MEMOIR
I Was a White Man in Africa
I know because that’s what they called me
“Good morning, Oyinbo!”
I was walking in one of the largest open-air markets in Lagos, Nigeria. It had rained overnight and the path was slushier than usual. My attention was completely focused on keeping my shoes clean when I heard that now-familiar call.
I looked up with a smile. The boy was sitting on an upturned tub, arranging tomatoes in roughly equal piles on a large wooden tray. He must have been in his early teens, clad in a was-once-white tee two sizes too large and khaki knee-length shorts.
“Good morning to you too, my friend,” I said.
The boy grinned and waved to me before going back to his business.
How did I know the greeting was meant for me? Well, I was the only Oyinbo around at that hour.
Oyinbo is slang for a ‘white person’ in Yoruba, one of the three main languages of Nigeria, and the most commonly spoken one in the Lagos region. After a year in Nigeria, I was now used to being called that.
Nigeria was my first experience of life outside India. It was also the first time I was made aware of the use of skin color as a differentiator for people. Sure, Indians came in all shades. There were broad…
