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BBC News Pidgin is an online news service in West African Pidgin English that was launched by the BBC World Service in 2017. [1] [2] It is based in Lagos, Nigeria.[1]Pidgin, first used by British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century, has become one of the most widely spoken languages in West Africa, with up to 75 million speakers in Nigeria alone.
Nigerian Pidgin is commonly used throughout the country, but it has not been granted official status. Pidgin breaks the communication barrier between different ethnic groups and it is widely spoken throughout Nigeria. [7] In 2011, Google launched a search interface in Pidgin. [8] In 2017, BBC started BBC News Pidgin to provide services in ...
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.
BBC Hausa was the first African-language service operated by the BBC and is one of the five African languages it broadcasts. The service was launched on 13 March 1957 at 09:30 GMT with a 15-minute programme by the BBC World Service presented by Aminu Abdullahi Malumfashi: a translated version was later read by Abubakar Tunau in the programme West Africa in the News.
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 BBC Igbo was first aired with an interview with the wife of Biafra Separatist, Nnamdi Kanu. [8] The news outlet will report news from a fair point of view in addition with trending topics in sports, entertainment, business, health, education and women purely in the Igbo language. [6]
Bilkisu Labaran is a Nigerian journalist, editor and head of Africa News & Current affairs at BBC. [2] [3] She played a vital role in the establiment of BBC pidgin [4] [5] and is the first Nigerian BBC editor. She currently works as an executive at BBC Africa Eye documentaries [6]
Major Horn of Africa languages are Somali, Amharic and Oromo. Lingala is important in Central Africa. Important South African languages are Sotho, Tswana, Pedi, Venda, Tsonga, Swazi, Southern Ndebele, Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans. [36] French, English, and Portuguese are important languages in Africa due to colonialism.