English and the postcolonial writer's burden: Linguistic innovations in Femi Fatoba's My 'Older' Father and Other Stories

In a situation where two or more languages and cultures are in contact, there is bound to be linguistic and cultural interference. This is the situation with African literature of English expression where important socio-cultural habits and traits are expressed in a foreign language. Based exclusively on the examples from Femi Fatoba's My 'Older' Father and Other Stories (1997), this paper attempts to examine how a postcolonial writer has appropriated and reconstituted the English language in his texts through some linguistic processes which include loan words, loan coinages, loan blends, pidginization, code switching and the like. Fatoba strives to find a solution to the problem of bilingualism/biculturalism in his text by relying heavily on the domestication of the imported tongue. The paper observes that although Fatoba has deviated linguistically from Standard English, in the text, he has not falsified the tradition he has transformed into the English language. Rather, he has been able to bridge the gap between the local colour variety and the appropriate English language diction suitable to the characters and themes he depicts. The paper also contends that linguistic innovations in Fatoba's stories offer an outlet for creativity in language and put a new life into the imported language. The discourse is concluded by suggesting that in this age of globalization, African writers cannot afford to deny their works' wide readership; therefore, they should consider the appropriation and reconstitution of English as a medium of African literature.