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West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the transatlantic slave trade as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as sabi ('to know'), a derivation of the Portuguese saber. [3]
The Polyglotta Africana was the second work carried out by Koelle during his five years in Sierra Leone, the first being a grammar of the Vai language in 1849. [3] The idea of this was to use the fact that Sierra Leone was a melting pot of ex-slaves from all over Africa to compile a list of 280 basic words (a sort of early Swadesh list) in some 160 languages and dialects.
[74] [75] The prerequisites for slave societies to exist weren't present in West Africa prior to the Atlantic slave trade considering the small market sizes and the lack of a division of labour. [74] Most West African societies were formed in kinship units which would make slavery a rather marginal part of the production process within them. [2]
Because they remained strictly separated from the white population, the slaves developed their own culture with a strong West African influence. They had their own religion, Winti, and their own language, Sranan Tongo. They also used this as a subtle form of resistance. For example, many slave songs had a critical undertone.
There are over 520 native languages spoken in Nigeria. [1] [2] [3] The official language is English, [4] [5] which was the language of Colonial Nigeria.The English-based creole Nigerian Pidgin – first used by the British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century [6] – is the most common lingua franca, spoken by over 60 million people.
In fact, she never knew African Americans had their own form of communication during slavery. "I am learning Tut now," said Cia, who asked to only use her first name to avoid jeopardizing future ...
Although many African languages are used on the radio, in newspapers and in primary-school education, and some of the larger ones are considered national languages, only a few are official at the national level. In Sub-Saharan Africa, most official languages at the national level tend to be colonial languages such as French, Portuguese, or English.
The West African states also imported highly trained slave soldiers. [55] Under the Saadi dynasty, Morocco's sugar industry was dependent on Sub-Saharan African slave labor. [56] According to Paul Berthier, the need for slave labor on Moroccan sugar plantations was a major reason for the 16th century Saadian invasion of the Songhai Empire. [56]