This paper explores the role Pidgin can play in the linguistic decolonization of English speaking West African communities. It re-emphasizes the strong need to strive for linguistic independence in West Africa, especially in the domain of Education due to the advantages inherent in such a venture. This need has led to attempts in some countries to replace English with indigenous languages as media of instruction. These attempts have however not been successful as they hardly go beyond primary education, and the failure has been partly due to the problems of adaptation and lack of political will, but most especially because of the rather too wide linguistic diversity of the countries involved. Focusing on the Cameroon example, the paper posits that a codified and harmonized form of Pidgin, which indeed is a West African language, would successfully replace English as a language of education and national integration since it serves as a lingua franca between the different language communities. While recognizing Pidgin as a West African language, the paper will be looking at the advantages of adopting it as a language of education in the English medium educational system in Cameroon.
