Ja Pa and Jokes in Nigerian Skits: Humour and the Imagineering of a National Dystopian Consciousness

ABSTRACT

The Yoruba coinage ja pa has recently emerged as an impactful urban catchphrase in Nigeria for voicing desired and actual emigration. When used by young people, it is especially humorous, electrifying and impressionistic, articulating their perception of Nigeria as a dystopia, while also hyping the global North as an Eldorado. In this article, I analyse how Nigerian skit makers produce humour in response to the ja pa phenomenon by tweaking emigration outcomes in ways that contrast with the expectations of young people. I curate four randomly selected skits and discuss them as contemporary cultural artefacts in which young Nigerians speak to a local addressivity constituted by Nigerian Pidgin (NP), the national language of “infotainment”. Focusing on the selection, I argue that the humour thrives on comparisons of locations that finally produce a result in which the Nigerian homeland of emigrants and the host nations to which they ja pa (escape) are inalienably mired in dystopian consciousness.

NIGERIAN PIDGIN TRANSLATION OF ABSTRACT

De word wey Yoruba dey call ja pa don boku for de mouth of Nigeria people now, becos e mean wetin dem like to wan do: to waka comot de contri. Wen boy and girl pickin dem use dat word, e go make you laugh and e go shock your body, becos dem de use tok how Nigeria bad and Oyinbo contri good. Di ting wey I de write for dis paper be how Nigerian boys wey de do di play wey grammar people de call “Skit” de make people laugh as dem de push ja pa to show say tings no de be like dem tink after dem don Ja pa enter Oyinbo land. I come pick four skits to tok say dem be example wey show say young people from Nigeria de use Pidgin English (NP), our play play language, to tell people tings wey de important. As I de look de four skits, I come tok say laugh de happen wen play play people do toks funny come show say Nigeria and Oyinbo contri wey dem ja pa go be de same, and one no better pass de other.

KEYWORDS:

• Ja pa humour
• Nigerian skits
• Emigration comedy
• Klintoncod
• Johnny Isiwele
• Williams Uchemba
• Timi

OGBONGE TOK:

• ja pa laugh
• Nigerian play play
• waka leave contri jokes
• Klintoncod
• Johnny Isiwele
• Williams Uchemba
• Timi

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Professor Fakoya, WhatsApp conversation (30/10/2022).

2 Figures for 2022 taken from statista.com.