Composing in Nigerian Pidgin: Towards the Realization of a Common Nigerian Indigenous Musical Language

Abstract

Language is defined as “the system of sounds and words used by humans to express their thoughts and feelings.” Nigeria is a country of many ethnic groups with different divergent languages. Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba are Nigeria‟s three major languages. Having been colonized by the British Government, Nigeria inherited English language as her official language which is foreign to Nigerians. As a result, some eminent contemporary Nigeria grammarians, novelist and poets like Ezenwa Ohaeto (of blessed memory) have made several efforts towards the actualization of a central/common language (Nigerian Pidgin) in Nigeria through associating their works with Nigerian imaginative activity and presenting them in Nigerian Pidgin. Recently, Alvan-Ikoku Nwamara, a Nigerian contemporary music composer has followed suit with the innovation but this time, in art music compositions as he tries to incorporate Nigerian pidgin in some of his compositions. This paper x-rays some of the efforts made so far towards this actualization and tries to suggest ways forward.