Oyibo or Oyinbo is a word used in Nigerian Pidgin, Igbo and Yoruba to refer to westernized people. In Nigeria, it is generally used to refer to a person of European descent or people perceived to not be culturally African.
The word is pronounced oyinbo in Yoruba speaking areas and oyibo in Igbo language. Both terms are valid in Pidgin English.
How The Word Evolved
The origin of the word is difficult to ascertain. It is believed that the name is coined from the Yoruba translation of “peeled skin” or “skinless,” which, in Yoruba, translates to “yin” – scratch “bo” – off/peel; the “O” starting the word “Oyinbo” is a pronoun.
Hence, “Oyinbo” literally translates to “the man with a peeled off skin”. Other variations of the term in Yoruba language include: Eyinbo, which is usually shorted as “Eebo”.
In Igbo language, demonym takes the form “onye” + “place of origin.” Hence, whereas an Igbo person is called “onye Igbo,” a Yoruba is called “Onye Yoruba” and a German “onye Germany.”
Thus, the first white people were called either “onye ocha” (singular) or “ndi ocha” (plural), for “white person” and “white people,” respectively. This was because the Igbos of those days did not know from where the white people came.
Interaction between the Igbos and the white people resulted in the white people trying to refer to the Igbos with a name similar to what the Igbos called them but there was a problem in pronouncing Igbo words due to the presence of double lettered alphabets, which involve nasal pronunciation, in some of the consonants, such as ‘ch’, ‘gb’, ‘gh’, ‘gw’, ‘kp’, ‘kw’, ‘nw’, ‘ny’, ‘sh’.
These were not present in the English language, hence the difficulty in the European man’s effort in giving the Igbos a similar demonym as the Igbo people had given to him, instead a name resulting from a mutilation of Igbo words was produced “Oyi ibo’ instead of ” onyi igbo’ meaning ‘Igbo person’ just as he ‘the white man’ was called ‘ onye ocha’ meaning ‘white person’.
It was this ‘oyi ibo’ that the Igbos later started referring to as ‘white person’ in a way of mocking the white man for his inability in saying “Onye Igbo”.