African Heritage

Africa is home to some of the world’s most imaginative names. For the natives, the name you are given is more than just a labelling tag, and helps shape your destiny writes Sunday Monitor Correspondent KAMAU MUTUNGA:

The culture of a nation resides in the heart and soul of its people. But for the people of Madagascar, their culture goes beyond their hearts, hurts and hats to the way they construct their huts.

For an understanding of the soul of their culture, one has to begin with their rather long names. Sample some: Renomenjahary Sitrakinianiania Jean Zuetienne, Razanakoto Sendraviaka Pirisoa Fandeferana, Rafara Malala Fetra Nemenjanohary Yvette. And the winner; Rakotomampiononjaharx Romuladon Jean Patri.

How do they write them on their identity cards? Or national team jerseys?

Well, they shorten them. Sitrika, Miavaka, Nekena and Romulando from the above names respectively. Even the 12-letter Antananarivo, the capital city whose name means “the city of a thousand”, is truncated to “Tana.” But picture asking directions to a town called Antsohimbondrona? Or to the home of the resident with a tongue biting such as Randriana Goulam Aly Amine Florida Gildas?
Each Malagasy name of countless consonants and tongue-twisting, repeated sounds is a saying, revealing something or the other about birth order, state of the family at time of birth, hopes and desires for the person, and such.

Seriously speaking
The mouthful Razafindrandriasimaniry thus means “the grandson of the prince who envies nobody”.
Traditionally, only single names were used, unlike in other parts of the world where people have European names, surnames and family names written, and pronounced, separately.

This naming is part of the culture of the Malagasy, as the inhabitants of the island are called. And although gradually changing, it is still popular among the natives.
Women, in particular, acquire longer names when they get married. If, say, Sahondra Mukamalala Rakotomalala marries Andriatsiferanarivo, her new name becomes Sahondra Mukamalala Andriatsiferanarivo Rakotomalala.

In the country of “a thousand hills” (Rwanda), long names are also vogue, like Dukuzumuremyi, pronounced “Doo-koo-zoo-moo-rem-yee” — Rwandese for “praise be to God”. Another is Imanairere, a female name translating to “God help me to grow”, and Mukantagara (born in a time of war).

Most of the names reflect years of Belgian rule, and the first names are invariably Francophone. We are talking names such as Pacifique and Seraphine. The same can be discerned in the neigbouring Burundi, where Pierre Claver Rwingema and Pasteur Bizimungu are the names of the prime minister and president, respectively.

The Rwandese write their Kinyarwanda names in capital letters.
In Africa, a surname is a mark of one’s identity and evidence of one’s roots, with the last name adopted for the sustenance of one’s family lineage. But the Rwandese rarely use them, unless a family intentionally adopts it.

This trend presented problems during family reunification efforts in the wake of the 1994 genocide. Over two million people fled with their families, but, six years later, thousands of children were yet to be reunited with their families because their names offered no direction.

For humour, look no further than Zimbabwe and countries in southern Africa. It is not uncommon for people in the land of Comrade Bob to have names such as Enough, Energy, Genius, Smile, Gift, Justice, Brilliant, Trust, Knowledge, Honour, Wedding, Funeral, Passion, Clever, Everloving and Anywhere.

In southern Africa, parents name their children as a way of recording an event, circumstance or weather conditions at the time of birth.

If it’s windy or rainy when you pop out, then Wind or Rain will be your name! Parents who sire a baby after years of “trying” might name it Tendai, or ‘gratitude’. One born in times of trouble could be named Tambudzai, literary meaning “no rest”.

Reminders of colonisers
In most African countries, people’s names were reminders of their English, Portuguese, Dutch or French colonisers, a tradition that was reinforced by missionaries through imposition.

Gradually, traditional names were given their English equivalents. This explains the prevalence of names such as Givethanks Paradza, Happyton Bonyongwe and Norest Pongo. Have-a-Look Dube and Energy Murambandoro are well known Zimbabwean footballers for Njube Sundowns and Mpumalanga Football Clubs, respectively.

Again, this trend posed problems for the locals, as some Zimbabweans were saddled with “troubled” names. Take the editor of The Herald, Zimbabwe’s main government-controlled newspaper, for example. His family was in the middle of an internal feud when he was born. To mark that trying period, he told the New York Times in 2007, his parents named him... wait for this... Hatred! Hatred Zenenga.

A mother of 13 children — and who has had enough of the ritual — would typically name the last born Enough, while one who was so plagued by ailments that survival appeared dim became Godknows.The most humorous case to illustrate the ingenuity of the Southerners is the one of a father who joined Zimbabwe’s civil wars in the Congo. On coming back home, he was horrified to discover that his wife had given birth to a son while he was away and, to make his suspicions clear, named the son Never Trust A Woman!

Africans reverted to their traditional names to regain their lost heritage after independence, but they still retained the interesting mix of traditional, Western and Christian names.

Former DR Congo president Mobutu Sese Seko altered the private nature of names and naming when he changed his country’s name to Zaire in 1971.

Jail terms
That move, he said, was aimed at unveiling the official ideology of “authenticity”, and further decreed that all Zaireans must dispense with Christian and other Western names in favour of African tags.
Any priest found guilty of giving Zairean children Christian names during baptism faced a five-year jail term.

That’s how the Zairean soccer team to the 1974 (West) Germany World Cup managed to have this line-up: Mwepu Ilunga, Mantanta Kidumu, Uba Kembo Kembo, Etepe Kakoko, Mafu Kibonge and Kazadi Mwamba, among others.

Titles like Mr and Mrs were also dropped in favour of “Citizen”, and the president changed his name from Joseph Desire to Citizen Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Zabanga — or “The All-Conquering Warrior Who Will Go From Conquest To Conquest, Leaving Fire In His Wake”. A more succinct translation in the Tshiluba tongue means “The Invincible Warrior; The Cock Who Leaves No Chick Intact”.

Besides personal names, “The great Strategist” also changed names of rivers and towns. River Congo became River Zaire. The towns of Leopoldville, Elizabethville and Stanleyville became Kinshasa, Lumbumbashi and Kisangani respectively.

Building a national spirit also included abandoning Western fashion for printed cloth for women, and collarless, Mao-style tunics for men, which were worn without shirt or tie. They became Mobutu’s signature dress code, complete with a leopard skin hat and thick, black-framed glasses.

And while “The Great Saviour” ironically ordered the shunning of most things Western while selling his country to big French and American corporations, this wave of nationalism produced a period of extraordinary creativity in fashion and music that saw the emergence of Zaire as a continental music powerhouse via the Congolese Rhumba genre of Franco, Tabu Ley, Baba Gaston and Dr Niko Kasanda.

As Howard French notes in Anatomy of an Autocracy, Zaireans “endured 31 years of a stupid, vicious dictatorship while cooking up the best music and tastiest caterpillars on the continent”.

In 1997, General Laurent Kabila took over control of Zaire when Mobutu was forced into exile in Morocco, and reverted it to its old name, the Democratic Republic of Congo, its sixth overall change of name. Citizens could also reclaim their names if they wished, he decreed.

Spared balderdash
North Africans, however, were spared such balderdash as they carry names connoting their Muslim faith and Arabic heritage.
Those in South Africa, on the other hand, sport names that retain traditional meaning. Hence jazz great Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse’s first name means “Gift”, while Bafana Bafana striker Siyabonga Nomvete’s first name means “we thank you”.

Naming babies in West Africa is very important. Parents believe the choice of a name can influence the life of both the child and his family. In Nigeria’s Igbo community, most names have a symbolic meaning and are grammatically constructed to constitute a complex expression, besides most carrying religious references. Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozo Adichie’s first name translates to “my God will never fail,” while Chinedu means “God guides”.

Others reflect the immediate surrounding or circumstances in which a child was born. And so Togolese and Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor’s surname stands for “born in a time of happiness”. Others are named after days of the week. In Ghana, those who born on Fridays are named Kofi (Annan) while those born on a Sunday are named Kwame (Nkrumah).

Most parents prefer names that might have an influence in the way the child turns out. Meaning an over-ambitious name could have significant repercussions, whereas a simple tag might carry the burden of lofty expectations. They believe words have meaning, and names have power.