie you fight is either a white guy or Middle-Eastern.
In the finished game, there was little difference in the treatment of the African village versus the Spanish village in RE4. N’Gai Croal even met with producer Jun Takeuchi in 2009 for an interview, who explained that the grass skirt Majini were inspired by natives defending their land in movies like Indiana Jones. I don't know if Croal was entirely convinced by this (who honestly cares?), but the wording of the interview doesn't suggest at all that he thought Capcom or the game was racist.
Anyway.
For as much as people threw a fit about about those trailers, they are kind of the direction i'd want a remake to move in. They had a different vibe from the final game and there was a lot more tension in them:
The size of the crowds are massive compared to the final game.