Origin Of Why Hausas Call Igbos Nyamiri

It is supposedly derogatory but the origin isn't really.
I spent a lot of my long vacations in the north of Nigeria growing up and asked questions about this word and this is what my relatives told me.

In northern Nigeria,it was common to see Hausas selling water on the streets,I saw that a lot in Jos.
They carried the containers tied to a wooden bar they hung on their necks

Igbos would yell out " Onye mmiri" which means " the one selling water" in order to attract the attention of the water seller
My family member had an eatery and we had an Onye Mmiri that came daily to fill up the container
Then the word Onye Mmiri i was told now became what they called their buyers and because of language,they called it Nyamiri which was the way it sounded to them.
The buyer called the seller Onye Mmiri,the seller called him nyamiri and with time Igbos and Easterners in general became known as Nyamiri.
@from Igbo history.

Arda1000:
Origin Of Why Hausas Call Igbos Nyamiri

It is supposedly derogatory but the origin isn't really.
I spent a lot of my long vacations in the north of Nigeria growing up and asked questions about this word and this is what my relatives told me.

In northern Nigeria,it was common to see Hausas selling water on the streets,I saw that a lot in Jos.
They carried the containers tied to a wooden bar they hung on their necks

Igbos would yell out " Onye mmiri" which means " the one selling water" in order to attract the attention of the water seller
My family member had an eatery and we had an Onye Mmiri that came daily to fill up the container
Then the word Onye Mmiri i was told now became what they called their buyers and because of language,they called it Nyamiri which was the way it sounded to them.
The buyer called the seller Onye Mmiri,the seller called him nyamiri and with time Igbos and Easterners in general became known as Nyamiri.
@from Igbo history.

False narrative

Nyamiri....... Give me water( civil war no be joke)

Yeah sure
We Yoruba we call Igbos "Ajokuta Mamomi"

The Hausa observed the eating habits of the igbos . Eating heavy food like akpu and such with little water taken during meals..

But on a more serious and sensible note can you use a derogatory word on someone who has outclassed you. Like Mexicans using derogatory word on Canada, Japan or Britain

triple996:
Nyamiri....... Give me water( civil war no be joke)

onye Miri Is the right word… northerns have been hawking water even before the civil war,they sell water from house to house hence the Igbo call them onye mmiri.

kettykin:
But on a more serious and sensible note can you use a derogatory word on someone who has outclassed you. Like Mexicans using derogatory word on Canada, Japan or Britain

it’s like calling an Hausa Aboki, it’s derogatory to you that doesn’t understand it but not to him,though on our part we call the ones who sells water onye mmiri but to them don’t understand it so they also return the favor just like an Hausa man will return Aboki to u if u call them aboki

slivertongue:



False narrative

what’s the true narrative

illicit:
Yeah sure
We Yoruba we call Igbos "Ajokuta Mamomi"

what does that mean

illicit:
Yeah sure
We Yoruba we call Igbos "Ajokuta Mamomi"

What does it mean

Arda1000:
what does that mean

Its means someone that eats solid food

kettykin:


What does it mean

Someone that eats solid food with little or no water to step down

illicit:


Someone that eats solid food with little or no water to step down

That's an extra ordinary fellow, the super humans needed badly to transform our space

lies.. it is as a result of igbos begging northern soldiers for water when they were captured during the civil war, because ojukwu cornered the food aid by foreign countries for himself and family alone..
so nyamiri means "give me water"
I. e biafran slaves begging their northern masters for water

BanyXchi

illicit:


Its means someone that eats solid food

lol solid food is for solid people…
On average Igbo people are stronger physically then Yoruba people so thanks the compliment

Arda1000:
lol solid food is for solid people…
On average Igbo people are stronger physically then Yoruba people so thanks the compliment

Yeah sure
Its actually a compliment and not meant to be derogatory in any form

Another appellation is "Omo Nna"
Nna's child
I can't explain this

ASAPFERG1:
lies.. it is as a result of igbos begging northern soldiers for water when they were captured during the civil war, because ojukwu cornered the food aid by foreign countries for himself and family alone..
so nyamiri means "give me water"
I. e biafran slaves begging their northern masters for water

BanyXchi

Hausas told us a long time ago na, they can't rewrite the meaning of nyamiri

Arda1000:
lol solid food is for solid people…
On average Igbo people are stronger physically then Yoruba people so thanks the compliment

stronger physically? How do you know that? Why are you Ibos so delusional?

BanyXchi:
stronger physically? How do you know that? Why are you Ibos so delusional?

look at an average Igbo man even Igbo women to an extent they are of different stock, they have more muscle mass than let’s Hausa or Yoruba, Hausas tend to be lanky and skinny while Yoruba tends to be boggy and huge but lacks fiber and muscle,being big isn’t good enough when you don’t have muscles and it all comes down to their indigenous diets..
Sorry I know it hurts u to accept the truth but that’s the truth.

illicit:


Yeah sure
Its actually a compliment and not meant to be derogatory in any form

Another appellation is "Omo Nna"
Nna's child
I can't explain this

from my own understanding of that omo nna is that Igbo says Nna so frequently hence they started calling them omo nna

slivertongue:



False narrative

Not false. I grew up in Kano and I know about this since I was a child. Hausa normally have a particular pattern of creating adjective to describe someone from the name of a place or tribe the person comes from. Examples, bakatsine is for someone from Katsina, bahaushe is for a Hausa man, basakkwace for a man from Sokoto, bayarabe is for Yoruba man, etc.

I learnt that the term nyamiri was derived from mmiri and was used to describe the Igbo people whom they only get to know about during colonial era.

You might not believe that the town named kwankwaso derived its name from 'okonkwo and sons' an Igbo trader who had a warehouse near railway line that later become a settlement.

Op's explanation is more accurate. Igbo people have been called nyamiri in the north long before civil war. No wonder there is no such word as 'baibe' like bayarabe and bahaushe.

I learnt that the adoption of such term was due to lack of familiarity between the Hausa and Igbos prior to colonial era that brought many Igbo civil servants and traders to the north.

Ikwerre call the, nye isoma

You dont even knw your history...dat word originated during the civil war...whenever an igbo soldier is shot or injured in the war front what he will be yelling for is water.."give me water- nyem miri.....
The hausa fulani soldiers now took it as a mockering and cone it nyamiri since they were having the upper hand in the war.

Arda1000:
Origin Of Why Hausas Call Igbos Nyamiri

It is supposedly derogatory but the origin isn't really.
I spent a lot of my long vacations in the north of Nigeria growing up and asked questions about this word and this is what my relatives told me.

In northern Nigeria,it was common to see Hausas selling water on the streets,I saw that a lot in Jos.
They carried the containers tied to a wooden bar they hung on their necks

Igbos would yell out " Onye mmiri" which means " the one selling water" in order to attract the attention of the water seller
My family member had an eatery and we had an Onye Mmiri that came daily to fill up the container
Then the word Onye Mmiri i was told now became what they called their buyers and because of language,they called it Nyamiri which was the way it sounded to them.
The buyer called the seller Onye Mmiri,the seller called him nyamiri and with time Igbos and Easterners in general became known as Nyamiri.
@from Igbo history.

Wrong.

It predates Nigeria .

The word was coined by Arab slavers who did not fancy Igbo slaves because they never survived the long trek through the desert

The Igbo slave kept pestering his Arab slave master for water and that's how the word came about.

valentineuwakwe:
You dont even knw your history...dat word originated during the civil war...whenever an igbo soldier is shot or injured in the war front what he will be yelling for is water.."give me water- nyem miri.....
The hausa fulani soldiers now took it as a mockering and cone it nyamiri since they were having the upper hand in the war.

So before the war , what did the Hausa call igbo

Arda1000:
Origin Of Why Hausas Call Igbos Nyamiri

It is supposedly derogatory but the origin isn't really.
I spent a lot of my long vacations in the north of Nigeria growing up and asked questions about this word and this is what my relatives told me.

In northern Nigeria,it was common to see Hausas selling water on the streets,I saw that a lot in Jos.
They carried the containers tied to a wooden bar they hung on their necks

Igbos would yell out " Onye mmiri" which means " the one selling water" in order to attract the attention of the water seller
My family member had an eatery and we had an Onye Mmiri that came daily to fill up the container
Then the word Onye Mmiri i was told now became what they called their buyers and because of language,they called it Nyamiri which was the way it sounded to them.
The buyer called the seller Onye Mmiri,the seller called him nyamiri and with time Igbos and Easterners in general became known as Nyamiri.
@from Igbo history.

are wrong. It was after the war, the igbos were begging the Nigerian soldiers for water

DesignMaestro:
Not false. I grew up in Kano and I know about this since I was a child. Hausa normally have a particular pattern of creating adjective to describe someone from the name of a place or tribe the person comes from. Examples, bakatsine is for someone from Katsina, bahaushe is for a Hausa man, basakkwace for a man from Sokoto, bayarabe is for Yoruba man, etc.

I learnt that the term nyamiri was derived from mmiri and was used to describe the Igbo people whom they only get to know about during colonial era.

You might not believe that the town named kwankwaso derived its name from 'okonkwo and sons' an Igbo trader who had a warehouse near railway line that later become a settlement.

The name I learnt came into the public space during the civil war

slivertongue:



The name I learnt came into the public space during the civil war

but there is no other term known that have been used to refer to an Igbo person by the Hausas before the civil war, apart from nyamiri. That civil war narrative might just be a fallacy.

Fake news..

They were called igbos or dan kudu though yorubas are also dan kudu bt has a specific name