Chinua Achebe born (16/11/1930)

[Ross Clark]

Nigerian novelist, poet and critic. Lived until 2013.

He wrote in English.

"This English, then, which I am using, has witnessed peculiar events in
my land that it has never experienced anywhere else. The English
language has never been close to Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba anywhere else in
the world. So it has to be different, because these languages and their
environment are not inert. They are active, and they are acting on this
language which has invaded their territory."

So Nigerian English. But a very educated NigEng, not Fela Kuti's Pidgin
or even Amos Tutuola's indigenized colloquial.

"...those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so
as to accommodate African thought patterns must do it through their
mastery of English and not out of innocence."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe

[Aidan Kehoe]

Post by Ross Clark
Nigerian novelist, poet and critic. Lived until 2013.
He wrote in English.

His “Things Fall Apart” was on the local English secondary school syllabus here
in the 90s, a good book.

Post by Ross Clark
"This English, then, which I am using, has witnessed peculiar events in my land
that it has never experienced anywhere else. The English language has never
been close to Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba anywhere else in the world. So it has to
be different, because these languages and their environment are not inert. They
are active, and they are acting on this language which has invaded their
territory."
So Nigerian English. But a very educated NigEng, not Fela Kuti's Pidgin or even
Amos Tutuola's indigenized colloquial.
"...those who can do the work of extending the frontiers of English so as to
accommodate African thought patterns must do it through their mastery of
English and not out of innocence."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinua_Achebe

We’ve had a certain amount of Nigerian immigration here in Ireland; most of the
Nigerians I’ve known have been doctors, but there was plenty of less-educated
immigration that has died off as Ireland became more credentialist. I don’t
think I ever heard one of my doctor colleague speak a non-English language on a
personal call, in contrast to, e.g. the Pakistanis and the Arabs.