A sound of Nigeria
Speaking of changing culture...Reuters did a profile of Yaw, a Nigerian radio personality who speaks Pidgin English in his show and wants to promote the dialect to his listeners.
In a country with over 400 languages overlaid with English as the official language, what would your students say about a new invented common language?
Get your copy of What You Need to Know
Labels: civil society, Nigeria, political culture
posted by Ken Wedding @ 3:58 PM
1 Comments:
Great clip - thanks Ken! I would add however, that Pidgin isn't really a "new" language, not at least in terms of Comparative Poltical issues. This form of Pidgin has been spoken since before colonial times, and is really a lingua franca for much of Nigerian and Cameroon. Like other languages, it is constantly evolving, and you can find books, movies, and other media in pidgin. In the 70's and 80's, Fela Kuti rose to immense popularity in Nigeria based partly on his amazing music, and partly on the fact that he sung about political issues in Pidgin. There are some great websites where you can get Fela lyrics in pidgin and in English - I'd be happy to share some that I use in class if you are interested!
Post a Comment
<< Home