West African Pidgin English

West African Pidgin English, sometimes called Guinea Coast Creole English, blends English vocabulary with words from local African languages. It first developed as a trading language between British merchants and African slave traders during the transatlantic slave trade. By 2017, roughly 75 million people across Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea were using it.

The language is mostly spoken, so it lacks a single standard written form, and many regional versions have emerged. These include Sierra Leone Krio, Nigerian Pidgin, Ghanaian Pidgin English, Cameroonian Pidgin English, Liberian Kolokwa English, the Aku dialect of Krio, and Pichinglis.

**History**

West African Pidgin English came into being during the transatlantic slave trade as a way for British and African slave traders to do business. Portuguese traders were the first Europeans to reach West Africa in the 1400s, and the pidgin still contains many Portuguese-derived words, like *sabi* (meaning 'to know'), from the Portuguese *saber*. When British merchants later arrived for the slave trade, they worked with local African traders to develop this language for their commercial exchanges.

Because it was useful for trade among different African groups, the language quickly spread inland along river systems. Later, it became a native language for new communities of Africans and mixed-race people living in coastal slave trading bases like James Island, Bunce Island, Elmina Castle, Cape Coast Castle, and Anomabu. At that point, it turned into a creole language.

Some scholars call it "West African Pidgin English" to highlight its role as a trading lingua franca. Others prefer "Guinea Coast Creole English" to stress its status as a native creole spoken by people permanently based around the coastal slave castles and trading centers. Early European travelers and slave traders recorded many descriptions of this influential language, referring to it as "Coast English" or "Coast Jargon."

A British slave trader in Sierra Leone named John Matthews wrote about pidgin English in a letter later published in *A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone on the Coast of Africa*. He called it a "jargon" and warned Europeans coming to Africa that they would misunderstand the locals unless they recognized the big differences between English and the coastal pidgin. He wrote: "Those who visit Africa in a cursory manner ... are very liable to be mistaken in the meaning of the natives from want of knowledge in their language, or in the jargon of such of them as reside upon the sea-coast and speak a little English; the European affixing the same ideas to the words spoken by the African, as if they were pronounced by one of his own nation. [This] is a specimen of the conversation which generally passes." Matthews then gave an example:

"Well, my friend, you got trade today; you got plenty of slaves?" "No, we no got trade yet; by and by trade come. You can’t go." "What you go for catch people, you go for make war?" "Yes, my brother … gone for catch people; or they gone for make war."

**Modern Africa**

Even after Western nations ended the slave trade and Africa was decolonized, West African Pidgin English stayed in use across the region. Many distinct local versions developed. During colonial times, it was looked down on as a corruption of proper English—a stigma that some still hold—but it remains widely spoken. In 2016, about five million people in Nigeria used Pidgin as their main everyday language.

As of 2017, around 75 million people in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ghana, and Equatorial Guinea spoke it. During the rise of African nationalism, it became a "language of resistance and anti-colonialism," and political activists still use it to criticize post-colonial leaders.

Over the last hundred years, the number of English-based creole speakers in West African countries—both as a first and second language—has grown greatly, now exceeding one hundred million.

Because it is primarily spoken, there is no standard written form, and many local varieties exist. In August 2017, the BBC launched a Pidgin news service for audiences in West and Central Africa as part of its World Service. As part of that effort, the BBC created a guide for a standardized written form of pidgin.