The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #164459 Message #3936347
Posted By: Jim Dixon
09-Jul-18 - 06:26 PM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: 'When/If We had the Land!'
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'When/If We had the Land!'
While searching for the phrase "we had the land" I found this, in Wikiquote:
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, [and sometimes to Desmond Tutu,] 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.
In "Desmond Tutu: A Biography" (2004) by Steven Gish, p. 101; is clarified [that] Tutu used it as a joke which was not of him.