“When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land.
:This quote, often attributed to Jomo Kenyatta, was first written in a fiction play published by holocaust doubter Rolf Hochhuth, in his controversial The Deputy, a Christian tragedy (1964), Grove Press, p. 144. No reference to any historical or original source was given. Other citations are found in books written by critics of religion, such as Christos Tzanetakos's "The Life and Work of an Atheist Pioneer", iUniverse; and Jack Huberman's "Quotable Atheist: Ammunition for Nonbelievers, Political Junkies, Gadflies, and Those Generally Hell-Bound" (2008), 175. No references are given.
: In Desmond Tutu: A Biography (2004) by Steven Gish, p. 101; is clarified Tutu used it as a joke which was not of him.”

—  Desmond Tutu

Misattributed

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eye…" by Desmond Tutu?
Desmond Tutu photo
Desmond Tutu 85
South African churchman, politician, archbishop, Nobel Priz… 1931

Related quotes

Jomo Kenyatta photo

“When the Missionaries arrived, the Africans had the land and the Missionaries had the Bible. They taught how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible.”

Jomo Kenyatta (1893–1978) First prime minister and first president of Kenya

This has also been attributed to anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu; e.g. in Seeds of Conflict in a Haven of Peace: From Religious Studies to Interreligious Studies in Africa (2007), by Frans Jozef Servaas Wijsen.

Clarence Darrow photo

“When we first began, Ruth told us she had never written a screenplay. That was not a problem since I had never produced a feature film and Jim had never directed one.”

Ismail Merchant (1936–2005) Indian-born film producer and director

On the beginning of his long collaboration with novelist and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Interview with the Associated Press (2004).

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“No more fiction for us: we calculate; but that we may calculate, we had to make fiction first.”

Sec. 624, as translated by Tobias Dantzig in Number, the Language of Science. Fourth edition, New York: Doubleday 1954, p 141. See discussion of this entry for details.
The Will to Power (1888)

Eugéne Ionesco photo

“We exist on several different planes, and when we said nothing had any reason we were referring to the psychological and social plane.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

The Paris Review interview (1984)

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Robert Oppenheimer photo
Eddie Vedder photo
Ken Ham photo

Related topics