Are Yoruba Women Really Dirty?

Uche had always believed that Yoruba women were pigs. At Onitsha where he had lived for over twenty years, he had been told several ridiculous tales about the dirtiness of Yoruba women. "Yoruba women wear just one pant for two weeks" Nnamdi a trader from Lagos had once told him. "Yoruba women don't shave their public hairs and the crayfishes you find in their soup are cockroaches" Okonkwo a lecturer in UNN had once told him. "Yoruba women can wash their cooking utensils in the toilets" Chike a Graduate of Computer science who served in Ekiti state had once told Uche when they met on a bus.

Apart from what Uche had been told by his Igbos friends, Uche had also developed his creeds through the influence of the mass media. He had listened on several occasion to Ndigbo stations where programmes that exposed the lifestyle of Yoruba women had been aired. In one of the programmes Uche had listened to, the broadcaster had recalled how she was served a plate of rice spiced with house-flies in a certain canteen in Oshogbo.

Uche had always dreamt of the day he would validate the claim that Yoruba women are pigs. His opportunity came some days after his 22nd birthday when his Uncle who lived in Ajegunle Apapa invited him to Lagos. Uche arrived Lagos with the hope that he would see as many of those piglike Yoruba women he had been convincingly told about.

The morning that followed the arrival of Uche met him in a nearby canteen. The canteen was obviously operated by a yoruba woman. The shop was built close to a public toilet and the walls of the shop had been painted black by the aggressive smoke from the cooking fire that constantly harass the meek walls. Uche ordered a plate of rice with dodo and two pieces of meat.

He was not disappointed at all when he discovered the rice appeared like capsules, the stew was tasteless, the meats were spoilt and the dodo tasted like unripe bananas, even a hungry monkey would not eat them. While Uche sat speechless gazing at the king's portion that had been served him, he started weeping.

The smoke from the cooking fire had begun to harass his eyes. Soon, big helicopters began to settled on the plate of rice before him. When the woman saw his plight, she quickly rushed to his table with a local lamp known as Shakabula, she lighted the Shakabula to scare the helicopterlike house-flies which had turned the eating hall into an airport.

Without swallowing a single grain of the capsules that had been placed before him, Uche paid his amusement bills. While the woman was searching through her apron for change, she brought out an adult size panties from her apron and quickly replaced it before finally she gave Uche his change. Uche was lost in bewilderment, "how on earth would a sane woman keep her panties inside her apron? Hmmm Yoruba women are pigs to say the least" Uche thought to himself. As he turned to leave the canteen, a man walked in and greeted the woman in Igbo language.

The conversation between the man and the woman lasted for about ten minutes and it left no single doubt on Uche's mind that the woman was indeed an Igbo woman.

There is no justification for many of the sentimental and prejudicial views you hold about members of other ethnic groups. While only a few of your generalizations about other people's way of life is valid, most of your opinions are far from the truth. Anybody can like money, anybody can be greedy, anybody can be aggressive, anybody can be dirty and anybody can kill a man in bed. Stop labelling members of other ethnic groups prejudicially.