The West African Referent "Toubab" Doesn't Only Mean "White Person"

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision: March 2, 2022

This pancocojams post presents excerpts of several reprints of online articles about the West African referent "Toubab". 

The content of this post is presented for linguistics and socio-cultural purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
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Click these links for closely related pancocojams posts:  https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/07/is-nigerian-word-oyinbo-oyibo-insulting.html "Is The Nigerian Word "Oyinbo" ("Oyibo") An Insulting Referent? and https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/08/yevu-and-obroni-ghanaian-referents-for.html "Yevu" And "Obroni" (Ghanaian Referents For White People And For Foreigners, Including Black People Who Were Weren't Born & Raised In Ghana).

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COMPLETE ONLINE ARTICLES ABOUT THE WORD "TOUBAB"
These articles are given in no particular order and are numbered for referencing purposes only.

Article #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toubab
" "Toubab" , "Toubabou" or "Toubob" is a Central and West African* name for a person of European descent ("whites"). Used most frequently in The Gambia, Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, and also in Ivory Coast, the term can be derogatory by itself, but it is also frequently associated with "white person" or “colonizer”. The word can also be applied to any perceived traveler, usually only those with a different phenotype, up to foreign-raised locals (thus with a different accent) or visiting expatriates. In Alex Haley's book Roots, the word is spelled "toubob", and the phrase "toubob fa" (kill toubob) is used several times.

In God's Bits of Wood, authored by Senegalese Sembene Ousmane, the natives call the French colonizers toubab (singular) or toubabs (plural).

In the fourth episode of the miniseries ROOTS, Kizzy refers to her slave masters as "toubab," or white.

A verb in the Wolof language means "to convert" (missionaries during colonial times, being whites coming from Europe). The word could have derived from the two bob (two shillings) coin of pre-decimalization United Kingdom.[citation needed]

Related

In Ghana, the word used in the local Akan languages for a white person (or any foreigner) is Obroni.

In Nigeria, the word used for a white person is Oyibo.

In Togo and Benin, the word used for a white person is yovo.

In Burkina Faso's most common language (Moore), the word for white person is nassara. In the country's west, more popular languages (e.g., Dyula, Bambara and Mandinka) use the word toubabou.

In East Africa and Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the word used for a white person or a foreigner is muzungu.

In both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo another word used for a white person is mondele (or mundele)."
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*The Gambia,Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, and The Ivory Coast are all located in West Africa. This article doesn't indicate which in which Central African nations the word "toubab" is used.

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Article #2 
From https://www.accessgambia.com/information/toubab.html Toubabs in Gambia
"Ethnic group

 Meaning of Toubab: (Tubaab)

In Gambia, as well as the rest of West Africa, the word means a Caucasian person, though this word can also describe a person of lighter skin. This is not a derogatory statement, simply a label meant to describe. As the widely understood sentiment in The Gambia is that toubabs are rich, expect cries of toubabs to be accompanied by pleas for money or minties, from adults as well as children. Basically, if you are a foreigner, and especially if you are light-skinned, expect to be described by this name.

 Origins:

It is not clear how European people came to be called toubab in Gambia. Some say it is a corruption of the word Tabib which in Arabic means doctor. Note: missionaries and doctors in the imperial era were people from Europe.

The other theory is that it is derived from the word "two bob" 2 shilling coinage from the pre-decimalization period of British currency when The Gambia was still colonised by Britain."

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Also, read the article "Don't Call Me Toubab" by Aurore Iradukunda at https://africasacountry.com/2016/11/dont-call-me-toubab 

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