The Origin of Pidgin English in Nigeria, By Emeke Nwaoboli
Pidgin English is defined as a simplified variation of the standard English language emanating from an environment where speakers of different languages have a need to communicate but do not share a common language.
According to Ethnologue (2009) in Ekpe (2010:65), Nigeria is the third largest English (Queen’s and Pidgin) speakers in the world after India and the United States of America. The entire English speaking population in Nigeria is estimated to be 79,000,000 while those that speak it (pidgin) as their first language is estimated to be 4,000,000.
The word “pidgin”, formerly spelt “pigion”, is derived from a Chinese Pidgin English pronunciation for “business”. It was used originally to describe Chinese Pidgin English but was later generalized to refer to any pidgin (Ekpe 2010:162).
The emergence of Pidgin English in Nigerian coastal area began with the arrival of Portuguese immigrants who traded pepper and slaves. They first arrived in Benin-City at the end of the 15th century.
Amoako, J. B (1992:22) citing Osae et al. (1973) observe that the growing demand for slaves in the 18th century drove traders further eastward to the lagoons of what is today, Lagos, and the creeks of “Rivers” at the mouth of the Niger. At this point, the Europeans could secure their vessels for the short period needed to load the slaves that the African traders kept ready for them.
Subsequently, in 1807, the British government made the slave trade illegal, and their navy patrolled trading ports to enforce the new law; however, trading of palm oil and a few other products remained crucial. These resulted to protestant missionaries from England and Sierra Leone coming to Nigeria’s trading ports in the 1840s and were welcomed as teachers of arithmetic and English (Tonkin 1971:144).
In 1842 and 1846, the first missionary stations were established in Badagary (near Lagos in the Southwest) and Calabar (in the South East) respectively. The missionaries were highly interested in spreading Christianity among African pagans through schools they established in the South since they were not allowed to settle in the North, which was predominant with Muslims.
In other to reach the population, the language of instruction was usually the mother tongue of the natives. Nevertheless, Africans refused to send their children to school because they needed them to work in the house and on farms. Consequently, the Missionaries paid compensation to parents (Ekpe, ibid).
The payment of parents by the colonial masters to allow their children attend the CMS Grammar School founded on June 6 1859 by the Church Missionary Society (CMS), thus motivated parents to allow their children, mainly slaves who they supposed were less important to them, attend the school. The British colonial government then thought it wise for Africans who were literate in English to serve British colonial interests by being teachers, interpreters and clerks for native courts and the trading companies.
In view of this, missionary’s stations were mounted in 1880s to teach English in missionary schools. That notwithstanding, in the end, the goal to raise educated Nigerians was not achieved, then the British government decided to establish state schools.
Ekpe (ibid) asserts that, “The first state school was in fact founded as a result of pressure from Muslims in Lagos in 1899 that had no access to missionary schools, and felt disadvantaged. Despite all these efforts, communication was indeed difficult between Nigerians and the colonial masters, thus a means of easy communication had to be devised”
The need for a simplified and unifying language of communication between the colonial masters, missionaries and illiterate Nigerians led to the development of Pidgin English in Nigeria.
Mafeni (1971:99) adds to this when he stated that inter-tribal and international marriages contributed to the emergence of Pidgin English. According to him, in many inter-tribal and international marriages, the husband and wife may not share unifying indigenous language and as a result would often opt for pidgin as their chief medium of communication.
Children raised in such homes naturally speak pidgin, sometimes, alongside Standard English or in their mother tongue of both either parents, or both parents as their L2 language.
Mafeni further explains that when several families live in the same compound and if they differ in linguistic background, Pidgin English serves as a convenient Lingua Franca and children use it at home even though their parents may not approve of it (ibid. 98).
It should however be noted that Nigerian Pidgin English varies from place to place and has several peculiar dichotomies. Obiechina (1984) identifies five varieties namely: Bendel which includes Abraka, Warri, Isoko, Sapele, Agbor, Itsekiri, Effurun, Agbaraha-oto, Urhobo and Ewu; Calabar which includes Cross-river, Akwa-Ibom and the Kalabari regions; Lagos which includes South West, Eastern part and South-Central: Kano/Maiduguri variant which include North-East, North-North, North-South and North-West and Port-Harcourt which include: Port-Harcourt and the regional suburbs.
Wikipedia (2014) reports that Nigerian pidgin English variety is, “…the native language of approximately 3 to 5 million people and is a second language for at least another 75 million”.
Emeke Nwaoboli, fondly called Prof. is a student journalist and final year mass-communication student from the National Open University of Nigeria, Benin-Study center. You can reach him on Facebook via Emeke Nwaoboli
References
Amoako, J.K.Y.B (1992). Ghanaian Pidgin English: in search of Diachronic, Synchronic, and Socio-linguistic evidence (Doctoral dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville
Ekpe, M.B.,(2010). The English Language in Nigeria. Lagos: National Open University of Nigeria
Tonkin, E. (1971). Some Coastal Pidgins of West Africa. In Ardener, E. (ed) Social Anthropology and language. London: Association of Social Anthropologist, monograph 10, 129-155.
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