We Do Need New Names!

When I first saw the book by NoViolet Bulawayo “We Need New Names” I immediately bought it without knowing what it was about. For the first time I bought a book based on the title. The motivating factor was that it was written by a black author and I immediately assumed she was writing about a peeve I have long held, that of Africans having “English” names.

As a believer in ideas and concepts related to pan-africanism; Thabo Mbeki’s African Renaissance and black consciousness, it seems contradictory for us to be parading in the names of our former colonisers and enslavers.

So if Steve Biko were still alive and he still called himself Steve, and I got to meet him, I’d ask him why he hadn’t reverted to using his African name Bantu as a first name?

The generation of my parents had English names because they were born during the colonial era and for various reasons they were given those names. Some chose English names because they were baptised and given names in line with their adopted Christian faith and others were given English names as their African names were hard for the white man’s tongue to execute, as was the case with Nelson Mandela.

It’s easy to undermine or try forget the impact that colonialism had on the destruction of the African identity and self-worth. I was shocked when I heard my mother sing England’s national anthem during one of the 2010 World Cup games. I had forgotten that she had grown up in colonial Swaziland and prior to independence in 1968, Swazis like many colonised African people across the continent, had to sing to and praise the might and glory of their colonisers, European Gods, Kings, Queens and peoples through national anthems, literature, poetry etc. That I easily recognise the tune to America’s Star Spangled Banner and don’t know the tune of Ghana’s national anthem, I shamefully choose to blame on globalisation and its accompanying colonisation of a different type.

What is it in a name that should make me uncomfortable and feel as if it strips my African-ness or Blackness? Most of my beloved East African friends have English names, young people born in the 1980s bare names like Jonathan, Edgar, Caroline and Alice. Yet, they proudly speak Swahili more fluently than they do English. And although I assumed that their parents gave them English names as they were raised in colonial Tanzania and Kenya, I expected them to give their children “African” names. To my horror most of them are giving their children English names!

Unfortunately I have to quote William Shakespeare, “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” is it not true then that an African is still an African no matter the name she goes by? What’s in a name indeed?

This was a hot question debated recently as residents (mostly white residents) of Nelspruit led by the Lowveld Chamber of Business took government to high court in a bid to prevent the changing of Nelspruit to Mbombela. I can imagine that they’ll argue that the cost to their businesses and the municipality will be too high to justify the changing of names. Off course they refuse to accept that the name change, which is reflective of the history of the majority population will serve their businesses in the long run. How?

Economically empowering black people makes business sense as this leads to more people having purchasing power, the bigger the economy and participants, the more money for business. A key enabler to economic empowerment is patriotism or a national identity. Before everyone can be equally proudly South African we need to deal with issues of race and gender inequality, but especially race. As a black person, to live in a town called Nelspruit on Hendrik Verwoerd Street does not inspire confidence in me or the black majority in general because everything around me reflects negatively on my identity. It gives life to apartheid, colonial and slave perspectives of black people as a defeated and disempowered people.

All around the globe, thriving economies centralise the importance of a positive heritage that gives life to a patriotic identity. Self-assured people are ambitious, hard-working, innovative, involved, rise to leadership; all important elements in driving a growing economy. Every French person is proud of Napoleon Bonaparte whose legacy is central to the modern French identity. His legacy inspires pride that for the most part drives the French people to work hard, protect their democracy and heritage and to grow their economy.

I have always agreed with Oprah when she refuses to accept that the word “nigger” can mean or be anything but derogatory towards black people. The hip hop community may think that they have redefined its meaning and own it in a positive way, but the bottom-line is that it’s origin is oppressive. Similarly, for black people to mindlessly give themselves and their children English names and not support name changes of streets and towns betrays the fact that we have triumphed over an oppressive past and need to reclaim our identity in order to move forward and be an exceptional nation. Just as those moving to hold onto their past by challenging name changes; we need to act the victors and display our history and heritage proudly, everywhere!