Guessing they are attributing this teaching to North Africans who for a large part of history were basically as European as other parts of the Roman Empire. If that is the case, there is some slight truth to it as much of northern and western Europe did not have running water and had at best very simple writing systems before the Romans brought these things to these regions. The main issue is that labels like "African" and "European" don't really accurately describe any group of people.