What is "toubab"

n. (context West Africa Central Africa English) white person (used especially in Gambia and Senegal).

Toubab is a Central and West African name for a person of European descent ("whites"). Used most frequently in the Gambia, Senegal, and Mali, and also in Ivory Coast, the term does not have derogatory connotations by itself, but it is also frequently associated with "wealthy traveler" (if one can afford to travel, one must be rich). The word can also be applied to any perceived traveler, even those of black African descent with an identifiably different phenotype such as (whiter) Cape Verdeans and (blacker) Nigerians, up to foreign-raised locals (thus with a different accent) or visiting expatriates. In Alex Haley's book Roots, the phrase "toubab fa" (kill toubab) 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 friend 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 shilling) coin of pre- decimalisation United Kingdom.

In Ghana the word used for a white person or foreigner is Obroni in the local languages, of the Akan family.

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

In Uganda, the word used for a white or foreign person is "mzungu".

In both the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo, the word used for a white person is " mondele" or "mundele".