Pidgin English as a Literary Medium in Nigerian Drama: A Study of Selected Plays by Bode Sowande

This study examines the literary functions of Nigerian Pidgin English in the dramatic work of Bode Sowande, a significant figure in Nigerian popular theatre whose plays engage directly with working-class urban life in South West Nigeria. While standard English remains the dominant literary medium in Nigerian drama, a growing body of playwrights have employed Pidgin as a primary or significant dramatic language, yet Pidgin in literary drama has received far less critical attention than Pidgin in film, music, and informal speech. The study analyses three of Sowande's plays with substantial Pidgin English dialogue, examining the sociolinguistic characterisation achieved through Pidgin, the class and identity politics enacted by code choice between standard English and Pidgin, and the specific dramatic effects, including comedy, pathos, and political critique, enabled by Pidgin's distinctive phonological and grammatical features. The analytical framework draws on dramatic linguistics and creole literary theory. Findings show that Sowande uses Pidgin not merely for comic characterisation but as a vehicle for social critique, allowing working-class characters to articulate perspectives that the high register of standard English would render inauthentic. The study also identifies a distinctive literary Pidgin in Sowande's work that departs from spoken vernacular in its formal shaping for dramatic effect. Recommendations include the development of undergraduate courses in Nigerian Pidgin English literature to address the significant gap in literary critical attention to this medium. Keywords: Nigerian Pidgin English, dramatic language, Bode Sowande, popular theatre, creole literature.