Dear African, What is your Name?

Agwu Okebulu Elezuo

Names are terms for differentiating and clarifying our identies while categorising us into a system. It is also well known that one of thesocial impacts European colonialism had on the African Psyche,was specially on the culture of African names and naming tradition.

I am not advocating that we do away with English or foreign names,because they have become interwoven with our society based on religious and cultural assimilation, However we must understand the centrality of names in creating, retaining and reclaiming our African Identity.

It has reached a pitiable point where many Africans are embarrassed to say their traditional names. Speaking personally, It is a total disappointment for me, for example, whenever I introduce my self to a fellow African, or Nigerian, and I say “my name is Okebulu”, and find a spell of disgust on their face. Some go on to ask you if you have any other English name.

I do think there is a lot of learning and relearning to do in Africa, we must go back and perfectly understand the peculiarity of culture and Identity and it’s importance to a people. But for now, we could begin here:

Oke-mmadu: Igbo name depicting a great/strong person.

Oke-agu: Igbo name for depicting a great/strong lion (metaphorical for a valiant and strong individual)

Oke-ebulu: Abiriba /Igbo name depicting a strong male ram (metaphorical for a strong /great individual).

Considering the importance of metaphors in the oral culture of theIgbo’s of Nigeria as a case study, and Africa at large, we must come to appreciate the beauty of our African names and identity, and refuse unsuspecting Eurocentrism ideologies and tendencies, which massively coats us deeper in ignorance and disunity.

My name as a case study is a strong metaphorical name which depicts a strong individual who will withstand the pull of life challenges, ridicule and rough terrains, and fight or struggle with its horns (confidence) like the “ebulu (ram)” without showing any sign of weakness.

The knowledge about the greatness of my name worries and irritatesme when I am asked by certain individuals to ask me for an alternative name. Folks from Christian perspectives will site reasons of the name been associated with fetish and malevolent phenomenons. Others from Eurocentrism perspective will perceive it as too local. Too local? My identity?

The name Cynthia for instance, is a Greek term for the goddess of fire, of which countless Africans bear. Is it perceived as fetish too for it’s meaning?

On the issue of Baptism, which accounts for why some Africans change their African names to Christian or European names, there is no portion of the Bible mandating people to change their native names at baptism. Jesus retained his name after Baptism, Phillip babtised the Ethiopian Eunuch and there was no record of change of name. So where did this strange manipulative practice sprout from? Inferiority complex?

Have you ever wondered why some individuals are named Wisdom, but their lives are flawed from foolish decisions? I’ll tell you; because it’s in the mentality and not the names.

As aptly expressed by Cecil Hume a Calypso artiste of Trinidad and Tobago, in his song Black Identity:

“The first thing that is a shame, African people with European name….

If yuh hear Seecharan, Ramkhalawan, Lalchan, Balchan, We’ll bet yuh life that is an East Indian man!

Jose, Juan, Gonzalez, Manuel, Sanchez, Pablo, Yuh sure dem fellas from Mexico!

So why my name couldn’t be N-jaca [satire on the local black conscious movement NJAC], Lumumba, Makeba, or Kenyatta?

If we use these names then we sure to be on the stairway to true Black Identity.

Now some people walk round in Dashiki, some preach Ashanti, some Swahili,

But when they dead, go and look at dey tombstone –Is Patterson, Atkinson, Jackson, Calhearn
That is counterfeit identity, these people must be lost in world history.” (Cecil Hume Black Identity, 1973)

We must teach our children and incoming generations to cherish their culture and appreciate their names because we are Africans as the Jews are Jews, and the English, English. Our names are our Identities and we ought to be proud of it. We hold pride of who weare as a people, our rich heritage and royal identity.

… Elezuo wrote in from Asaba.