Tadelara, you are welcome to wanting to know your Yoruba Cultural root. There have been many positive remarks, comments and contribution so far and I will implore you to consider them. Please discard any negative contributions.

You said your name is Lara, which is Omolara in full. If am correct your name means, "My child is my body" The name is given to a female child whose parents, in your case your father has great love and care for just like we love and care for our body. That said and done. I wonder as you claimed in your post why your father did not teach you Yoruba language, (that is very strange attitude coming from a Yoruba person). The language is so loving that wherever they sojourn to and reside, Yoruba people takes pride in speaking and teaching their children to speak the language. So your father must have a reason for distancing you from his language, his culture and people. You are not even close to your father's relative. Find out why. Or may be you are the one not interested in learning it! Or your late mother, being African-American, discouraged your father or yourself from speaking it!

This situation makes your intention and dreams very daunting but you can make it exciting, depends on your reason for wanting to know about your Yoruba heritage. To start with, hear from your father first about the country called Nigeria, the tribe called Yoruba and his ethinic branch called Ondo. Be sure to know that there is a general lingua called Yoruba and there are several dialects in that lingua, so for you, your dialect is Ondo, (assuming your father is from Ondo town and not Ondo State) for instance I am Ijebu, there are Egbas, Ekitis, Ijeshas, Aworis, Eguns, Oyos, Ifes, Ibarapas, etc. For your information, in Ondo State there are the ondos, Akures, Owos, Ilajes, Akokos, Ifons, etc. You may visit www.ondostate.gov.ng

Also find from your father what caused his disinterest in his culture and his feelings about your desire to know and associate with your Yoruba root. It is a pity your mum is late, her knowledge and impression of Yoruba people would have been a great help, afterall she married him who is a Nigerian and a Yoruba person inspite of all fears, negative comments and sentiments many must have expressed against her choice and decision.

Talking about Nigerians, you have visited Nigeria before and must have gone away with certain impressions right or wrong but one thing that no haters deny us is the fact that Nigerians are hospitable, friendly, chatty and communal people. We like celebrating a lot and very religious to a fault, you can say very spiritual. We view our relationships with seriousness and cherish respect, this shows in our verious modes of greetings.

There is great family life in Nigeria as well as societal care and control, not in terms of government administration. We regard our neighbpours as part of our family to a defined limit based on certain criteria. People are adressed with different reverence based on age, gender, position and character.

I have lived all my life in Nigeria with a lot of travel experiences to over fifteen countries including US and I have a lot of family members and friends living abroad rasing families. I tell you am yet to see a people as accomodating to visitors and strangers as Nigerians- east, west, north or south. Nigeria is probably the only country where you do not need to carry papers to move about as a non-citizen and naturally would not be suspected for not being a citizen or anything, no one will even know you are a foreigner once you are black or any of its shade, more so if you can speak our variant of English language - pidgin. Many whites in Nigeria go to our local markets to haggle prices of commodities and buy things from road side hawkers without molestation or fear.

In Naija, nobody cares if you are whatever you call yourself, be it African-American, Nigerian-American, American-Nigerian, to us Nigerians at home, it is of no importance or relevance, it will not attract you special attention. The only thing that gives you special attention or edge in our Naija is the size of your pocket, if you speak too much American accent you will only be tolerated but once they know you are a Nigerian or carries Nigerian blood, my NAIJA people will harass you to speak Pidgin or the native dialect, it doesnt matter whether you be Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. Hausas even hate to communicate in any other language than Hausa language.

I adivice you to relate more with Nigerians in your locality, start to pick some of Yoruba languages (particularly those ones use for greetings, Yorubas cherish greeting each other a lot) and if there are no "spiritual" reasons start getting close to your father's relatives. (To you "spiritual reasons" may appear and sound strange, but it is a very strong denominator in Nigeria and your father surely understands better).

You can also do some research and readings on YORUBA NATION AND PEOPLE, there are a lot of publications on Yorubas in the US and on internet. Keep your mind free of any bias, misconceptions and misrepresentations and you will become more knowledgeable about your root. If convenient for you, visit Nigeria more often, visit Ondo State, visit your father's village in Ondo State.

Do not be discouraged by news about Nigeria on various news channels, they are mostly about bad governance and leadership but none is really about the Nigerian people.

I will end my contribution by one relevant adage in Yoruba which literally means "No one born is without a father's and a mother's root. Even bible wrote about the genealogy of Jesus Christ. I wish you all the best in your endeavour. If you want more information about Yoruba and specifically, Ondo people, feel free to email me on s.adebayo@yahoo.com

The ara in omolara refers to family, not body.

Therefore omolara would be children are family.

good if you want to identify with the people, but having been an international student president tells me a lot about those with nigerian parents, though i do not have to generalize,

in the states as long as you are born in the states you are an american, even if you were born outside the states but your parents are american citizens you are still an american citizen,

as a president i noticed that almost all the student born by nigerian parents do not consider themselves nigerian in anyway except that their parents are nigerian, though many confessed to love the culture or marry a nigerian, but they just don't want to ever see themselves as nigerians, they prefer to be seen as african americans,

but on your advice, since you are of the yoruba, your people will welcome and love you, nigerians may not have a good name because of what pure bad leadership may have caused but the culture and people are amazing, they are still the most wonderful people on earth,
houston and dallas is a great place to meet so many nigerians, redeem church, mountain of fire, winners are all everywhere in houston, so u may associate with them and learn more

jascon1:

honestly, from your English construction you seem to be a born n raised nigerian. in the US there are many yoruba ppl. they shoulda told u more about here. even oyibo man go tell u more about 9ja. and i'd prefer u tell us the way you were viewed "when u visited". you have been here, as u said.
for the sake of the topic, i will comment. maybe, my comment is useful to others as well.
we are all humans and we act differently. nigerians are social and hospitable even to strangers. and we live a communual lifestyle. is easy to blend and find your way around. you got nothing to worry as your skin aint any different. if u were white or mixed-race, then u will surely get attention from the average man. the only difference in u is your accent. need not worry, cos a lot of nigerians fake it. we no no/care who trully be jandon again. in the south, u will have a hard time communicating, cos your accent will sound intimidating to them and they dont accept intimidation. dont go bragging about america, cos u will be expected to back it up with dollar-spending.
English no dey buy banga soup. even oyibo dey speak pidgin here. so, if u are really what u say u are,just COME (again). my ppl say, "leave wetin dem write for motor, enter motor". oyibo na sand sand for here. if u no carry money come nobody won c u oh. so better remain for their if u no say e no dey o! your parents get reason why dem carry u travel far.
and, if u r looking for a man, is no crime, say it openly as an american. what is your relationship status? make our spit for no waste. post a picture and REAL men on here will show you a preamble of how u WILL be viewed on arrival (again).

u are absolutely right bros"LEAVE WETIN DEM WRITE FOR MOTO, ENTER MOTO" ur pockets determine how pple take you. ENGLISH NO FIT BUY YOU BANGA SOUP, if u no carry money(dollars) come, u dey on ur own

love4ual:

good if you want to identify with the people, but having been an international student president tells me a lot about those with nigerian parents, though i do not have to generalize,

in the states as long as you are born in the states you are an american, even if you were born outside the states but your parents are american citizens you are still an american citizen,

as a president i noticed that almost all the student born by nigerian parents do not consider themselves nigerian in anyway except that their parents are nigerian, though many confessed to love the culture or marry a nigerian, but they just don't want to ever see themselves as nigerians, they prefer to be seen as african americans,

but on your advice, since you are of the yoruba, your people will welcome and love you, nigerians may not have a good name because of what pure bad leadership may have caused but the culture and people are amazing, they are still the most wonderful people on earth,
houston and dallas is a great place to meet so many nigerians, redeem church, mountain of fire, winners are all everywhere in houston, so u may associate with them and learn more

I am not denying your observations & experiences of the students you were around, that are born in America from Nigerian parents, happen to consider themselves african american but it is not clear cut as you make it seem. I am a American born Nigerian, and I don't consider myself African american, and many people like me of my background don't either. What I have have noticed is their are two groups of American born Nigerians, the ones that want nothing to do with Nigeria and the ones that want to be part of Nigeria. I have experienced two types of those groups, and the trend I have noticed is the ones that don't want nothing to do with Nigeria or love the culture but don't like to call themselves Nigerian, never been to Nigeria majority of the time, rarely hang out with Nigerians, most of the time was never raised in the culture at all and are completely westernized,  and lastly they are more likely to assimilate and marry into other communities in America. When it comes to the ones who want to be part of Nigeria, they are proud of saying they are Nigerian, majority of the time they have traveled there alot, hangs out with other Nigerians most of the time, understand the language and at times can speak it, some want to move back and have moved back, many of them have married back into the Nigerian community, and etc. I have seen some be totally ignorant of Nigeria then switch into embracing Nigeria and calling themselves Nigerian.

So your statement maybe true for SOME American born Nigerians but not all of them fit into that mold, because I have seen the reverse many times(and I am a example of it) from your assessment

@Poster

I can relate to your situation in a different but personal way. My wife is Nigerian American (Kalabari) and am Igbo. When i moved here, i never planned to date talkless of marrying american-born Nigerian largely due to popular opinions/assumptions. She suprised me by turning out to be my best friend and my wife.
I think that different induviduals, far from getting caught up in the crowd opinions, will genuinely treat you with respect and learn to know you as a person first before drawing a conclusions.

annonymous6 , i tend to agree with you, but from my experience those with the yoruba backgroud or parents tend to desire nigerians and the culture more,

i am igbo and not yoruba but i have been opportuned to miss with them both, but i also want to say that some of them could be extremely nice especially those with missed parents, father nigerian and mother african american,

those who desire nigerian culture and people receive warm reception and the nigerians love them a lot,

anonnymous6 do you miss with nigerians and where do you stay in the states ?,

love4ual:

annonymous6 , i tend to agree with you, but from my experience those with the yoruba backgroud or parents tend to desire nigerians and the culture more, 

well true, I'm Yoruba

love4ual:


i am igbo and not yoruba but i have been opportuned to miss with them both, but i also want to say that some of them could be extremely nice especially those with missed parents, father nigerian and mother african american,

I'm not denying that, true

love4ual:


anonnymous6 do you miss with nigerians and where do you stay in the states ?,

Yes I mix with Nigerians alot, and I live in Massachusetts

tpia@:

The ara in omolara refers to family, not body.

Therefore omolara would be children are family.

Can also be omolaraeni in full which means "a child/children is/are my family".

^^true.


but definitely not "body" as someone mistakenly typed.

ara family is high tone re mi while ara body is re re [low tone].

yeah, you are right on the tones.

annonymous6, cool

just moved from tuscaloosa, to houston

youruba's are usually culturally attached, they igbo's are also culture minded but they always like it easy and cautious

love4ual:

annonymous6, cool

just moved from tuscaloosa, to houston

oh that's good

love4ual:

youruba's are usually culturally attached, they igbo's are also culture minded but they always like it easy and cautious

True

@Kenny20910 Thanks

@love4ual, Thanks for your suggestion.

@GNBohr, Thanks for your input as well. You provided me with so much useful information.

Judging by your write-up. I am 99% sure you are not what you are trying to say you are.Just like others have noted.

'''''I am really happy with all of the responses from my post. Thanks @kizito96, I will look into it. That would be a perfect start for me. Thanks so much to you all for your suggestions'''''



The above construction by the writer is un-American. We on this board are not fools. I know when I get a Nigerian scam email. This is one .

^^^^ Lmaooooo I saw that right away.

hope she's not that crook called KB/DaRapture.

@Love4ual

How is Tusc., AL ? We are contemplating making the move from MD to AL due to work related reasons

@tadelara
Why are you waiting to retire to move to Nigeria? Why not earlier?

@igbo2011, hopefully in the next 5 to 10 years I will be financially stable. With the grace of God!

tadelara: I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to settle down with an African-American guy

I had to point out this part. I think it comes down to what your father is and he pretty much determines the type of men you're going to want to settle down with. Your dad is Nigerian and you want a naija guy; me on the other-hand, my dad is African-American and the guys that I've been with and the one I'm involved with now were and is African-American. I just had to say my piece on that

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