₦airaland Forum

ovadozes:
Yeah, in Igbo language so many words are spelt the same and pronounced differently with a very different meaning so most times its not easy to differentiate.

You mean Igbo is a tonal language. Yoruba language has the same thing. For example, 'Ogun' and 'Oko' can mean a whole lot of different things depending on how you pronounce them.

Good read.

Hmm.

Revealing.

Olu317:
I don't WAIL like the IBOS but say it as it stand or write it as it is. I don't need to engage you until you doff your hat for my RACE because I AM A CHOSEN and a Chosen is a LEGEND. Just chew your pride and be humble enough to respect people that gave you shelter when there was non.

You are not sheltering me. I don't live in Yorubaland.

And there are Yoruba men and women in my hometown right now where I have gone to spend the weekend. My father's tenant is a Yoruba banker. My barber in my hometown is a Yoruba guy. The guy who fixes my grandma's car is Yoruba, Taofeek. You are not the only people 'sheltering' strangers, so quit yapping on about that...and answer the question if you can, and save all that sheltering crap for people living in Yorubaland.

Olu317:
You are a fool at the peak of manhood. Foolishness beyond limit is your understanding. I don't even need to qualify you again or inform you on the period of the change of name because you are all back stabbers. After you are told, then, you will turn around to tell lies about it. There's no difference between you and Late Chinua Achebe . Every time I remember him and his hatred for Yoruba Race, I hardly see any thing good coming out of his people but envy and hatred. Just as it has happened again. Even Donald Trump, that ran his mouth without control doff his hat for Yoruba Race. If not, why did he appoint a Yoruba man as member of his economic team? That's the basic truth. Thank God, Yoruba gave you light on education, if it were to be the other way round, you EBOES would have told us to leave Western and North Central Nigeria for you. After all,NO STRANGER of Yoruba Race owns property as LESSEE under LESSOR in the South East,and if there is,he is doomed !!!. Then I emphasize once again that you belong to the Race who are unwilling to obey the pattern in which God has done things. If you cant tender a typed online apology, then,go and do self research on your own or tell your Ibo family members to inform you on the period you were tagged with the name called “Igbo". Go and study again for more twenty (20) years to know more on history. Emi ni emi. Won ni fi elo mi sè mi

Boy! See incoherent rambling. You'll soon enter market. Calm down and drink cold water.

And if you do not have the answer to what I asked, you can be the HUMBLE Yoruba man that you claim to be and say so, and stop acting like a rabid dog because you were asked to back up the things you say with some evidence.

Olu317:
You were even called HEEBO . The people who could boldly lay claim to the word “IGBO" are the “OLUKUMI" group of Yoruba ancestry. And if you want me to educate you, then you must RESPECT my YORUBA Race by typing an online apology on this forum for insulting my OUR HUMBLE AND HOSPITABLE YORUBA RACE that accommodated YOUR EEBO/Ibo RACE. Then I shall begin..

I think you are quite illiterate and quite mad. Apology? Insult your race? When did I insult your 'race'? Me and you done relate before? I asked a simple question and rather than answer you give me this gibberish about insulting your race and apology? Are you mad?

Olu317:
. I am an authority on WHAT I SEND ON THIS FORUM because I studied hard and do research. “Igbo " are now interchange between Yoruba and Ibos but In The Olden days as far back as 180 years or more. South East Nigerians were called EBOES. It has nothing to do with hatred but the truth. as simple as ABC. Go and read first else you will showcase your ignorance before the whole world.

At what point did Ibos now switch from this 'Eboe' to 'Igbo'? When did it happen?

chijiblaze:
If the ijaw speak nine languages, can they truly be considered as just one tribe?
Even if the languages are related, are they mutually intelligible?
I understand that western izon and eastern ijo are unable to communicate with each other in the same language. Ogbia is a different language altogether. So are Ogoni, Andoni, Kalabari & Obulom. People need to look properly into this matter.
Ijaw is not one tribe.

The same thing can be said about Igbo.

waternogetenemy:
Dude, so ugbo and igbo need differentiating? Is he confused? Are yorubas confused as to the difference between ugbo and igbo?


One is a major ethnic group, the other is a rural village. Does that need differentiating?

The differentiation is needed because of confused people like this Igbodefender who are going around claiming that the Ugbo are Southeast Igbos.

https://www.nairaland.com/3456196/why-igbo-also-commemorate-queen

bigfrancis21:
It's your opinion anyway. Olaudah was clear enough when he rendered the meaning of 'oyibo' in his book as 'red-skinned' men.

Yeah, he was, wasn't he? Until we found documentations of a South Carolina birth, and Afigbo found striking similarities between some passages in the book and the culture of the Dahomey Kingdom... and all of a sudden the whole book doesn't sound so credible as a firsthand, eyewitness account anymore.

InyinyaAgbaOku:
Onitsha is an igbo town to the core.
As a commercial city, it attracted lots of migrants, that doesn't make it unigbo.
Plus, oyibo is not known to any other group in ancient times other than igbos

Ekwe m!

bigfrancis21:
Your thievery and desperation are unbecoming. You clearly left out the part of his description of 'oyibo' where he first mentioned 'red-skinned people'. Like we do not have access to the book or what? Do you think this is some primary 3 school debate or what?

Stop throwing tantrums. It's not a primary 3 debate, but your tantrum-throwing is beginning to make it sound like one. That the men living at a distance were described as being mahogany-coloured does not in any way infer that the name "Oye Eboe" is a reference to their complexion. You assume too much, probably out of your need to make your untenable argument stick. I am yet to see a competent scholar who made a connection between "Oye Eboe" and "Oyibo". I am also yet to see a competent scholar who made a connection between the men's "mahogany" colour and the word "oye eboe". Quit assuming and present unassailable evidence. The most prominent historian of Igbo pedigree (Afigbo) and the most competent student of Olaudah's biography (Edwards) are both in agreement that "Oye Eboe" is "Onye Igbo" - a term used in olden times by some Igbo people to refer to other Igbo people who are not from their locality - who are from a "distance."

And hey, you should give Olaudah's book a rest, and stop using it as the prop of your argument. Olaudah may not even have been born in Igboland, according to present evidence. Even if he was born in Igboland, there are compelling evidence that some of the stuff that ended up in his book were copied from other non-Igbo Negroes he met in America.

So if Olaudah's all you've got you haven't got much, bruh.

There is no unassailable evidence of the use of Oyibo in Igboland before the 19th century. Fact! And even in that century, all the evidence we have come from peripheral groups like Aboh and Onitsha, who everyone knows were heavily influenced by more Westerly cultures so much so that they cannot be held up as being very representative of "Igbo".

bigfrancis21:
That's wrong because he rendered the meaning of the word when he used it as 'red-skinned person', leaving out room for any needless future speculations like yours. In the past, 'red skin' was the word used to refer to 'light-skin' and light-skin as a term was not popularly used then until recently. Thus we have light-skinned Igbos who were referred to as 'red Ibos' in reference to their 'red' or 'light' skin, or you have several slave runaway adverts describing physical details of runaway Ibos as 'red-skinned'. Red-skinned = light-skinned. Co-incidentally, you call yourself redbonesmith, redbone thereof being a corruption of the original 'red ibo'. I would suppose that you are light-skinned.

Second, Olaudah spelt the word just as exactly as it is pronounced. 'Oyibo' when pronounced natively by Igbos even till today is stretched at the 'i' part and it comes out as oyiibo instead, which Olaudah spelt as 'oyeeboe' with his own unique Igbo conventions created by him at that time, due to a lack of a standardized Igbo spelling system. Or I guess, when Ajayi crowther, a black man not white man, was called 'oyibo ojii' by Igbos in Onitsha he was called 'Igbo person' right?

Oyibo when used amongst Igbos has different meanings and is not just restricted to one usage. It means several things such light-skinned person who could be Igbo or westernized black person, white person, English language, westernization etc. In referring to Ajayo Crowther, who was dark-skinned, as 'oyibo ojii' we see the usage of 'oyibo' in this sense as referring to his European westernization or simply put, a westernized black man, which was quite rare at that time.

Your attempts to limit the perception or usage of 'oyibo' amongst Igbos is frivolous and equally laughable. You attempt to tell Igbos what their meaning of oyibo should be when you barely have any idea of its historical usage amongst Igbos.

Like I said before and will re-iterate for the umpteenth time, academic evidence strongly points to an Igbo origin of oyibo, not oyinbo. It is irrelevant if you choose to agree with this or not. It do not matter as Lil Uzi Vert would say.

This comment is so muddled up, I don't even know where to start. All I'll say is: You are trying too hard.

ezeagu:
Olaudah doesn't even explain why he would refer to himself as 'Eboe' if 'Oye Eboe' means 'onye Igbo' in the sense of Igbo person, and not a word that may have come from 'onye Igbo'.

Furthermore, at Aboh "R. A. K. Oldfield, a European, while on the Niger River near Aboh in 1832 had recorded locals calling out to him and his entourage "Oh, Eboe! Oh, Eboe!" meaning "White man, White man!" linked to modern 'oyibo'."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyibo

It could be that both words developed from an older word, but then the question would be who was being referred to as oyibo or oyinbo before Europeans.

Olauda referred to himself as Eboe, because he was writing from the perspective of an "Igbo" man abroad. It was abroad that he encountered the pan-Igbo ethnic identity, and like all diasporic "Igbo" men of that period, he embraced and utilised that pan-identity.

The appearance of "Oye Eboe" as a term for a certain people "living at a distance" indicates that he was aware of an older less-inclusive meaning of that term "Eboe". A meaning that some Igbo people today still know very well. Go and ask people in Onitsha, Asaba, Oguta, etc why they still refer to Igbo people from the hinterland (i.e., "living at a distance" as "Onye Igbo" or "Nwa Onye Igbo".

I see no evidence that "Onye Igbo" metamorphosed to Oyibo and became the word for "white man". That is a hyuuge speculation.

bigfrancis21:
Yes it is possible. Anything is possible. Lack of humility and a false sense of cultural superiority would not allow you to explore other possible options.

False sensecof cultural superiority? Wetin be dat? I am not even Yoruba.

If you say a man that knows a word is not a Yoruba word, and is not used in Yorubaland, but goes ahead to put it in a Yoruba dictionary because he meets that word in Onitsha. If you say this makes sense to you, then it may be the case that you are not very bright.

bigfrancis21:
Olaudah, born in 1745, mentioned the word in his memoir and his village people using the word as far back as the early 1700s. More than 100 years before Ajayi wrote his dictionary. So?

Mind you, from Olaudah's description, he is most likely from the Iseke village of Anambra south-Orsu area of Igboland (the area of Igboland with the most little external influences whatsoever). It is striking that this isolated village, with no crosbo' in their Igbo dialect as early as the 1700s or likely even earlier than that.

Like I said before, if oyinbo makes sense in the SW so be it, Oyibo makes sense in the SE and is of Igbo origin.

Academic evidence strongly points to an Igbo origin or Igbo first usage. Anything else is mere speculation.

The Olaudah Equiano illustration is far, far from convincing. Stop using it. You've used it a million times on this forum already. It is not convincing at all. Oye Eboe as uses by Olaudah is Onye Igbo and was not applied to white people in Olaudah's book. Morphing Oye Eboe to Oyibo and applying it to white people is purely your own conjecture and is not supported in any literature.

Probz:
Nah, but it makes sense that Ajayi took the word to the west. As bigfrancis said, he himself was called oibo in the east before the mid-19th century. That's the crux of the matter fam. He'd been called that exact word in the east before he later recorded it in any Yoruba dictionary.

This is as ridiculous as saying that an Igbo lexicographer who had been to the North will carry 'Bature' with him back to Igboland and even go ahead to include it in an Igbo dictionary. It is absurd. However the word got to Yorubaland, it makes no sense to say that it does not predate Crowther's dictionary.

Probz:
"The earliest academic evidence of 'oyinbo' in Yoruba land comes much later in the mid 1800s in the form of Yoruba dictionary written by Ajayi Crowther. About 7 years earlier before he published the dictionary, Crowther had written a short book about his experiences in spreading Christianity (anglicanism) East of the Niger and he had remarkably mentioned that he and the Igbo Sierra Leonan were often called 'oyibo ojii' ('white' blacks or europeanized blacks) by the Igbo natives. Note Ajayi Crowther spent some time in the east during his religious expansion. This is probable evidence that this word may have been carried over to Yoruba land by Ajayi Crowther and his religious crew for usage, which later spread in the west. This is even more plausible given that the Nri civilization is the oldest civilization in Nigeria, predating Ife, Bini and Oyo civilizations."

Bigfrancis posted that a few comments up. See for yourself jare.

So you are saying the Yorubas of the time were not using that word, but Crowther went ahead anyway to put it in a Yoruba dictionary?

Does that make sense to you?

ezeagu:
Not this oyibo business again, nobody has been able to give evidence of any non-Igbo community using 'oyibo' before 1850 yet, so until then 'oyibo' is Igbo.

Ajayi Crowther's Yoruba-English dictionary from 1843 contains the word oibo for white man. That's before 1850, so there.

https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=uadfAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=crowther+oibo+white&source=bl&ots=xoPXQLSoRC&sig=2yrYi9PoCLPBBrDYQ66yp4JCHuI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwixyO3qzeLQAhVsDMAKHaPKDXEQ6AEIFzAE#v=onepage&q=crowther oibo white&f=false

BiriboofOpobo:
Listen all Igbos, I have nothing against you. Yes, what I say may and probably will be harsh, but is just so that you understand the truth. We the people of Opobo are not igbo. Yes Jaja was born in Ameigbo, but for his adolescence to adulthood he was in Bonny(Ibani) and Opobo(Opubo). If was our Amanyanabo who shaped him into the legend he is today, not Ameigbo. He led the Manilla house to the area we now call Opobo. If truly Jaja saw himself as a Igbo man, why did he name is Opubo, after his Master, meaning one who is big.

You Igbos have a wonderful culture with an amazing language. Why do you feel the need to take my ancestors legacy

If I have said anything incorrect Opobo's history please let the TRUE Awo of Opobo people correct me.

What you said isn't harsh, bro. The Igbo nationalists on this forum don't know when to stop.

The pictures here and the stories accompanying them are gold. Please don't stop.

Omoluabi don't say "ignorant", but they will say "uncultured", "lazy", etc?

Rossikki:
Did he apologize for their invasion and destruction of Benin City in 1897?

LOL. Africans and pity parties eh. Have all the precolonial Nigerian empires apologised to the peoples and towns they invaded? Has Oyo apologised to Dahomey and Weme? Has Benin apologised to Akure and Agbor? Has the Igala apologised to Nsukka?

DiamonJ:
U should be happy that a delta igbo found wicked igbos as girlfrnd not to talk of marriage, d reverse should be d case, that can a hardworking, accomodating and blessed delta igbo survive being with and igbós gỉrlfnd, not to talk of having igbo's as wife or wicked inlaw's, igbo's are d wicked boyfnd or girlfrnd any other tribes can think of settling down with,u can plan with them, bcoz they will choose money over u, living u not knwing where u stand, mostly abia and imo, i HATE them with passion

2 people understood this enough to like it?

Why? First he said Noah's Ark has been found in Ile-Ife. Now this. Why?

Anecdotal. Pat McCormack met ONE smart person.

Enlightened despotism can get us there in less than 300 years. We are not ready yet for Western-style democracy with its wastefulness and slow pace of development.

OP, are you that bored? You created a thread more than a month ago in the politics section to ask this same question, and you answered it by yourself. This is the answer you gave:

no need for all this lies osu are descendant of nri who are low class to the nri descendent in anambra.anambra igbo are the free born while ebonyi nd imo are osu slaves.osu caste system is practiced strictly in s.east.u see osu shouting on nairaland how there uncle shoekudi bought 70% abj Nd 90% of Lagos meanwhile shoekudi sleeps under bridge nd he doesn't even own just a common hut in red-mud republic

https://www.nairaland.com/3385366/what-meaning-osu

If you want to abuse Igbo people, why don't you just come straight, instead of pretending that you are asking a genuine question?

Sammy888:
Lie Well bro. The man himself complained bitterly that Utomi is Igbo. Its rare comprehension is the point here. Uncommon names like this are seen In Ebonyi and Igbo Rivers. Thanks but are sure you are an anioma person. Anyway anything can happen in Nairaland

Utomi is from Utomwen and means longevity in Edo.

The picture of King George and Queen Mary of England in the background to remind the local Chief of who his boss really is!

I's just kidding.

Every Igbo Eze is Eze in his own little corner. There is no strongest.

How can the Oba of Benin be the greatest monarch in Africa when his kingdom is not even a sovereign state? The following African monarchs rule over sovereign states; the King of Morocco, the King of Lesotho and the King of Swaziland.