Review of Loreto Todd, Some Day Been Dey: West African Pidgin Folktales

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African Languages and Societies
Near and Middle Eastern Studies
Oral History
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Neither the general bibliography on African oral literature by Harold Scheub, African Oral Narratives, Proverbs, Riddles, Poetry, and Song (Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1977), nor the more specific bibliography by Virginia and Mark Delancety, A Bibliography of Cameroon Folklore, an Occasional Publication of the Literature Committee of the African Studies Association (Waltham, Mass.: African Studies Association, 1972) list any collection of Pidgin narratives anywhere from Africa, let alone the Cameroon. Hence the significance of the present collection of tales. Yet its import extends beyond the sheer textual documentation of narrative in a language, the use of which, it has been generally assumed, is reserved to trade and commerce situations. Todd suggests and briefly describes the use of Pidgin in social situations in which the mother tongue is regularly spoken, "In Bamenda Grass-fields and in the coastal communities Pidgin is used in church, in the market, on public transport, in intertribal gatherings, among educated and uneducated, for proverbs, for work-chants, for storytelling, and for creating an atmosphere of intimacy" (p.6).

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1980
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Africana Journal
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The publication in which this review appeared has since ceased.
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