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Oyinbo is a Yoruba word used to refer to white people.[1][2][3] The word is popular in Nigeria among other groups as well and variation of Oyibo is also used. The word is generally understood by most Nigerian and many Africans due to popularity of Nollywood and Nigerian pop culture.

Etymology

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In the 1470s, the first Portuguese birth occurred in Eko, in Yorubaland, later called Lagos. The word was first used by the Yoruba to describe the Portuguese. It would later extend to all Europeans. Many years later, the word became used for anyone influenced by European tradition, customs, and culture, especially once-enslaved returnees. Oyinbo is generally used to refer to a person of European descent, African perceived not to be culturally Yoruba, or to people of the Human race who are light-skinned.

The word is coined from the Yoruba translation of “peeled skin,” "lightened," or “skinless,” which, in Yoruba, translates “yin” – to scratch “bo” – to off/peel/lightened. the "O" starting the word "Oyinbo" is a pronoun. Hence, "Oyinbo" translates literally to "the person with a peeled-off or lightened skin".[4][5][6] Other variations of the term in the Yoruba language include Eyinbo, which is shortened to "Eebo".[7]

To find the term or "White Man," Koelle consulted hundreds of African groups. His Yoruba sources included people from Ọta, Ẹgba, Okun, Ijẹbu, Ifẹ, Ondo, Itsẹkiri, and more while his Igbo sources were from areas such as Isuama, Ishielu, Agbaja, Aro, and Mbofia. The Igbo respondents consistently used the term Onyọcha for "White Man." In contrast, all the Yoruba participants stated their term was Òyìnbó.[8] These candid testimonies from the Igbo sources indicate that the term “oyinbo” or “oyibo” originated from the Yoruba and their neighboring groups.[9]

Oyibo is also used in reference to people who are foreign or Europeanised, including Saros in the towns of Onitsha and Enugu in the late 19th and early 20th century.[10] Sierra Leonean missionaries, according to Ajayi Crowther, a Yoruba, and John Taylor, an Igbo, descendants of repatriated slaves, were referred to as oyibo ojii by the people of Onitsha.[11][12]

Olaudah Equiano, an African abolitionist, claimed in his 1789 narrative that the people in Essaka, Igboland, where he claimed to be from, used the term Oye-Eboe in reference to "red men living at a distance" which may possibly be an earlier version of oyibo[citation needed]. Equiano's use of Oye-Eboe, however, was in reference to other Africans and not Caucasians. Though Oye-Eboe might be a much older Igbo term that means foreign or different[original research?].[13] Gloria Chuku suggested that Equiano's use of Oye-Eboe is not linked to oyibo, and that it is a reference to the generic term Onitsha used referred to other Igbo.[14]

Oyinbo is a Yoruba language term for a white person or sometimes generally a foreigner.[15] The synonyms are and spelled, Oinbo, Eebo, Eyinbo, Oyibo among other spellings.[16]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Matthias Krings; Onookome Okome (2013). Global Nollywood: The Transnational Dimensions of an African Video Film Industry, African Expressive Cultures. Indiana University Press. p. 267. ISBN 9780253009425.
  2. ^ Toyin Falola; Ann Genova (2005). Yoruba Creativity: Fiction, Language, Life and Songs. Africa World Press. ISBN 9781592213368.
  3. ^ Elisabeth Bekers; Sissy Helff; Daniela Merolla (2009). Transcultural Modernities: Narrating Africa in Europe Volume 36 of Matatu (Göttingen) series, Journal for African Culture and Society. Rodopi. p. 208. ISBN 9789042025387.
  4. ^ Herman Bauman (14 May 2008). African Safari for Jesus. Xlibris Corporation. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-4628-2537-0.
  5. ^ Herman Bauman (4 November 2009). I Used to Think God Was Perfect, But... Xlibris Corporation. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-4628-2825-8.
  6. ^ Bowen, Rev. T. J. (May 1858). Grammar and Dictionary of the Yoruba language. Smithsonian Institution. p. 13.
  7. ^ Akpraise (2017-05-13). "The Origin Of The Word " Oyibo"". Akpraise.com. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  8. ^ "Koelle's Polyglotta Africana - Concept White Man". polyglottaafricana.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  9. ^ DALBY, DAVID (2014-09-11), "Mel Languages in the Polyglotta Africana", African Language Review, Routledge, p. 144, ISBN 978-0-203-04287-8, retrieved 2024-11-13
  10. ^ Njoku, Raphael Chijoke (2013). African Cultural Values: Igbo Political Leadership in Colonial Nigeria, 1900–1996. Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 978-1135528201.
  11. ^ Lovejoy, Paul E. (2009). Identity in the Shadow of Slavery. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. p. 61. ISBN 978-1441193964.
  12. ^ Okwu, Augustine Senan Ogunyeremuba (2010). Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions, 1857-1957. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 95. ISBN 978-0761848844.
  13. ^ Carretta, Vincent (2005). Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-made Man. University of Georgia Press. p. 15. ISBN 0820325716.
  14. ^ Gloria Chuku (2013). The Igbo Intellectual Tradition. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 45. ISBN 978-1137311290.
  15. ^ Bowen, T. J.; Crowther, Samuel (1858). Grammar and dictionary of the Yoruba language : with an introductory description of the country and people of Yoruba. [Washington]: Smithsonian Institution.
  16. ^ "Koelle's Polyglotta Africana - Vocabulary". polyglottaafricana.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
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