WATCH: David Oyelowo ‘murders’ Yoruba language

David Oyelowo, Hollywood star, may be every bit Yoruba but he has a hard time speaking the language.

While promoting his new movie ‘Gringo’, the actor sat down with co-star Charlize Theron to teach each other slang words from the Afrikaans and Yoruba languages.

Here’s how they fared in the Vanity Fair skit.

Let @CharlizeAfrica and David Oyelowo teach you some Afrikaans and Yoruba Slang 101 pic.twitter.com/77DfTQQZ6b

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— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 8, 2018

Of course, Nigerians were bound to let him know that his effort was suspect.

According to Molara Wood, the ‘Selma’ star “murdered” the translations while Wale Gates, a UK-based comedian, said he failed to do justice to his interpretations of the Yoruba proverbs.

Anne Verona, another commenter, criticised the actor for being unable to “pronounce his surname”.

These are some of their comments.

Love where David Oyelowo is taking Yoruba, but he murdered some of those translations.
‘Adie funfun ko mo ara re l’agba’ = Big for nothing (for someone not acting their age/not respecting themselves).
*non-literal

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— Molara Wood (@molarawood) March 10, 2018

Omashe o! David OO YEEE LOO WO cant pronounce his surname!? Its pronounced YOO RU BAA! What is this rubbish! You are a Nigerian man!! See this soggy jollof mess! @Oloni

— Miss Anne Verona (@missanneverona) March 9, 2018

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David’s Yoruba is awful, but he tried though, mine isn’t a lot better.Those were really wise Yoruba proverbs too.

— ‘Femi Oyesile (@Femi_oyesile) March 10, 2018

Sorry but David murdered the interpretations of those Yoruba proverbs.
“Adiye funfun….” – Respect your age or know you’re older and act accordingly
“Ile oba to jo…” – it’s a remark of consolation, like don’t worry something good will come out of this bad situation.

— Wale Gates 🇳🇬🇬🇧 (@walegates) March 9, 2018