"It's an evolving language," she said, "a language that has a life of its own."Īnd it's the language that Entwistle chose to speak, he says, because "if you want people to understand the United States and where we're coming from, you have to go where they live linguistically speaking. It's a very beautiful language," David said.ĭavid says pidgin is inventive, humorous, clever and curious - a rich language that eschews class and creed and is spoken by everyone in Nigeria, with regional variations. "When we're talking about reaching everyone, pidgin English is a language just like our culture a language like the beautiful clothing that we wear, very colorful, very expressive. She's a self-confessed aficionado of pidgin and says, though it may not be the language of diplomacy, it reaches people at the grassroots level.
Omotunde "Lolo" David, the host, was delighted to converse in pidgin with the American diplomat live on the air. "And I'm like, 'OK, it's worth giving a shot,'" he said. ambassador! Does he speak pidgin in the first place?'" Adaba said.Īdaba was told the ambassador was practicing, trying to pick up things from here and there. "I'm like, 'Wait a minute, Wazobia? I mean, we're talking about the U.S. Lolo David, radio host who interviewed the U.S.
That's quite a plus for the American Embassy. He sold himself into the hearts of many Nigerians. He was asked about Nigeria's controversial new anti-gay legislation and whether the U.S. The patois cuts across Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation, which is home to hundreds of local languages, making it easier for millions of Nigerians from different parts of the country to communicate.Įntwistle was recently interviewed by Nigeria's Wazobia FM, the first radio station in Nigeria to broadcast in pidgin English. Pidgin, or broken English, is the popular lingua franca spoken throughout West Africa. It's more for the language in which he chose to express himself: pidgin English. The praise is not so much for the content of the interview or the pressing issues the ambassador discusses. Entwistle, is causing a buzz – and winning applause. It's not often that a broadcast interview by a diplomat wows listeners, but a recent conversation involving the American ambassador to Nigeria, James F. ambassador to Nigeria, speaks pidgin English during an interview with Wazobia FM in Nigeria.
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