Nigerian singer Simi recently revealed a surprising cultural discovery she made during a trip to Kenya, shedding light on her assumptions about the widespread use of pidgin English across Africa.

Speaking on a recent episode of the 90’s Baby Show, Simi recounted a memorable incident from her time in Kenya.

“I went to Kenya years ago, and we were supposed to do a remix of my song with a Kenyan artist.”

“Then there is a lot of pidgin in the song. They asked me to write my lyrics down and then ask, ‘Can you translate?’ and I go, ‘What the fuck do you mean translate? It’s English. It’s pidgin, but it’s English.'”

The request for translation took Simi by surprise, as she had always assumed that pidgin English, a creole language widely spoken in Nigeria, was common throughout Africa.

“Before then, I had thought that everybody in Africa could speak pidgin the way we speak pidgin, so that was a culture shock for me. I thought these were our people; are we not the same?”

Simi’s experience highlights the diversity of languages and dialects within Africa, even among countries with shared colonial histories and geographical proximity.

Despite the initial shock, she found a silver lining in the situation, embracing the opportunity to learn more about the linguistic and cultural richness of the continent.

In a touching aside, Simi also mentioned her four-year-old daughter, who has picked up pidgin English from their home environment.

“My daughter even started speaking pidgin by herself because we speak it around her, to our friends. So sometimes she would be like, ‘Wetin you do o’ and I love that because you need to have a gossip language around people,” Simi shared with a laugh.

Simi’s reflections on her Kenyan experience serve as a reminder of the rich cultural tapestry that defines Africa, and the unexpected ways in which individuals can learn and grow from such encounters.