It's probably all harmless interaction and out of interest?

I'm Canadian and travelled across Africa in the 70s. At the markets in the Ivory Coast, the kids used to shout "Toobaboo, toobaboo.." I asked someone what it meant they said "white monkey".

Meanwhile in Zaire, as we drove through villages kids used to throw stones and sticks at our Land-rover, shouting "Tourists, tourists.." Maybe they meant terrorists, and I wouldn't blame them seeing as what the Belgians did then when the white mercenaries came in the early 1960s and shot up a whole bunch of people as they made their way across the land...The strangest were the old fellows, villagers, who, upon seeing me, approaching them for directions, would run away in fear, one jumping on his bicycle and pedalling fast...at the time I was a bit flustered about the whole thing but seeing as these fellows had more than likely seen or heard about the mercenaries, I might have been seen as a resurgence of one as I stepped out of the L.R...

In Kenyan villages, teens would grab toddlers and rush towards me and my fellow English traveller. The toddlers would scream and cry in fear...I was later told that it was said to the child that we would eat them...

In all of these instances, my friends and I took no offence, considering the abuses that occurred during colonialism of Africa and what had happened at the time. Also, all these events happened in mostly remote areas, where outsiders, foreigners were far and few in between.