There are lots of folk stories around the world on the origin of the races and Africa is no exception. Each story provides some reason for why things are the way they are in relation to race. In Nigeria they tell of a god who was making humans and baking them. He got drunk and fell asleep and forgot to pull some of his humans out of the oven and they got overcooked. These “well-done” humans are, according to that story, the original Africans. In that story Africans are the way they are because the god who was making them messed things up. The Mwinika tell a variety of stories on the origin of the races, but here is one of the more common ones that I was told:
“God had two sons, and one day they both got very dirty playing. God told them to go to the river to wash. Both boys ran to the river to wash. When they got there one boy jumped in and cleaned himself off. The other boy ran up to the river and stopped. He put the bottom of his feet in the water and realized that the water was cold. He placed his palms in the water to verify that the water was really cold. Because the water was cold he decided not to clean off. When the two boys got home God was pleased with the boy that cleaned himself off and blessed him. He was upset with the boy that didn’t clean himself off. He cursed that boy and said to him ‘you will always wear the dirt and filth that you refused to clean off. Only the bottom of your feet and the palms of your hands will be clean’.”
The Mwinika make a clear link between this blessing and cursing. As one old man once told me when I asked about this: “You see, you European people are the descendants of the boy who cleaned himself off. You are born in a position of being pleasing to God. You are blessed. We can see this because all of you are rich. We Africans are the children the cursed boy. That is why we are dark skinned and why we are so poor. What you are saying about the old prophets of God does not relate to us Africans. We know that all the prophets were from America. We know that Abraham and Jesus and all the other prophets we have heard about were from America.” I tried to tell him that at the time of those prophets no one had ever heard of such a thing as America. In reality all those prophets had originated from much closer to Africa than to America and that many of the prophets had visited Africa in their lifetimes. He refused to believe me.
Pray that these beliefs and the mindset that goes along with them will be changed by the Truth of the Word of God!