Language of the Blues - Edmonton Blues Society

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They made quite a dent in English, too. Early scholars assumed that most African American slang
derived from efforts to speak English. Linguists have since traced many English words--even
many that were assumed to be European in origin--to African origins.
The Wolof people were the first contributors of African words to American English. Their
wealthy empire was in western Senegal along the Gambia River. In 1673, however, the Islamic
Fulani, who lived just east of the Wolof Empire, waged a jihad, or holy war raiding Wolof
territories in an attempt to convert the Wolof people to the Muslim religion. Over the next few
decades, the Wolof were also attacked by their Islamic neighbors to the north, the Mauretanians.
During these battles, many Wolof people were captured by Fulani and Mauretanians and sold to
British slave traders. Traders taught English to some enslaved Wolof so they could be used as
interpreters and mariners during voyages along the African coast. 11
This large influx of Wolof arrived in South Carolina between 1670 and 1750. Since some already
knew a little English, and most arrived with useful skills such as blacksmithing, leatherworking,
and butchery, they were employed primarily as house servants. As a result, many Wolof words
bugal
jiga
gay, meaning
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By 1730, the slave trade was reaching beyond the Senegambia region into the Central Africa
homeland of the Bantu civilization. Large numbers of Bantu people from the Kongo Empire of
southwest Africa (now northern Angola, Cabinda, Republic of the Congo, and the western section
of the Democractic Republic of the Congo) were sold into slavery and shipped to South Carolina
in the mid-to-late 1700s. 13
These people, known as Bakongo or Kongo, were used mostly as field hands. Since they had
much less contact with slave-owners than the Wolof, they were able to retain more of their
culture intact. Scholars have documented many survivals of Bantu speech, cooking, music, dance,
art, and religion in African American culture. One Bantu-speaking tribe, the Kimbundu, called a
stringed musical instrument they brought to the Southern colonies the mbanza. In English it
tshipi,
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mbubu, which
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How much African language has seeped into American English becomes apparent when we try to
katt. It refers especially to highly accomplished singers, such as the Wolof griots, who
can keep their listeners enthralled over many long verses. 14 In addition, the Wolof suffix -kat is
agentive, meaning it indicates a person. Adding kat after an adjective creates a compound word.
The Wolof adjective hipi describes someone who is open-eyed and hyper-aware. A hipi-kat,
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Blues language is packed with such fascinating African retentions, yet it also reflects the
freewheeling all-American lingo of the underground economy African Americans developed to
survive Jim Crow. Musicians picked up slang from the illegal lottery business, for example, as
Dr. John noted in the Foreword. Blues artists--looking to steal from the best, like all songwriters--
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