nanizle: I came across a possible origin for the word Oyinbo and it apparently means old monkey.

"Oyinbo is from Oyin obo which means old monkey/baboon . They become white as they age, So, that was the closest thing the Yoruba people could associate the white men with." a friend of mine posted on Facebook.

well... calling someone a white monkey sounds insulting.


old monkey (oyin obo)
www.nairaland.com/attachments/1562139_old_monkey_jpeged065da7077f63bf1eade8c4fdd0d40b

passion007:

'Oyinbo' is the Yoruba rendering of the Igbo word 'Oyibo'
The earliest whitemen often said "Oyibo" when they meant "Onye Ibo" ie an Igbo person.
Before long, Igbos began to refer to whites--jestfully, may be scornfully --as "Oyibo"
The word has nothing to do with monkeys or baboons or suchlike.

True.
The word consists of two morphemes:
Oyin – bee or honey and
Ibo – a yellowish sweet sour fruit.
Perhaps the juice or bee of ibo is whiter than other bees. Yorubas usually decribe people by what they look like or behave like or speak like. I dare say Oyibos are so called because they are whitish like the juice or bee of ibo.

Nonybb: It is called Oyibo not "Oyinbo" as popularly pronounced by the Yorubas. It is an Igbo word but was bastardized and corrupted by the Yorubas when they ignorantly called it as "Oyinbo". Nothing like Oyinbo nor does it have any meaning. Finally Oyibo means "a white man" in Igbo

nanizle:

I thought white man translates to onye-ocha in Igbo