Respect the Dialect

I was sad to see on Facebook that South African actor and producer Shona Ferguson died of COVID. When I went to read the story in a Google search, I was surprised that the BBC, among other languages, translates its stories into West African / Caribbean patois i.e. "pidgin":
Popular actor Shona Ferguson die from Covid complications - BBC News Pidgin

Considering how stupidly and xenophobicly Americans and their media, even so-called liberal media, enforce "proper English", I was amused to see a story in a black dialect. I could hear the voices of my Jamaican and Nigerian friends from college as I read the BBC's copy.

But, like all things, black folk did it first, lol. In the 90s, there was a UK version of "In Living Color" named "The Real McCoys". One of the show's running skits was the JBC (Jamaican) News Network, UK news read from a black Caribbean perspective


The BBC refuses to make old episodes of the series available to American audiences after promising to re-release old episodes after the George Floyd riots last year, but you can catch a few stray clips on YouTube every now and then.


'They said they'd lost the tapes': the surprise return of The Real McCoy

 

This was probably my favorite sketch, some Black Brits trying to join the white supremacist National Party. The star of the show actually joined the Nation of Islam after the show was on the air, so I'm not surprised the BBC has pulled this one off streaming sites

 

Damn bruh, as much as I've seen that sketch the "Make England Great Again" has gone over my head!

You're so right! That sketch is almost 30 years old.