Oyinbo is a Yoruba word used to refer towhite people.[1][2][3] The word is popular in Nigeria among other groups as well in a number of minor variations.Oyinbo is generally understood by most Nigerians and many Africans due to popularity of Nollywood and Nigerian pop culture.
The word is coined from theYoruba translation of “peeled skin,” "lightened," or “skinless,” which translates “yin” – to scratch, and “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", as well as Oinbo, and Oyibo.[7]
To identify Africans by their language groups,Sigismund Koelle documented how different Africans said specific terms in his 1854 studyPolyglotta Africana. One such term wasWhite Man. His Yoruba sources included people from Ọta, Ẹgba, Okun, Ijẹbu, Ifẹ, Ondo, Itsẹkiri, and more, while hisIgbo sources were from areas such as Isuama, Ishielu, Agbaja, Aro, and Mbofia. The Igbo respondents consistently used the termOnyọcha forWhite Man. In contrast, all the Yoruba participants stated their term wasÒyìnbó.[8] These candid testimonies from the Igbo sources indicate that the term “oyinbo” or “oyibo” originated from the Yoruba and their neighboring groups.[9]
There are numerous other instances recorded by scholars in history acknowledging that, despite Oyinbo being used by many people in the modern times of southern Nigeria, it finds its origin in the Yoruba language.For instance, Ugo Nwokeji and Romanus Aboh in separate books came to the same conclusion, positing that the term "Oyibo" used by the Igbo is borrowed from the original Oyinbo used by Yoruba.[10][11]
Oyibo was also used in reference to people who are foreign or Europeanised, includingSaros in the towns ofOnitsha andEnugu in the late 19th and early 20th century.[12]Sierra Leonean missionaries, according toAjayi Crowther, a Yoruba, and John Taylor, an Igbo, descendants of repatriated slaves, were referred to asoyibo ojii by the people of Onitsha.[13][14]
Olaudah Equiano, an African abolitionist, claimed in his 1789narrative that the people inEssaka,Igboland, where he claimed to be from, used the termOye-Eboe in reference to"Stout (strong, powerful),mahogany-coloured men from the south west of us". Vincent Carretta suggested that this might be an earlier version of the term Oyibo,[15] however as he and Gloria Chuku later point out, Equiano's use ofOye-Eboe, was in reference to other Africans and not Caucasians. Gloria Chuku suggested that Equiano's use ofOye-Eboe is not linked toOyibo, and that it is a reference to the generic term Onitsha and other more western Igbo people used to refer to other Igbo people.[16]BothPaul Lovejoy and Vincent Carretta identifiedOye-Eboe as a reference to theAro.[17]