Toubab Explained

"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 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.

Central and East Africa

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).

Further reading

• François Bouchetoux, Writing Anthropology: A Call for Uninhibited Methods, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2014, 121 p.
• Maurice Delafosse, « De l'origine du mot Toubab » in Annuaire et mémoires du comité d'études historiques et scientifiques de l'A.O.F., 1917, p. 205-216
• Anne Doquet, « Tous les toubabs ne se ressemblent pas. Les particularités nationales des étrangers vues par les guides touristiques maliens », in Mali - France : Regards sur une histoire partagée, GEMDEV et Université du Mali, Karthala, Paris ; Donniya, Bamako, 2005, p. 243-258
• Pierre Dumont, Le Toubab, L'Harmattan, Paris, Montréal, 1996, 127 p. (Novel)
• Charles Hoareau, Toubabs et immigrés, Pantin, Paris, Le Temps des cerises, VO éd, 1999, 202 p.
• Lawrence Hill, "The Book of Negroes", HarperCollins, Toronto, 2007, 44, 45 p.
• dic.lingala.com : dictionnaire de lingala en ligne https://dic.lingala.be/en/mundele