So, Miss Fizz and I were over at
Sugabelly's the other day, and what was supposed to be a discussion on body image with regards to bleaching skin and fake blonde hair somehow went into a disagreement about accents. It was started by a commenter who claimed that Sugabelly has a fake American accent and whose basic premise was that imitating a foreign accent shows a similar complex as bleaching your skin or obtaining fake blonde hair in an effort to look white. And that's pretty much all I have to say about the commenter, whose logic was faulty and who was mostly disrespectful to everyone. Tchw. Y'all know my policy on arguing with folk like that.
Anyway, it's not the first time I've heard the concept that if you moved from Nigeria to another country and end up with your accent in
any way changed, you're a sell-out. Or even that if your accent isn't crunk genge Naija, then you're trying to sound janded and foreign because you think it's better than sounding Nigerian. To be honest, there
are a lot of Nigerians who adopt a fake and exaggerated American or British accent for reasons unknown to me. I met a lot of them in Nigeria, but not in the US- not yet, anyway.
However, the fact is that
a lot of Nigerians don't have the stereotypical Nigerian accent. Most Nigerians I know have some elements of a British accent for several reasons. A lot of us have parents who speak English with a British influence. My mum did all her tertiary education in London and I'm sure her accent shows that in part. My dad went to medical school in Russia then in London, and always had an aversion to me mispronouncing words in the name of a Nigerian accent. He definitely has a Nigerian accent, a crunk Igbo one to boot, but God forbid I ever said 'behd' instead of 'bird', or 'wata' instead of 'water', or 'faya' instead of 'fire'. It's possible to speak in a Nigerian accent without mispronouncing words, but let's face it, a lot of the accent involves mispronouncing words. I still have trouble pronouncing words with 'th' in them, using the 'd' sound instead.
Also, what
is a Nigerian accent? An Igbo accent? A Yoruba accent? What if you're Igbo and speak with a Hausa accent from living in the north? Are you faking it then? Imagine how many ethnic groups we have, with all their accents. I move that there is no such thing as a 'Nigerian' accent for someone to accuse another person of
not having it. Nigerians have a gazillion accents, with many nuances, depending on a million factors- like where you grew up in Nigeria, who you grew up around, et cetera.
How about the fact that Nigerians speak British English? In the States, I've been told several times I have a British accent because I use British words (
post instead of
mail) or because I pronounce certain words in the British way versus the American way (
a-lu-MI-nium instead of
a-LU-mi-nium). That's not me trying to fake sounding British instead of Nigerian, that
is part of my Nigerian accent.
To be honest, I never had what was considered a 'typical' Nigerian/Igbo accent in the first place. Even in primary school, people always accused me of trying to sound janded just because my mother wasn't Nigerian and because I enunciated my words a little differently. I wasn't
trying anything, that's just what my accent was. Growing up around predominantly mixed kids with foreign mothers probably influenced how I spoke, because I was exposed to a multitude of accents
other than the regular Igbo accent. To accuse someone who grew up around accents other than a pure Naija one of faking their accent is simply ignorant.
The point that annoys me the most is the accusation that if you move to the US and your accent changes in any way, it must be a deliberate choice, i.e. fake. Um, excuse me? It seems that there's a sentiment held by some Nigerians- that a true/original/proud Nigerian wouldn't allow themselves to have anything other than a Nigerian accent with no trace of any foreign influence (like, um, being colonized?). Bullshit.
Let me point something out. If you naturally have an accent with touches of the Brit or the US in it, and you forgo that in favor of sounding more Nigerian, aren't you faking it? I could go around sounding crunk and Igbo 24/7, but that's not my regular speech pattern, so why should I? To placate some strangers from my country by having a more acceptable accent for a Nigerian person? Fuck off. My accent is a
natural result of my life and upbringing, not an attempt to conform to a '
foreign is better' ideal. No one has the right to come up to me and tell me I'm faking my accent. Nonsense and Golden Morn.
Some Nigerians never lose their original accents, no matter where they live. Good for them. Others undergo a change in how they talk, based on their surrondings or whatever. Good for them, too. It's a novel idea, isn't it, that
people are different. Mr. Okoronkwo that still speaks like you just plucked him out of Port Harcourt despite having lived in Houston for 15 years is not a 'better Nigerian' than Ekenedilichukwu who has a British accent after living in West Ealing for 3 years. Who the hell are you to judge?
Here's another shocking concept, that people unconsciously adapt their speech patterns depending on their environment. That this is a natural occurrence, far different from someone faking an accent because they feel it's superior to the one they started off with.
I've had people from the UK tell me I have an American accent, which I found offensive, lol. Then again, no American has ever said that to me. Also, I had to realize that from living here, I have picked up idioms and slang that are distinctly American. Therefore, to someone from the UK, I probably
would sound 'American'. If they heard me speak Pidgin to my friends or family, they'd probably realize I sound Nigerian. I've been confused for a West Indian due to my accent- does that mean I was faking a Caribbean accent? Nope, it just depends on another person's perception of how I sound.
Attending a school with a strong international community definitely impacted my speech patterns because I learnt and used slang that my friends taught me. My West Indian friends had me cursing in French Creole and using words like '
muddacunt', those from Ghana introduced me to '
Charley!', et cetera. I was living in the South, and till this day, I still say and type
y'all quite frequently. None of these dialects took over the way I talk, bits just got added to the conglomeration I already speak in. Lobster now says 'idiot' in an Igbo accent (hilarious!) and conversely, I find myself thinking things like 'absolute shite' and 'get tae fuck' in a distinctly Scottish accent, lol.
Frankly speaking, my accent is a fluid thing. Overhear me talking to Miss Fizz or Caramia, and you'll catch the Naija in me, no problem. I may be speaking to my mother, and I'll tag on the very Malaysian suffix of
-lah to some of my sentences, with a touch of her lilt. I can switch between the dialects of Pidgin and Ebonics, depending on who I'm speaking to. With my sister, we flutter between the deep Igbo accent, Ebonics, and our baseline hodgepodge accent with a touch of British. Shit, spend a holiday with my family and you'll be bombarded with changing accents, none of them faked. Maybe it's a
TCK thing.
Anyway, my point is that many Nigerians have a farrago of accents, and it doesn't make us less Naija in any form or manner. So all y'all who stick your noses up in the air because you have a 'purer' accent can get tae fuck with your discrimination. We're not fakers or wannabes, and if you can't recognize that, then I can't deal with your insulting close-mindedness.
Mschewww.
