Located deep in Yoruba country, southwestern Nigeria, is the town of Ejigbo. Over time, it has developed its own unique form of spoken French, thanks to close historic ties with other francophone countries.
Ejigbo is located north of Nigeria's economic capital, Lagos and more than 350 kilometres from its French-speaking neighbour, Benin.
In the streets here, where the official language is English, one can hear what is called "petit français": a mix of words in Yoruba and Baoulé, interspersed with French.
Although surrounded by French-speaking countries such as Benin, Niger, Cameroon and Chad, Nigeria has very few French speakers, even though teaching the language is in theory compulsory up to secondary school, although there is a severe shortage of teachers.
Links with Abidjan
Since the early 20th century, the inhabitants of Ejigbo have been migrating to French-speaking countries such as Benin and Togo, but above all to Côte d’Ivoire.
Many residents hold dual nationality and divide their time between the two countries. Three times a week, buses cover the 1,200 kilometres between Ejigbo and Abidjan.
It is common for shopkeepers and restaurant owners to accept CFA francs to pay for a bowl of attiéké – fermented cassava semolina – a typical Ivorian dish frequently found in Ejigbo.
‘Street French’
Akanbi Mudasiru Ilupeju is a professor of French and a sociolinguist at the faculty of arts at the University of Lagos, and hails from Ejigbo.
"In Ejigbo, people don’t just speak one type of French. It is, let’s say, a slangy French or a more relaxed French. There is standard French, the kind that everyone can understand well, which is reserved for the elite – those who have been to school, students, or nationals from French-speaking countries living in Ejigbo."
But, he added: "There is also street French: a mix of the national languages of the country the speaker has lived in. Especially in Abidjan, where local languages such as Baoulé are mixed in."
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He explained: "You’ll hear this version of spoken French in Ejigbo. There’s also the French spoken by illiterate people – those who never went to school but have spent time in French-speaking countries and returned home.
"You’ll find grammatical errors and awkward structures, but it’s still understandable. When you go to the market, you’ll come across all these different ways of speaking French."
This article was adapted from the original version in French by RFI correspondent Harmony Pondy Nyaga.
