Yoruba: Obinrin bi Okunrin, "Female-male"
The existing flag has 5 tracks: The first brown belt represents Africanity; the second represents the people; the orange band represents the male spectrum; the rose represents the female spectrum; the red flag represents the two spectra together, making reference to people who leave the female gender binary in African culture. Remember that not necessarily in color in the West has the same meaning as in non-Western societies.
The term "obinrin bi okunrin" Singnifca literally "man-woman", which can be literally translated as "woman-male" to English. The second expression may not sound so good in English, however its use in Africa is different.
Among the Yoruba, a person from the exceptional female spectrum who made significant contributions to educational, socioeconomic and/ or spiritual of your family and community is called man-woman or obinrin bi okunrin.
As in Senegal among the Lebu, for example, a person on the male spectrum can be called the Mother of the Country. Most cultures do not recognize men and women as more important roles than each other, but rather as two opposite spectra. that has to be in balance, as for example the Mawu-Lissa deity in the vodun tradition. No energy is greater than the other.
The term that gives this name its name can vary according to the language, but bigenero people with mainly feminine and masculine alignment exist in several cultures, many even with the same name translated into their languages. Identities refer to what roles each person has in a society.
The gender binary itself in Africa can be quite diverse and plural. The Somali tribes for example recognize two categories of men. The Waraleh ("warrior") and the Waddado ("shamans").
For gay or bi men and women there are also different types of identities. Anthropologist Gill Sepherd noted that in the Swahili language (spoken in East Africa eg Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) there were male and female gender variations known as Shoga, Basha, Hanithi, Msagaji, Msango, similar to the terms of the Gay and MOGAI subculture.
"Obinrin bi Okunrin" can be defined as one of these various identities in greater space within the spectrum female, but also male because most of them were used to define the warrior group of the female spectrum, people who were born women but played male roles also identified themselves as such, for example Nzinga Mbandi Ngola de Matamba / Dongo is referred to by many Africans as " "male-female”. People "Obinrin bi Okunrin" were differentiated from other women and men, just like Oya and Obá who play different roles than Yoruban women and men in they often end up being referred to only as "Obirin bi Okunrin". Basically, this identity has been adhered to by several black people who seek to deny Western identities, mainly religious of LGBT African origin. For example, there are those who explain their identity as bigenero in Western language, but identify themselves as Obinrin bi Okunrin, there are non-binary women who identify themselves as such, and there are people who only define themselves as Obinrin bi Okunrin. But it is only up to the person to define which labels fit him. Addendum: Most of the time this identity is used in an Afab person, but it does not mean Amab people cannot identify with it. One way of abbreviating "Obinrin Bi Okunrin" is to use "Obo", but that term in Yoruba means "Vagina", many people use the abbreviation, but some are uncomfortable stating that it can be confused with genitalism. This identity is used in temples of African tradition in the Diaspora. Exclusive for black people from all over the world. We are all valid <3 Sorry for the mistakes, I used a translator :))))
