THE PIDGIN-LANGUAGE EXPERIMENT IN MODERN NIGERIAN POETRY: A STUDY OF EZENWA-OHAETO’S I WAN BI PRESIDENT

Abstract

This essay examines the resourcefulness of the Nigerian Pidgin (NP) as a communication vehicle in poetry, a domain hitherto dominated by Standard English. The study is motivated by the increasing use of the language in poetic expression in Nigeria, and the discovery that people who ordinarily were averse to poetry find interest in it when presented in Nigerian pidgin. Unlike earlier studies in NP poetry this study adopts the linguistic-stylistic approach in analyzing Ezenwa-Ohaeto’s “I Wan Bi President,†the longest poem in his experimental collection by that title. The study revealed that all stylistic dimensions possible with poetry in Standard English are equally possible with poetry in NP. It also revealed that NP is more accessible as language of poetic expression given its relatively more simplified grammatical structures. In addition the graphic, descriptive and comic facilities of the NP enable poets to elaborate serious themes in an equally entertaining style. The study observed that despite the lack of standard orthography, Nigerian Pidgin has continued to grow in use and acceptance. It thus projected that the trend would continue, and that through borrowing from and exploitation of the linguistic potentials of its donor languages, the vocabulary of NP would be expanded and its writing system may ultimately acquire a stable tradition.