I have heard before that in parts of Africa, “colored” (or coloured) refers to mixed race light skinned people. Like in the article below....exact opposite from what we have heard all our lives....
In an RGB world, perfect black is 0,0,0 or no color. Pure white is 255,255,255 or all colors up to the max. So the term “colored” in Africa, I surmise, came to mean black people who have gained some color.
www.theroot.com/articles/world/2013/10/south_africas_coloreds_identify_most_with_blacks_in_the_us.html
100% of “colored” people have brown hair and brown eyes