ENGLISH CREOLE IN AFRICA
This West
African bauxite mine is owned by the Swiss multinational Alles Swiss. But English is the day to day language operations.
“We’re going to
finish very soon this mine phase” “We will be closing the road, this road that is
now used by public transport…”
Most of the
people here are speaking English quite fluently maybe it is not a classical
English but it is English, so it is the only *mean of communication. There is
quite a high turnover in our company. That means after four, five, or six year*
the people are leaving the company. Who will replace them? Nobody knows.
The German may
be replaced by an English; an English maybe replaced a
German so we have to use a language which is common for everybody and this
language is, of course, English.
The mine
workers here speak six different African languages so they talk Creole English
to each other.
“Before you
move the vehicle and when you move the vehicle…”