Working as missionaries, it is often nice to be mistaken for a member of a local people group. However, sometimes it can work against us. Guinea is a country blessed with more than 26 ethnic groups. However, intertribal strife and political ambition have resulted in economic instability and discrimination.

The Malinke people in our area don’t have a very high opinion of the light-skinned Fulani. They hold Fulani businessmen responsible for trade practices that have greatly raised the cost of rice. The Fulani, who control the economy of Guinea, are angry that a Malinke won the last presidential election, so they are causing economic unrest in hopes that the populace will revolt against the government.

I am part Malinke, but I also have Arab blood that gives me a lighter complexion. So, unfortunately, I am mistaken for a Fulani everywhere I go. In the market, I hear people referring to me as Fulani when I pass, and I know they assume the worst about me. My friend, Theresa, speaks Fulani very well. She sometimes ends ups explaining to me when things are said about me.

One day at the market, I went to a Malinke woman’s stall to buy starch. I often buy from her, and I thought she knew I’m not Fulani because she has heard me speaking Creole. But on this particular day, I heard her say in Susu to a fruit seller beside her, “She is Fulani.”

“No, she is not,” her friend said, and they started arguing back and forth. I actually thought they were talking about somebody else, so I didn’t pay much attention. But when I saw how little starch she had given me for my money, I said to the lady in Susu, “Why is the quantity so small today?”

She glanced at me. “The price of the starch has increased,” she said, turning back to her friend.

Then I realized they had been talking about me. They thought I was Fulani. “I am not Fulani,” I said to the lady. “I am not even Guinean.”

She looked at me quizzically. “Is that true?” she said with a laugh.

“Yes, it’s the truth,” I replied. She quadrupled my helping of starch, and we all had a good laugh.

A few weeks later, a similar thing happened when I went to buy a sack of rice. I was puzzling over the price until a parent of one of our students explained to me that when Malinke sellers think a Fulani is buying, they double the price. Of course, the same thing happens when a Malinke buys from a Fulani. This situation is getting very bad. Ethnic tensions are rising everywhere.

Our Lord and Savior has gone to heaven and prepare a place for all of us—every nation, race, tribe and people group. He will soon come to take us home where there will be no racial, economic, political or tribal discrimination, and there will be no mistaken identity. We will all be called sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Please pray that God will guide the nation of Guinea. What is happening here could foreseeably lead to a Rwanda-style genocide. There are still millions to reach in this beautiful country.

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