In the immensely acclaimed novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple, almost an entire chapter is dedicated to explaining albinism in Africa. The African Olinka villagers are said to believe that “white people is black people’s children” and that Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden not because they had no clothes on, but because they were born with white skin, since the word ‘naked’ and ‘white’ are synomous in the Olinka language. The book goes on to say the Olinka people legend believed Adam was not the first man on earth but the first white man (albino) born to black parents that was allowed to live and not killed at birth. But as more ‘naked’ children were born, the Olinka chased then from the village rather than killing them and never gave it another thought until white missionaries came to their village.
Alice Walker, The Color Purple and Albinism?
