Majunga Tok: Poems in Pidgin English is the poet's attempt at capturing the speech patterns of ordinary Cameroonians in written form. Pidgin English, also called broken English, is a lingua
franca spoken not only in Cameroon but also in many West African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia to name but a few. This poetry anthology is inspired by the poet's
desire to salvage a language that has been subjected to multiple forms of denigration on account of it being oral. In Cameroon, for instance, Pidgin English has been the target of myriad
attacks from self-styled linguistic purists who claim that Pidgin is a bastardized variant of Standard English and, therefore, should not be allowed to thrive. This condescending attitude of
speakers of Standard English stems from the fact that Pidgin is often associated with illiteracy. All too often, critics of Pidgin English regard pidginized expression as a debasement of
standardized English. We are all too familiar with the controversy and denigration directed at Amos Tutuola and his Pidgin English creative genius.
