WEST AFRICA REVIEW ISSN: 1525-4488

Ayo Kehinde

Abstract

In a situation where two or more languages and cultures are in contact, there is bound to be linguistic and cultural interference. This is the situation with African literature of English expression where important socio-cultural habits and traits are expressed in a foreign language. Based primarily on the examples from Femi Fatoba’s My “Older” Father and Other Stories (1997), this essay attempts to examine how postcolonial writers have appropriated and reconstituted the English language in their texts through some linguistic processes which include loan words, loan coinages, loan blends, pidginization, code switching and the like. Fatoba strives to find a solution to the problem of bilingualism/biculturalism in his text by relying heavily on the domestication of the imported tongue. The essay observes that although Fatoba has deviated from the international literary norms (linguistically), in the text, he has not falsified the tradition he has transformed into the English language. Rather, he has been able to bridge the gap between the local color variety and the appropriate English language diction suitable to the characters and themes he depicts. The essay also contends that linguistic innovations in Fatoba’s stories offer an outlet for creativity in language and put a new life into the imported language. The paper is concluded by suggesting that in this age of globalization, African writers cannot afford to deny their works of wide readership; therefore, they should consider the appropriation and reconstitution of English as a medium of African literature.

The place of English in the socio-political and economic activities of Nigeria has been widely discussed (Ayo Bamgbose, 1995:219; Ako Essien, 2000:183; Herbert Igboanusi, 2000: 219-230; Jacob Mey, 2000:114; Dennis Walder, 1998:42, etc). Also, the status of the language as the dominant medium of African literature has been critically commented upon. Following the seminal essay of Obi Wali where he predicts a dead end for African literature written in English, African literary critics and writers have been arguing for and against the use of the imported language as the prevailing medium of African literature (1963:13-15). In a situation whereby two languages and two cultures are in contact, there will certainly be linguistic/cultural interference. Such is the case of African literature of English expression where important cultural habits and geo-political phenomena (greetings, abuses, curses, foods, dresses, fauna and florae) are expressed and typified in a non-native tongue (English). Since English is a “global language, the first of its kind”, it has been modified and domesticated by writers across the globe (Walder, 1998:44). Femi Fatoba is one of such postcolonial writers who have been domesticating the English language in their literary texts. Actually, the forte of his literary works is his indigenization of the English language. This paper seeks an assessment of linguistic innovations in Fatoba’s collection of short stories, My “Older” Father and Other Stories (1997). As a result of the general renewed interest in the issue of linguistic medium in postcolonial literatures and New Englishes, this paper is an attempt to partake of the widespread scholarly interest in the language of postcolonial literature.

Of the 4000 to 5000 living languages, English is by far the most widely used. As a mother tongue, it ranks second to Chinese. It is also important to state that about three hundred million speakers of English are to be found in every continent of the world. Again, over two hundred and fifty million people use the language as a second language, and one-sixth of the world’s population use it to make and announce decisions affecting life and welfare (Broughton, et al, 1980: 3). Therefore, barriers of race, color and creed do not hinder the spread of the use of English.

Actually, English can no longer be claimed as a sole property of a group of people. Native speakers of the language can no longer make strong proprietary claims to it. They now share the famous language with most other peoples of the world. The popularity of the language in Africa can, in part, be traced to the fact that due to colonial imposition, it was the language of social mobility in the new order, and therefore the language most studied and used formally. In the unequal encounter, most African languages were neglected in terms of formal study and use, so that displacement replaced what should have been mutual translation between English and African languages. This is why the invention and development in African languages of concepts and terms in modern sciences and technology are at such a low level. English is, therefore, often the mostly used linguistic tool for intra/inter societal communication in the African continent. In Nigeria, for instance, where there are many languages, English is more than simply a means of communicating ideas and information; it also serves a very important means of establishing and maintaining unifying relationship with other people of diverse cultures and mother tongues. Actually, English has a centrifugal force in Nigerian societies.

Literature depends primarily on language; it is language put in action, that is, language put into practice. The African writer’s efforts in translating his/her multilingual /multicultural postcolonial experiences into literary works is always fraught with problems. Therefore, s/he is often faced with the dilemma of negotiating between English and english – that is, the English language at home (in its ancestral place) is in tussle with the english in Diasporas. This quandary has motivated a few African writers to advocate a linguistic decolonization of African literature. For instance, Ngugi advocates the need to decolonize African cultures, including the return to writing in vernacular languages (2002:11). In his words: “I believe now more than ever that Africa must use its languages and peoples as a strength with which it can leap into tomorrow. African scholars and writers must lead the way as we enter the twenty-first century.” Osundare also reacts insistently against the continuity of writing African literatures in foreign languages (1995:340). To him, such practice is a practical example of “Caliban gamble.” This is because, to him, no foreign language can adequately express native experiences and problems.

Therefore, two major opposing camps can be isolated in African writers’ views on the desirability or otherwise of English as the literary language of the continent. The first camp advocates the abrogation of the use of the language as the prime medium of African literature. Wali is one of the proponents of this school; Ngugi and Osundare are also key members of this exclusivist class. On the other hand, the second group calls for the appropriation and reconstitution of English as a medium of African literature. With this, the group believes that the rigid hegemony of the language can be unmasked. According to Rao (1938), this method is an attempt to “convey in a language that is not one’s own the spirit that is one’s own” (quoted from Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 1989: 39).

Consequently, the postcolonial African writer expresses his thoughts through an Africanized version of the almighty English language. In the words of Ashcroft, Griffith and Tiffin (1989:8): “The language of the “peripheries” was shaped by an oppressive discourse of power. Yet they have been the site of some of the most exciting and innovative literatures of the modern period.” Actually, English is being made to “bear the burden” of the postcolonial writer’s experience (Achebe1975: 62). The African writers, for instance, always strive to free themselves from the standard rules of the imported language by using a unique form of the language whose standard version is being interrogated and subverted to be able to express their sense of otherness. Since the imported language is naturally incapable of expressing the experience of writers in postcolonial African societies, the writers always appropriate the language. With this, English is able to tolerate the individual cultural relativism of the alien societies. Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin comment that postcolonial literature is “always written out of the tension between the abrogation of the received English which speaks from the center, and the act of appropriation which brings it under the influence of a vernacular tongue” (1989:39). We have seen what the postcolonial writers are doing with English. They have been bending it to serve their particular thematic and ideological preoccupations. In fact, readers of postcolonial literature are always bewildered by the way and manner the writers adapt the English language to their own vernaculars and peculiar experiences. The postcolonial writer is always “fashioning out an English which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience” (Achebe, 1975:61).

Fatoba is not a new name in the African literary scene. What is however new about him is that he is a new arrival in the sub-genre of African short fiction. He is perhaps better known as a poet and a playwright. Actually, Fatoba is one of the African writers who are trying to domesticate the sub-genre of short fiction in their use of English and recourse to the resources of oral traditions. Although he has a flawless command of English, he still tries to transplant his own autochthonous culture into another living culture. Fatoba is undoubtedly one of the few African writers who have found a solution to the problem of bilingualism /biculturalism in their cross–cultural texts. In the corpus of the criticism of recent African short fiction, not much yet has been done on domestication of language, but there is a surfeit of research endeavors on the sociological import of the works. This paper attempts to explore the stylistic sensitivity and pragmatism of Fatoba’s My “Older” Father and Other Stories. It also dwells on how the budding postcolonial short-fiction writer relies much on the linguistic traditions of his indigenous community. Our choice of the text is informed by its relevance to the topic under investigation .To a very great extent, it provides a good illustration of the processes of linguistic innovations in postcolonial texts.

Fatoba, in his collection of short stories, makes use of Nigerian English through some linguistic processes which include loan words, neologisms, loan blends, translation equivalents, semantic extension, code switching, lexical deviations, pidginization, syntactic fusion, untranslated words, etc. As we shall soon prove, Fatoba, in the stories, employs a new English, which is “still in full communion with its home base but altered to suit its new African surroundings” (Achebe1965: 30). Apart from the linguistic deviations noticeable in the short stories, the reader is also confronted with a bewildering amalgam of African oral traditions that include proverbs, songs, traditional raconteurs, witty sayings, humor, dramatic immediacy, discursive precision, biting social satire, etc. The next segments of this paper are devoted to the isolation and exemplification of a few instances of linguistic innovations in Fatoba’s My Older Father and Other Stories.

To express certain cultural experiences and differences, Fatoba, in the stories, makes use of some loan words, that is, some Yoruba words remain untranslated. However, unlike some other postcolonial writers, Fatoba’s untranslated words are devoid of editorial intrusions. He does not provide English equivalents for the Yoruba words; he does not cushion the effects of the semantic frustration that some non-Yoruba readers might experience. Therefore, instead of providing footnotes, glossary, explanatory preface, etc, where the loan words can be translated into English, Fatoba advertently allows the words to stay untranslated. The postcolonial writer may have used this strategy in order to advertise the richness of the lexical repertoire of his first indigenous language (Yoruba, one of the three major local languages in Nigeria). Again, he seems to have used the untranslated words to reveal his own African culture and thereby silence the Western culture where the English language originates. A few examples of the use of untranslated words in the short stories will suffice at this juncture.

1) “Disaster has no respect for the fact that Owolade’s father was a brother of Oba of Podo” (p 1). The italicized word Oba is a Yoruba term for the traditional ruler of a town. The nearest English equivalent of it is “king”. However, Fatoba maintains a selective lexical fidelity to the Yoruba word in order to convey a sense of cultural distinctiveness. This strategy perhaps underscores the importance of discourse in interpreting cultural concepts. To signify the cultural differences between European and African cultures, most especially in their individual conceptualizations of communal headship, Fatoba does not see “king” as a perfect equivalent of “Oba”.

2) “It is nothing to drink gari three times a day.”(P7). The word “gari” in the Yoruba language refers to a carbohydrate food got from cassava tubers. Since the food does not exist in the culture where English is used as a first language, the postcolonial writer has a burden to either translate the word literally to English or employ it as it is used in his mother tongue, that is, as a loan rendition. Fatoba in his story prefers the latter strategy.

3) “So I did intervene and got my dansiki drenched on the shoulder” (p26). Two cultures are not always totally alike in their individual dressing habits. Such is the case with the African and European cultures. “Dansiki” in Yoruba culture is a traditional upper sleeveless dress usually worn when it is hot. Since this kind of wear is peculiar to African communities, Fatoba does not get a perfect English equivalent for it. He therefore decides to “advertise” the Yoruba word to those who care to read his story.

4) “I carried a goat from Lagbaja’s background

And he cursed by Sango and Oya

But Lagbaja’s wife took home some free meat;

How people enjoy their own curses in okro soup.

At Itunun-awe I carried some horns from

Lemamu’s backdoor” (p13).

The above excerpt from the story titled “Fulani” is replete with untranslated words. The italicized words are Yoruba lexical items. “Lagbaja”, in Yoruba, is a term used to refer to “somebody”. To foreground its often-derogatory implication in Yoruba usage, Fatoba decides to leave it untranslated. Also, Sango is the Yoruba god of lightning and thunder, while Oya is the goddess of River Niger. Since the use of English by African writers is an instance of culture contact (conflict), the language cannot adequately express African religions and their deities, Fatoba therefore attempts to solve this linguistic burden by maintaining a selective fidelity to his mother tongue. Again, Itunun–awe and Ileya are two Yoruba words used to denote two major Muslim festivals - Id -El Fitri and Id- El Kabbri respectively. Actually, in Fatoba’s collection of short stories, untranslated words are used to force “the reader into an active engagement with the horizons of the culture in which these terms have meaning” (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin, 1989:65).

Often, African postcolonial writers do not strive for competence in the dominant tongue of their literary creation (English). What they often attempt is appropriation of the language. Therefore, postcolonial African literature is marked by the fusion of the linguistic and semantic features of the two languages in contact (English and the writer’s mother tongue). In Fatoba’s short stories, the reader encounters instances of interlanguage, including vernacular transcription, code switching, transliteration and the like. In order “to express the African experience in a language that was originally evolved to embody a different kind of experience and to convey a different kind of sensibility”(Obiechina, 1990:53), Fatoba, in his short stories, resorts to rendering the words, feelings, idiosyncrasies and behavior of his characters in a form of English that contains a lot of first-language interference. In order to present the original flavor, rhythms, cadences and idiomatic/proverbial authenticity of their sentences and words, African postcolonial writers often resort to transliteration rather than translation (Osundare, 1995:345). Since African literature written in English is a linguistically deviated discourse, there are lots of the rhetorical properties and mannerisms of Yoruba speech in some of the stories. Actually, the stories are saturated with the gnomic wisdom characteristic of age in African societies. The following examples should be sufficient as illustrations of Fatoba’s interlingual strategies in his My “Older” Father and Other Stories.”

1) Whoever bore a stupid child burnt her uterus in fire” (8). This is a literal translation of a Yoruba proverb that goes thus: “Eni to bi dindinrin ni omo fi abe jona”. Since it is always difficult to express African wise sayings, like the above in another language without serious alterations to their semantic implications, Fatoba has to consider rendering the epigram in a transliterated form. With this, he has been able to give his stories linguistic verisimilitude; there is harmony among his settings, characters, language and experiences.

2) “No king can chase fish out of water” (8). This is a Yoruba wise saying, which goes thus: “Ko si oba to maa le eja lomi.” To compare the omnipotent power of God almighty with the infinitesimal power of earthly rulers, Fatoba gives a transliteration of the Yoruba expression. Every human society reveres its rulers, but each society also has its conventions guiding the limitation of the rulers. This is partly what Fatoba is expressing in the statement.

3) “The fire of mistake does not burn one twice” (10). In this statement, the writer has given a direct translation of a Yoruba witty saying: “Ina eesi kii joni leemeji.” It is an expression used to admonish people not to misbehave regularly. To let the warning have the desired effect, the postcolonial writer maintains a fidelity to the syntactic and semantic structures of his mother tongue (Yoruba).

4). “So, at first, when I saw them, I ran. But it was my fathers at a dawn meeting” (50). In Fatoba’s stories, kinship terminologies undergo a kind of cultural and linguistic recontextualization. Thus, in the stories, the reader comes across such instances of lexico-semantic extensions like “my fathers”. In African societies, one’s father is not necessarily one’s biological male parent. Rather, one’s uncles, father’s friends, kind bosses, acquaintances, etc are one’s fathers. Likewise, one’s mother is not limited to one’s biological mother; one’s aunts, mother’s friends, female elderly acquaintances and the like are also regarded as one’s mothers in Yoruba land. This is partly informed by the practice of extended family system in most African communities. In African culture, the family is much larger than the father-plus-mother-plus-children phenomenon that exists in the Western nuclear family system. The narrator in the title story, “My Older Father”, gives a traditional reason for extending the meaning of the word “father”: “Since I knew uncle, I knew him as ‘older father’. Being the eldest man in the homestead that was his rightful and traditional title” (54). A newcomer to the literary language of Africa may find the ideas of “my fathers and my mothers” highly quaint, but to an African writer expressing his worldview in English, there is nothing disgraceful about the culturally- laden kinship terminologies. Also, in the stories, one comes across such instances of lexical extension like “brothers” for cousins and peer church -members, “sisters” for aunts and cousins, etc. The use of semantic extension in postcolonial writings is a way of overturning the Eurocentric assumptions of cultural and racial inferiority imposed by the colonizer and previously accepted ignorantly by the colonized (Walder, 1998).

5). “My uncle is …just ‘not well’, as my father says. I have a rough idea of the nature and degree of his “not-well-ness”(46). This sentence is a direct translation of a Yoruba euphemistic expression. In most African societies, mental diseases are always expressed with tact. Therefore, the father of the narrator in the story, “My Older Father”, decides to say that his brother is not well rather than saying that he is mad. Filial affection forbids a direct reference to mental illness among family members. Apart from using the word “well” as an adjective, Fatoba also uses it as a noun in the story, “well-ness”. This is Fatoba’s neologism meant to subtly and tactically express the mental condition of the narrator’s uncle

6). “A market week from her marriage, Fulani’s woman …went to the market” (17). In measuring time movement in pre-literate Africa, a single sun, a single moon, cock crow, reigns of important kings, memorable events, phenomenal disasters, market days, traditional festivals, etc were used as time makers and time keepers. Thus, in the above statement, “market week” is used as time signifier. Similarly, in the story, the reader comes across many other statements where time is measured by some of the above listed phenomena; for instance, “I was going to urinate after the second cock-crow” (50). Here, “cock- crow” is used to typify the daybreak. Before the ideas of time piece (clock) and calendar came to Africa, the people had got their methods of time measuring and moment keeping; this is what Fatoba is trying to reveal to his readers in this story. He has performed the expected role of African artists advocated by Achebe (1965:23), which is, the postcolonial writers should be teachers of their cultures. To Achebe, they should try to teach their foreign readers that Africa was not a cultural desert before the arrival of the colonialists. Therefore, in his stories, Fatoba has been able to verbalize the African time-keeping system in English.

7). “I remember the way he put it: ‘there is no death in my eyes’”. The italicized expression is a literal translation of a Yoruba statement, which goes thus: “Ko si iku ni oju mi”. The standard English version of it may be “I am not going to die soon”. Fatoba, in the story, has maintained a fidelity to the syntactic and lexico-semantic features of his mother tongue to assert his bilingual/bicultural status. In fact, the strong point of Fatoba’s short fiction is his ability to delineate his characters linguistically. He is able to maintain linguistic verisimilitude by depicting the level of education, sex, age, ideology and social status of each of his characters through the type of language he or she speaks

8). Another area of experiential cum cultural dichotomy between Africa and the West that is linguistically foregrounded in Fatoba’s story is that of marriage institution. While Africans are traditionally polygamous, Europeans are monogamous. Therefore, it is not a surprise to a person conversant with African culture to come across such terms like “the most senior wife” (53), “the junior wife” (54), etc in Fatoba’s stories. Since language is a practice, that is a human behavior, the short-fiction writer therefore depicts the complexities of speeches in Yoruba societies in his stories. He captures linguistically an aspect of Nigerian socio-cultural environment and indigenous languages. This is also an attempt to indigenize the use of English in Nigeria.

9). A further linguistic innovation in Fatoba’s stories is code mixing or loan blend, which involves the combination of items from Yoruba and English to form new meanings. The English items often function as a guide for the reader to understand the meaning of the Yoruba items. The following example provides an illustration of Fatoba’s dexterity in doing things with English through code mixing, that is bending the second language to serve his ideological /postcolonial purpose: “Guarding his money, he usually grumbled aloud: Awon omo ale. Awon oloriburuku omo ale. Won ti humbug i>owo olowo” (54). In this excerpt, there is an admixture of English and Yoruba words. The sentence commences with English and later switches to Yoruba (Awon omo ale- the bastards; awon oloriburuku omo ale- the unlucky bastards; won ti humbug owo olowo – they have humbugged (sic) another person’s money).

10). The English language is also pidginized in Fatoba’s stories. This confirms Bamgbose’s assertion that among the modifications that English has undergone in Nigerian environment is pidginization (1995:219). In Fatoba’s variety of pidgin, there is a simplified mixture of the two languages in contact (Yoruba and English). Therefore, he has refused to correctly use the language of the colonial master. The story titled “The Larger than Life Woman” evinces the mastery of pidgin by Fatoba’s characters: “Where you wan siddon? Which kin siddon be dat? You no be proper kekere. Proper kekere no dey siddon…You no get money for buy? If you no get money for buy, why you no beg dem make dem give you? Teef!” (59). The above excerpt is an apt illustration of postcolonial writers’ attempt to pidginize the English language. A close scrutiny of the statements reveals that African Pidgin English is a blend of the first language (mother tongue) and the second language (English). The kind of pidgin in this story is replete with the phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic features of the Yoruba language.

To a great extent, English, in Fatoba’s stories, has been vigorously and creatively indiginized. Although the language is being used as the central medium of African literature with a view to having a wider readership, it is not out of love but out of necessity. In the main, the language is just a convenient solution for the extreme multilingualism in many African milieus. This claim is supported by Obiechina (1975:155):

The introduction of the novel into a region in which an oral tradition is still integral to the functioning culture and exists side by side with a growing literate tradition means that the language of the novel may be modified by the language of the oral tradition.

The foregoing discussion has isolated a few of the linguistic features that reveal the essence of Fatoba’s short fiction. The paper has also illuminated the linguistic strategies employed by an African writer (Fatoba) to transplant the African culture into the imported (European) culture. Although, linguistically, Fatoba has deviated from the international literary norms, he has not falsified the tradition he has transferred into the English language. He has been able to bridge the gap between the local color and the appropriate English language diction suitable to the characters he depicts and his international audience with appropriate domesticating strategies (Ajeigbe, 1986: 111). The innovative use of the English language in postcolonial African literature is not peculiar to Fatoba; rather we still come across such instances of local color varieties in the works of many other African writers like Achebe, Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Ben Okri, Ngugi, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Kole Omotoso, Amos Tutuola and the like.

This paper has also proved that linguistic innovations in postcolonial African literature offer an outlet for creativity in language and put a new life into the imported language (English). Although non-Yoruba readers of Fatoba’s stories may find certain expressions difficult to comprehend, with little imagination the problem can be solved. Therefore, the position of this paper is that African writers should not strive for the abrogation or denial of the privilege of English as postulated by the likes of Wali, Ngugi, Osundare and their protégés. Rather they should try to remould the language to new usages (cf. Achebe and Rao). This is because the language is the official medium of communication in most African nations. Fatoba has been able to achieve this feat in his short stories. He has endeavored to please both his local and foreign readers by tempering the syntax and phraseology of English to the ear of the immediate African readers as well as the foreign readers. In fact, the unpopularity of the abrogationist model may be gauged from other African writers’ refusal to follow Ngugi’s example (writing in his mother tongue, Kikuyu). In this age of globalization, African writers cannot afford to deny their literary works of wide readership.

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Copyright © 2004 Africa Resource Center, Inc.

Citation Format

West Africa Review: Issue 5, 2004