My academic mentor, David Jowitt, who has died aged 82, made an enormous contribution to Nigerian English scholarship and spent more than 50 years teaching in schools, colleges and universities in Nigeria.
His devotion to the country led him to take a keen interest in the ways in which Nigerian people speak and write English, and his observations on that subject gave birth to a book, Nigerian English Usage, published in 1991.
He also wrote many research articles on aspects of Nigerian English and became a global figure in the subject. In addition, his book Common Errors in English was much in demand within secondary schools in Nigeria from the 1980s.
David was born in Hackney, east London, to James, a delivery driver, and Catherine (nee Kitt), a seamstress and milliner. Raised in Wood Green, he was educated at the Stationers’ Company’s school (1952-59), before gaining a history degree at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
Driven by a desire to explore the world, he arrived in Nigeria in 1962 at a time when, following Nigeria’s independence in 1960, many British expatriates were heading back to the UK.
His first teaching position, in 1963, was at the Anglican grammar school in Ubulu-Uku, where he taught a wide range of subjects, including English, history, Latin, French and fine art. After two years there he returned to the UK to study for a postgraduate teaching course (1965-66).
Desperate to return to Nigeria, he then took up a job at Dennis Memorial grammar school in Onitsha, where he taught history and English.
Shortly afterwards the Nigerian civil war broke out, and after a short spell back in the UK he taught English in Libya (1971-73). Going back to Nigeria after the war, he began teaching English at the Federal College of Education in Okene before becoming a senior lecturer at Bayero University in 1987. Rising to the rank of professor in 1998, he taught there until moving in 2005 to the University of Jos as a professor of English, remaining in that post until his death.
Over the years David produced much educational material for Nigerian schools, especially textbooks, including Gateway to English for Junior Secondary Schools (2005). I was a beneficiary of David’s good-heartedness, having stayed under his intellectual tutelage since 2008 when I first met him.
A speaker of four Nigerian languages – Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Ebira – he officially became a Nigerian citizen earlier this year.
He said to me that one of the reasons he remained in Nigeria was that he had become too “Nigerianised” to fit back into British culture. He especially loved the Nigerians’ ability to laugh, despite the many problems they face within their country.
He is survived by his sister Audrey.
