By Kelechi Deca
Whenever you travel around Africa, especially West Africa, if you are very observant, not only with what you see with your eyes, but also with your hearing, you would appreciate certain nuances and layers of distinctions especially within the English speaking countries. Similar trends exist with the French speakers too.
I have heard lots of East and Southern Africans easily lump West Africans together as if there are no clear distinguishing characteristics amongst us. I think they do this based on their own levels of exposure to people from this region. Of all the things that we share, two stands out; jollof rice and Pidgin English, I have tasted all brands of jollof rice from Nigeria to Ghana, to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia, and Senegal. I can write a thesis on that. But today, I will focus on Pidgin English.
I will start from Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leonean Krio speaks like a song; it is similar in speed with the Warri version of Pidgin English. Lots of Nigerians would find it hard to understand even though most of the vocabularies are English variations. While both are English-based creoles, they have distinct features and influences.
The Salone Krio, spoken in Sierra Leone, is heavily influenced by British English Gullah, African American Vernacular English, Jamaican Creole, Akan, Igbo, and Yoruba. It also has elements of Portuguese. The Nigerian Pidgin is more influenced by English, Portuguese, and indigenous West African languages, mostly the Igbo, Yoruba, Efik, Ijaw, and Hausa. And like every language, it is fast evolving from one generation to another, and incorporating many other languages.
If you move eastwards from Sierra Leone towards the Liberian border, you would encounter the different and pacier Liberian Pidgin English also known as Krio. However, the Liberian Pidgin is a post-Creole continuum with elements of American English, unlike those of Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone that have elements of British English.
The Liberian Pidgin English evolved from the West African Pidgin but with heavy influences from African-American Vernacular English and Southern American English. I found that the Liberian Pidgin is quite distinct due to the characteristic known as Kolokwa, which is a continuum of varieties ranging from highly pidginized to English-like forms. Interestingly, Kolokwa is basically colloquial. It also has some French words, probably because of closeness to the Ivoirians.
When you move up to The Gambia, you would meet a different style which, however, is mutually intelligible to the Sierra Leonean Krio to a considerable degree. In The Gambia, it is known as Aku, and many of its words are derived from the local languages.
Ghana has a different type of Pidgin. Interestingly, Ghana is the only English speaking West African country where its variant of Pidgin English could not make the mark as a Creole because of the classicism attached to it which confined the speakers to certain social class and also certain geographical space.
This is unlike in places like Sierra Leone where their Pidgin English is widely used from the Presidential office down to the woman selling on Siaka Stevens Street. Or in Nigeria where billionaire entrepreneurs or entertainers freely converse in Pidgin English as if it is their vernacular.
Infact, the use of Pidgin English in Nigeria has evolved so fast in the last decade such that it broke the class barrier and made those who couldn’t speak it make efforts to learn how to do so. This becomes even more noticeable as it has become the vehicle of Nigeria’s emerging soft power influence globally.
This development in my opinion was influenced by the existence of other non English lingua franca in Ghana such as Twi which about 80% of Ghanaians speak either as a first or second language. Twi, a dialect of the Akan language, is spoken in central and southern Ghana. Though only about 45% of Ghanaians are native Twi speakers, the language is widely adopted as a second language across the country. This I presume made it harder for the Pidgin English to gain the penetration recorded in other West African countries.
Ghanaian Pidgin English also has this distinct characterization by its “ju” form for the second person plural pronoun, which is quite different from the widespread use of “una” by Nigerians, Sierra Leoneans, Liberians and even Gambians. “Una” which was originally derived from the Igbo word “unu” for the second person plural pronoun interestingly got assimilated into the Jamaican Patois with the same meaning.
Language is more than the vehicle that drives culture. It translates life itself.
Kelechi Deca, a development journalist and strategic communications professional writes from Lagos
