West Africa: new languages Pidgin and creole emerged to serve trade, but what of their longer-term use and acceptance? By Simon Akam When I lived in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, my house had a collection of books on the shelves on one wall. There were copies of the Sierra Leonean government gazette, for my landlord had once run the national printing concern. There was also a Bible, but its title hung on the edge of intelligibility: Gud Yus f Clman. It was written in Sierra Leonean Krio—a creole, a kind of language formed when multiple tongues collide. Krio is not…
Simon Akam
by Simon Akam The showdown took place in the Youyi Building, a multi-storey hulk that houses many government organs in the Brookfields region of Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital. The acting minister of health and sanitation and I stood sparring in a corridor. I cannot remember all his comments, but phrases like “bad journalist” and “unprofessional” were among them. At one stage he threatened to call security. As he walked away he high-mindedly refused to tell me his name. This bizarre scene took place in late December 2012. I was coming to the end of a two-year stint as a freelance…
