Trade and colonisation brought pidgin to West Africa. Governments in the region should take a leaf out of the broadcaster’s book and ensure the different versions are codified and standardised in both their formal and informal uses. Pidgins deserve full recognition because they’re being spoken by a sizeable number of people in West Africa. The BBC’s decision to launch a service in Pidgin should be applauded. This is because in one English is the dominant European language while in the other French is dominant. For example, the version spoken in Nigeria is different from the version spoken in Senegal. Pidgin is used differently in different settings. The mixing has developed into lingua franca of the region. In West Africa these mixes include English and French, on the one hand, and local languages on the other. Pidgin refers to what’s known as a trade language that emerged as a mixture of languages to help people who don’t have a common one to communicate with one another. They are also taught in some tertiary institutions, used in music and other works of art and even speeches by public officials.
Today, variations of pidgins are used in all spheres of life ranging from political campaigns, television and radio broadcast. Between three and five million Nigerians use it as their first language, while a further 75 million have it as their second language.
According to the broadcaster it News Pidgin reaches a weekly audience of 7.5 million people in Nigeria and around the world on radio, online, Facebook and Instagram.Įven though Pidgin hasn’t got the official status of a recognised language anywhere, it’s widely spoken across West Africa. The BBC World Service’s radio service of English-based Pidgin for West and Central Africa, BBC News Pidgin, is now a year old.
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