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The Blackness of “Broken English”
Author(s) -
Gaudio Rudolf P.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/j.1548-1395.2011.01108.x
Subject(s) - pidgin , nigerians , creole language , lyrics , appropriation , hausa , gender studies , musical , yoruba , racialization , diaspora , politics , ethnic group , sociology , history , ethnology , anthropology , art , race (biology) , political science , visual arts , literature , linguistics , philosophy , law
Inspired by Jane Hill's analyses of the racial and national implications of Mock Spanish and other forms of linguistic appropriation, this paper analyzes the use and nonuse of Nigerian Pidgin (NP) by Nigerian popular singers. Their performances combine elements of coastal west African musical styles with hip hop and/or reggae, and their lyrics variably juxtapose NP and various Nigerian languages with African American English and occasionally Jamaican Creole. By aligning Nigerians' cultural and political experiences with those of African Americans and Jamaicans—whose languages have also been stigmatized as “broken English”—these artists engage a Black Atlantic cultural tradition while simultaneously indexing a distinctly Nigerian public within that imagined transnational space. The formation of this public is complicated, however, by (among other things) the fact that Hausa‐speaking Muslims from northern Nigeria are less likely than other Nigerians to use and affiliate with NP. [Nigeria, creole, nation, music, race]