The Black British English Podcast

Black British English is a language full of cultural rhythm shaped by generations of Caribbean and African influence. Yet on TikTok, it’s being copied, filtered and remixed into something hollow. White content creators are using AI, especially tools like Sora 2, to generate videos that mimic the sound and swagger of “roadman” speech, the same language they still mocked yet these audiences are eating it up. The humour of “roadman in Parliament” clips might feel harmless, but each share fuels an algorithm that rewards imitation while erasing the people who built the language in the first place.
As I record this from Abuja, the contrast is striking. The city hums with real multilingual energy: Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, English, Pidgin and dozens of other tongues intersect in everyday life. Here, language isn’t just a tool for clicks, it’s identity, connection and cultural memory. Watching how fluidly people code-switch reminds me how unnatural it feels to see AI flatten an entire linguistic tradition into an aesthetic trend.
This episode digs into how digital platforms are turning living languages into viral content, how AI amplifies appropriation at lightning speed, and why we need to stop sharing and engaging with these “roadman in Parliament” videos. If we don’t, the voices that gave Black British English its power risk being drowned out by the very systems built to mimic them.

By rejecting her Eurocentric name, Assata reclaimed the right to self-definition on her own terms and in ancestral languages. • “Assata” (Swahili: she who struggles), “Olugbala” (Yoruba: savior), and “Shakur” (Arabic: thankful) each root her in African and diasporic linguistic traditions. • This is language justice in action: choosing names that restore cultural dignity and affirm African linguistic heritage.This episode examines Assata Shakur’s life and writing through the lens of linguistic justice. We explore how her choice of names, her use of African and diasporic languages, and her embrace of AAVE challenge colonial Language superiority and reclaim linguistic power. By centering language in the Black liberation struggle, Shakur reminds us that words, names, and voices are not just communication — they are acts of defiance.

🎙️ Episode Explainer (English):In this episode, we dive deep to show that Pidgin English isn’t “half a language” at all, it stands strong 💪🏽 as a complete language spoken by millions. Then we shift to Yoruba culture 🎶🥁, breaking down why both Owambe and Owanbe are correct when it comes to party talk 🍾💃. Expect laughter, good vibes, and some spicy debates on language and culture!🎙️ Episode Explainer: (Pidgin)Na full gist for this episode! We go show say Pidgin no be “half language” at all, e dey stand strong 💪🏽 as one complete language wey millions sabi. Then we waka go Yoruba culture side 🎶🥁, break down why Owambe AND Owanbe fit both correct when e reach party talk 🍾💃. Expect laughter, vibes, and small gbas-gbos on language and culture!

Black British English, AAVE, Pidgin, Creoles and Patwa are not trends. Yet online, every word, phrase, and term gets packaged into a TikTok explainer video for the world to decode. 📱🚫 Enough.
In this episode, we take on:​ Why “MLE” is a lazy, erasing label for Black British language. ❌​ How over-explaining Black speech perpetuates cultural appropriation and erases our voices.​ The difference between appreciating Black language and policing it. 💬✊🏾​ Why ownership of our words matters and why the internet needs to stop subtitling us.​ And why London has far more accents and voices than BBC London acknowledges 🎤🌍 a linguistic map richer, louder, and more vibrant than the mainstream admits.
This isn’t about accents alone, it’s about power, respect, and boundaries. 🔥 Listen as we unpack why Black words belong to us and not the algorithms, not the TikTok explanations, and certainly not anyone outside our community.

In this episode I reflect on the cultural impact of Rolling Ray and the unique ways he influenced African American Vernacular English. Since his passing many people have been thinking about how language and identity evolve through voices like his and it is super important that his impact is written about and widely acknowledged.I also share my own journey of picking up Haitian Creole on Duolingo and what it means to connect with language, legacy, and history in the present day.

🌍✨ Join us as we celebrate International Day for People of African Descent by diving into the incredible world of Creole languages and the cultures they carry across the diaspora. From Haitian Creole 🇭🇹 on Duolingo to BBC Pidgin 🇳🇬, and the vibrant braadkyaasjamiekan 🇯🇲 and TwoSaints 🇱🇨on instagram , we explore how language connects us to our African roots and the history of our people.Learn how words, stories, and rhythms traveled from West Africa 🌿 to the Caribbean 🌴, South America 🌎, and beyond. Discover online resources, tips for learning these languages, and the stories behind each Creole community. This episode is a celebration of identity, heritage, and the power of language to unite us across continents.Whether you are passionate about language learning, curious about African diaspora culture, or just love discovering new ways to connect with history, this episode will inspire and guide you on a journey through the languages that carry our ancestors’ legacy.✨ Speak, learn, celebrate, and honor the rich tapestry of Creole languages that remind us where we come from and the resilience of our people.

Last week, I found myself dancing to soca from Antigua 🇦🇬and without even meaning to, I started picking up words and phrases in Antiguan Creole. In this episode, I unpack that moment: how soca isn’t just music to move your body, but a living archive of language, culture, and identity. We’ll talk about what makes Antiguan soca unique, how artists weave creole into their lyrics, and why Carnival music can be such a powerful tool for learning and remembering Caribbean languages. At Notting Hill Carnival, flags wave as loudly as the music — Antiguan red and black, Trinidadian red and white, Jamaican green and gold, and countless more from across the Caribbean. Each one is a claim to space, memory, and identity in the streets of London. It is the UK’s longest-running Black protest, born from resistance to racism and the fight for dignity. In this episode, we explore how Carnival became a space of liberation through music, dance, and community. We dive into the power of soca as protest music that carries Caribbean history into the present, and how singing along becomes a way of learning creole languages shaped by survival, creativity, and solidarity. From the chants that echo down London’s streets to the linguistic play inside every lyric, Carnival shows us how art and language can resist, remember, and rebuild.

Marcus Garvey told us: “One God, One Aim, One Destiny.”But what does that destiny look like in 2025 in the age of TikTok, Instagram, and global Creole culture?
On this special BBE Podcast episode marking Marcus Garvey’s 138th birthday, we explore how his Pan-African vision continues to live and breathe through the words we speak, the cultures we protect, and the digital tools we now hold in our hands.
🔥 In this episode, we break down:​ Why Garvey’s blueprint of “Do for Self” is still urgent today.​ How Creole languages like Jamaican Patois, Haitian Kreyòl, Nigerian Pidgin and others carry the heartbeat of Pan-African unity.​ The ways social media has become our new printing press allowing us to connect the diaspora in real-time.​ What you can do to carry Garvey’s fire forward in the digital age and in real life.
From Kingston to Lagos, Port-au-Prince to London, Harlem to the Gram — Garvey’s dream is still alive. This is not just history. It’s movement. It’s language. It’s culture. It’s power.
Tap in, share the vision, and claim your part in One Destiny online and beyond.

In this episode, I dive into the recent backlash against Nigerian artist Asake for using Yoruba on his Gunna feature and why the anger reveals something deeper: our communities are still wrestling with internalised anti-Black linguistic racism, a legacy of colonial language control that refuses to die quietly.I unpack the colonial history that positioned European languages like English as the “proper” or “respectable” choice while devaluing African and Caribbean languages as inferior or unprofessional. We explore how this thinking lingers today, even within Black spaces, when artists unapologetically use their native tongues.Fresh back from Antigua, I reflect on what it meant to be fully submerged in Blackness: walking through spaces where the majority looks like you, where Caribbean English Creole flows without side-eyes or corrections, where music is drenched in local expressions and history. And I ask why, in Britain and beyond, Black language still needs to fight for space when it is the heartbeat of our culture.From Yoruba in Afrobeats to patois in dancehall to Black British English in grime, this episode is about how music has always been a site of linguistic preservation and resistance and why every verse, every hook, every bassline that carries our words is a pushback against the colonial idea that only one kind of English is valid.Because when we lose a language, we do not just lose words. We lose ways of seeing the world. And we are not letting that happen.

What do a courtroom in 1979 Michigan and a government report in 1985 Britain have in common? The answer: Black language, and the systems that tried to silence it.This episode dives into why the way we speak is about so much more than grammar — it’s about race, power, and who gets to be heard. From the Ann Arbor AAVE case to the Swan Report in the UK, we’re looking at how schools, governments, and institutions have treated Black English as a problem instead of a culture.Language isn’t neutral. And in this episode, we’re saying it plainly: language justice is racial justice.

What does it mean to speak the future while carrying the past? In this episode, we dive into Black British English as an Afrofuturist language, one shaped by migration, resistance, and imagination. We explore how the hybrid dialects of Black Britain remix ancestral languages, colonizer tongues, and global Black languages to create something radically new: a sonic space where survival and style converge.
Using the visionary work of Janelle Monáe especially her android mythology via albums like The ArchAndroid and Dirty Computer we think through how language itself can be cyborg, insurgent, and speculative. Just like Monáe constructs a Black queer future through sound, costume, and narrative, Black British English crafts a world beyond Empire through voice and vernacular.
From “mandem” to “allow it,” every utterance becomes a glitch in linear time, a tool for refusing the present and imagining otherwise.
This episode asks: What does our accent say about our future? And how do we use language to hack the system just like Janelle does?

What if Jamaican Patwa and West African Pidgin aren’t broken English but living African languages?
After my viral interview with Professor Hubert Devonish on the Caribbean roots of words like “pikini” and “sabi”, the diaspora responded with love — but not without backlash. Some people in the comments called us liars and a conversation about language and unity became distracted by a fight about identity.
This podcast is my response.
Join me as I unpack why I stand by the theory that Caribbean languages like Patwa and surinamese creole carry a deep African linguistic history seen in west African pidgins till today! It is the reason why we must unlearn colonial ideas about what counts as “proper” language.
We’ll explore linguistic resistance, the Middle Passage, and how African languages didn’t die they adapted, survived, and returned.
This is about more than words. It’s about memory, power, and reclaiming what’s ours.
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In this podcast episode, I talk about all things wrong with non-Black people jumping aboard and on the “God Forbid Challenge” currently trending on social media. I take you through a range of issues mentioned below too, including:1. Accent Discrimination- Research shows that attention to linguistic cues like accents may be more potent than visual cues like skin color (Kinzler et al., 2007, 2009) when it comes to discrimination.2. Blaccent Blackface- the phenomena of white people temporarily inhabiting a Black persona for a saucy tweet or comedic Instagram caption. When white people do this, not only are they making the uncomfortable choice to act like something they are not, they suggest that Blackness is something to be slipped in and out of: donned when it’s time to make your followers laugh or see you differently, and shorn when it’s time to be taken seriously- Study Breaks, Imani BenberrySo settle, get ready to learn and most of all share.Follow our instagram for me @theblackbritishenglishpodcast

This episode is all about my visit to the Jamaican Language Unit (JLU) at the University of the West Indies, Mona—and trust me, it was a beautiful experience! I got to sit down with Professor Hubert Devonish, the man behind it all, to talk about his work globally and locally on giving Jamaican Patois the recognition and flowers it deserves and the push to make Patois an official language. 
If you’ve ever wondered about the work being done to preserve and promote Caribbean languages on the islands this one’s for you. Tune in for all my reflections from my trip.
Further links- JAMAICAN LANGUAGE UNIT WEBSITE- https://www.mona.uwi.edu/dllp/jlu/background
Swan report- https://education-uk.org/documents/swann/swann1985.html

In this episode, I explore the meaning of this term coined by Dr April Baker Bell and explore the ways in which we see this type of linguistic racism come up. I lastly go into the ways in which we can call it out as Black language speakers.

Join your host Black Language Researcher Ife Thompson as she explores what makes something a “slang” and if what is called “UK Slang” meets the definition.