Originally, the Africans had the land and the English had the Bible. Then the missionaries came to Africa and got the Africans to close their eyes and fold their hands and pray. And when they opened their eyes, the English had the land and the Africans had the Bible.
Variant (sometimes attributed to Desmond Tutu): When the European missionaries came, the Africans had the land and the Europeans had the Bible. The Europeans asked the Africans to close their eyes in prayer. When they said amen and opened their eyes, the Europeans had the land and the Africans had the Bible.
As reported in: Race and Ethnic Relations: The Social and Political Experience of Minority Groups (1980), p. 192.
Also in: Report Covering the Period from 20 February 1962 to 19 September 1962, p. 476: 'when the Europeans had come they had had the Bible and the Africans had had the land, whereas now it was the other way round: the Africans had the Bible and the Europeans had the Africans' land.'
