By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D. Twitter: @farooqkperogi Last week , I traced the origins of “it is not my portion” to Lamentations Chapt...
By Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D.
Twitter: @farooqkperogi
Last week, I traced the origins of “it is not my portion” to Lamentations Chapter 3
verse 24 of the Bible (“The Lord is my portion, sayeth my soul; therefore will
I hope in him.”) and pointed out that Nobel-Prize-winning Indian poet Rabindranath
Tagore was one of the first known writers to invert the Biblical “my portion”
to “it is not my portion”), but I can’t establish that he is the source or the inspiration for the widespread use of the expression in Nigerian Pentecostal
Christianity.
What
is clear, however, is that “it is not my portion” has now successfully mutated
from the lingo of Nigerian Pentecostal Christians to mainstream Nigerian
English. It is so mainstream that wife of President Buhari, Aisha Buhari, used it during her
controversial campaign speech in Benin City, Edo State, on March 19,
2015 where she, among other things, said, “[The girl-child] doesn’t have to
leave her country to go and prostitute elsewhere. It’s not her portion. Her
portion is to have a highly standard and moral society for her to live in, get
married, have children, train them and also mould them to become the future
leaders.”
There
is no more convincing evidence of the mainstreaming of this essentially
Nigerian Pentecostal Christian expression than its usage by an eminent northern
Nigerian Muslim woman. It is now the portion of Nigerians to say that every bad
thing is not their portion.
3. “Send-forth
(parties).” This is another “positive-vibe” expression coined by Nigerian
Pentecostal Christians. It is used in place of the Standard English “sendoff,”
which Nigerian Pentecostal Christians say sounds rather negative. As far as I
can tell, unlike previous expressions, “send-forth” traces no lexical ancestry
to the Bible. As I noted in my book, Glocal English: The Changing Face and Forms of Nigerian English in a Global World,
“The adverb ‘forth’ appears to Nigerians to convey a connotation of forward
motion, of advancement, while ‘off’ strikes them as suggesting departure with
no expectation of return. So they think that to say they send people off
creates the impression that they derive perverse pleasure in the people’s
departure from them” (p. 182).
Many
Nigerians who are not acquainted with the odd idiolect of Nigerian Christian
Pentecostalism now innocently think that “send-forth (party)” is the preferred
Standard English expression for a farewell party. In fact, several Muslim
organizations in Nigeria, such as the Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC),
whose newsletter I am subscribed to, habitually use “send-forth” instead of
“sendoff” without any awareness that “send-forth” is a conscious, deliberate
Nigerian Pentecostal Christian coinage intended to avoid the “negativity” they
think the idiomatic “send-off” conveys.
That
the ungrammatical and unidiomatic “send-forth” has now become the preferred
expression for “sendoff” even in Nigerian Muslim and non-Pentecostal Christian
circles speaks to the powerful cultural and linguistic osmosis of Nigerian
Pentecostal Christian vernacularisms.
4. “Sign of end times.” Any unusual thing
that deeply scandalizes Nigerians is now described as a “sign of end times”—or
other iterations of the expression. This expression used to be confined to
Christian religious settings. Of course, both Islam and Christianity talk of
signs of end times (Muslims call it “signs of Qiyamah”) in their holy books,
but it was Nigerian Pentecostal Christians who, through Nollywood, brought the
expression into Nigerian conversational English. “Sign of end times” is now
liberally used even by Muslims and non-Pentecostal Muslims, especially in
social media chatter, where people previously said, “This is unbelievable!” “This
beggars belief!” etc. This is a classic linguistic instantiation of the secularization
of the sacred.
5.
“To God be the glory.” This is now the expression of choice
in Nigerian English to express gratitude. It occurs in sentences like, “My wife
has just given birth to a new baby. To God be the glory!” “I have just been
promoted in my place of work. To God be the glory!” “I had an accident today
but I survived unhurt. To God be the glory!” etc. Even (northern) Nigerian
Muslims use these expressions on their Facebook timelines—again indicating the
widespread vernacularization of this essentially Christian expression.
Although it
appears in Bible translations, the phrase was popularized by Fanny J. Crosby, a
blind American woman who wrote a gospel hymn (i.e., a song of praise to God) in
1870 titled “To God be the Glory.” According to Hmnary.org,
although the song was first written and recorded in the United States, it was
barely known in American churches until the 1950s; it had been almost
exclusively sung in British churches until famous American mass evangelist
Billy
Graham re-popularized it.
But
many non-Christian Nigerians like me first encountered the expression from
Nollywood movies—many of which are produced by Nigerian Pentecostal Christian
churches—with their predictable, infantile story lines and slapdash plots in
which good always triumphs over evil. The movies often end with the expression,
“To God be the glory!” A former southeastern Nigerian governor was also famous
for inscribing “To God be the glory” on all signboards touting his
“achievements.”
Many
Nigerians think “To God be the glory” is the stock phrase that native English
speakers use when they want to express gratitude. I have received several email
inquiries from readers of this column asking to know if this is true. Well, “to
God be the glory” is not an everyday conversational expression among native
English speakers. I would even hazard the guess that because the phrase is
structurally archaic, it isn’t used by churchgoing native English speakers. “Glory
be to God!” is the more modern rendition of the expression.
But,
most importantly, while public display of religiosity even in non-religious
situations is normal, even expected, in Nigeria, it is rare in the UK, US,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand where English is spoken as a first language.
So a native English is likely to be jarred by the utterance of the expression
outside religious settings.
6. “Thank God!” Native English
speakers say “Thank God” (also “thank goodness” or “thank heavens”) to express
delight that something agreeable happened in an otherwise dreadful situation.
But
courtesy of Nigerian Pentecostal Christians, “thank God” is now used in modern
Nigerian English as a polite response to someone who says “thank you.” Example:
Mr.
A: “Thank you so much for your help.”
Mr.
B: “Thank God.”
If
you say “thank you” to Americans, they say “you’re welcome” in response.
British English speakers say “don’t mention it” or “think nothing of it.” Other
stock phrases native English speakers use in response to expressions of
gratitude are “You bet!” “It’s my pleasure!” “It was nothing!” “I was glad to
do it!” “Don't give it another thought!” “Don't give it a (second).”
As I pointed out in my book, “The sense that
Nigerian English speakers hope to convey when they say ‘thank God’ in response
to an expression of gratitude is that the honor for the favor they bestow on
others belongs to God, not them. It’s a socio-linguistic evidence of the deep
religiosity—or pretense to piety and modesty— of Nigerians. However, native
English speakers don’t use ‘thank God’ that way. They use it mostly as an exclamation
of relief. Example: ‘Thank God he is alive!’ It’s also used in the idiom ‘thank
God/Heaven for small mercies/favors,’ which is said when something bright
happens in an otherwise hopeless situation. Example:
“Mr.
A: My brother was run over by a truck, but he survived it. The doctor said he
has a 99 percent chance to be well again.
“Mr.
B: Thank God for small mercies!
“Native
English speakers also use ‘thank God’ in mildly satirical contexts to call
attention to people’s deficiencies, such as saying ‘thank God he remembers my
name this time around’ about someone who perpetually forgets your name but
remembers it now. So, if a Nigerian were to say ‘thank God’ in response to an
expression of gratitude from a native English speaker, the Nigerian speaker
might be misunderstood as implying that the native speaker hardly ever shows
gratitude. In other words, the Nigerian might be understood as saying, ‘thank
God you have the good sense to say “thank you” now!’
“In
sum, ‘thank God’ hardly appears as a stand-alone phrase in native-speaker
varieties of the English language; it always depends on another phrase or
clause to make a complete sense, as the examples above illustrate. Most
importantly, it’s never used as a response to an expression of gratitude” (pg.
182-83).
Concluding Thoughts
I
have not been able to exhaust the Nigerian Christian Pentecostal English
expressions I have on my list. But it suffices to point out that expressions
like “I reject it!” to express strong denunciation or repudiation, “the devil
is a liar” to express courage and optimism in the face of dreadful shock, "I claim it," etc.
have now become staple turns of phrase in Nigerian conversational English. No religious
persuasion in Nigeria has had as much impact on Nigeria’s conversational repertory
in English as Pentecostal Christianity.
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