"Bros, how far"

yinka ogunlami

October 4, 2016 9:28 AM

"Bros, how far"

I don’t think there is anyone who does not hear greetings like this, on a daily basis, in our beloved Country, Nigeria.

“ No wahala” which means no problem, no worries is also a part of the daily vocabulary in our society.

The status of the English language in our society can be connected to the effects of colonialism. We do understand that the English language comfortably became the unifying language in our multilingual context.

I mean, if we, as a people didn’t understand the English language, how will we communicate, bearing in mind the fact that Nigeria has 505 different languages? The English language is the language of use in communication, administration, education, media and politics. However, as evident in other similar contexts, when there is a dominant language in a multi lingual setting, another language might be created. A hybrid, if you may.

The pidgin language appears to be a language that enjoys more usage than our indigenous languages today. In the market place, in clubs, schools, work place, businesses. It has come to be an accepted lingua within our clime.

Pidgin has found its place in entertainment. Take comedians for instance, AY, I go Dye, Klint da Drunk, Ali Baba, Gordons… (I could go on), do business in the Pidgin language.

Music nko ? “ Ojuelegba ooo my people dey there”, “I don get alert, na God win “, and the famous “dorobucci”.

Nollywood, is not left out. There are a number of movies that utilize the Pidgin language for communication.

Therefore, we see that the pidgin language is at home in our society. A while back, I had a conversation with a group of Nigerians, who are university students in the UK. We conversed in the Pidgin language!

What I found interesting about some of them is that they do not speak their mother tongue, but are quite comfortable with the pidgin language. Most of these “monolingual” people, confirmed that they learned the Pidgin language in the UK! I was curious to know why, and the majority said it gives them “ a sense of belonging “, an identity (which by the way is what the indigenous languages do!).

Nigeria is not the only country who that speaks the Pidgin English language but there are certain peculiarities in each country. In 2015,for instance it was listed as an official language in Hawaii.

Wikipedia asserts that the Nigerian Pidgin has no status as an official language and is mostly used in informal contexts. Na wa o! wetin dey happen nah? I for tink say de way dis language be, e for don rish to hammer o. Make una wey dey govment helep we o!

yinka ogunlami