In a world where even the act of speaking is infused with power, names,
whether protective or emboldening, proverbial or predictive, exalted
or even seemingly indelicate, are of the highest traditional
significance. In the Western world, very few socio-cultural factors
influence the dynamics of name-giving, hence the shrugged-off, almost
rhetorical question, “What’s in a name?”
They are entirely interchangeable and unrevealing. But in African
culture, many factors are at work in the naming process and a seemingly
simple name can hold someone’s entire biography. An African name is
much more than a simple, functional tag to identify someone, it is a
symbol, an emblem. A name can shape someone’s character, mold their
social identity, and even influence their destiny.
The meaning attached to a name will determine much about the present
and the future of a child. One can often infer someone’s socio-cultural
aspects from their name: their ethnicity, their gender, but also their
day or date of birth, their family’s occupation, their social and
political class, the religion and deities they follow, the hopes and
dreams of their parents, etc. It can also express the values, ethics,
and beliefs of the culture they are born into
Traditional African names often have unique stories behind them.
Whichever ethnic group you look at, these local names reveal a wealth
of information about the bearer. Among several ethnic groups, picking
out names can be influenced by positive or negative circumstances the
family finds themselves in around the time a child is born. Often, such names are complete sentences.
Such names include among others; Balibaseka (they were mocking,
Luganda), Kokundeka (better leave me, Runyankole), Ensinikweri (that’s
how the world is, Runyankole) and the list continues
Conversely, our African identity has been wiped out to a deep extent
owing to the rejection of our naming cultures and traditions. What we
have now is a show of British imperialism and brainwashing. It seems
that giving your child African names without a first Western name is
uncool. This is terrible!
Hardly do you see non-Africans giving their children African names.
It is almost unheard of. Yet, Africans are unsatisfied with their
names. We collect names from everywhere, mainly from our colonizers.
British colonies in Africa use British names, and French colonies use
French names. Keep in mind Africa is not the only continent that was
colonized. Even the now mighty China was colonized but has since
independence emancipated herself from the colonizers' cultures
As Africans, we need to love ourselves more. We need to stand up and
identify with our culture by starting with the little things. Our
African names matter and identify us with our land and culture. There
was no King of England called Mwangi. You can't hear people in Russia
being called Nafula or Ife. It is time for us to be content to call
our children African names without a Western name to restore our
Africanness. However, this is not to mean we should be anti-Western.
This is purely a matter of a lost culture, pride, and identity; and
how that affects our present and future.
The world is moving towards a more global and less national and
continental phase. We have to embrace globalization and all its
goodies. We can't abandon scientific knowledge and technology. That
would be not very smart! But as we embrace these global benefits, we
should be able to own up to who we are.
When we travel abroad, we should proudly say we are Adofo, Nana, Chidi,
Nagaddya or Ombati. People should stop and ask where we are from. They
should not hear our names and on seeing us think we are phonies who
can't accept out blackness and "Africanness".
It isn’t surprising however that all of my friends who come to know
about my recently adopted name have asked the question; why, why change
the name? My submission is that I’ve not changed any name because I
previously didn’t have one, what I did was Reclaiming My Identity,
which my great grandfathers had long-lost on the plantations during
the horrible days of slavery.
Therefore, what I carried all along (and what most Africans still
carry) was an identification tag (slave name) which was forcefully
adopted by our forefathers, after being stripped off their Africanness
(their African names) by their slave masters. Finally, I’ll quote just
a few wise words by the greatest of our kind;
1) “They laughed at your clothes; and made you change your clothes,
they laughed at your names; and made you change your name; but more
importantly they laughed at your God; and made you change your God.”
– John Henrik Clarke
2) “You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself, that values itself,
that values itself.” – Wangari Maathai
3) “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” – Frederick Douglass
4) “To control a people, you must first control what they think about
themselves and how they regard their history and culture. And when
your conqueror makes you ashamed of your culture and your history,
he needs no prison walls and no chains to hold you.” – John Henrik
Clarke
5) "I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if
they knew they were slaves.” – Harriet Tubman
Whereas the first three quotes clearly explain the reason why I
personally chose to reclaim my identity by adopting an African name,
the last two also explain why the majority of Africans find pride in
having British, French, Spanish and Portuguese “identification tags”
as names. They must therefore not be blamed In his book; Know Thyself, The Honorable Dr. Na’im Akbar writes; “It is not accidental that the changing of the names of the Africans who were made into slaves was an initial step in the miseducation process.
Being given the names of their masters or from the cultural traditions
of their masters actually identified them in very basic ways as the
property of their masters. People can only belong to themselves if
their identity is an outgrowth of their history, their culture, their
reality and their survival needs.”
To expound on the matter, Credo Mutwa, in his book; Africa’s Hidden
History, has this to say; “They had deliberately so brain washed our people, that Africans had lost all self-knowledge, self-love, self-respect, self-pride and self-dependency." If you rob a people of all these things you turn them into a race of robots, forever dependent
upon you. And even if you stood up and walked away from these people,
and said to them that you were giving them back their freedom, they
would stand up and follow you wherever you are going for their minds
we're still your slaves even though their bodies were now free of your
chains.
"It is therefore pertinent to note that slavery wasn’t all
about physical torture, but rather capturing the African mind!"
Note; This document is purely a reflection of my personal thoughts and
opinion, guided by my consciousness, developed over years of research.
I’ve got no moral authority whatsoever to judge or criticize anyone
by their opinions. Nonetheless, I wholly concur with Jesse Jackson,
that; “You may not be responsible for being down, but you must be
responsible for getting up!”
Fish or Hook? - A Personal Call for Sustainable Solutions
WRITTEN BY: JARAMOGI KHALFANI ADOFO ODHIAMBO
Prior to subjecting the opinions expressed in this document to debate
or conscious analysis, I challenge whoever deems it necessary to find
and digest the attached book; “Dead Aid; Why Aid Is Not Working and
How There Is a Better Way for Africa”. I advise so because Dambisa
Moyo presents a more clear and unbiased view on how we ought to help
if we must. My submission follows the SACC-Kenya Meeting of 08/29/2021
Throughout the entire month of August, the subject; Reproductive Health
(Menstrual Hygiene) has sounded as one that needs to be responded to
with some level of urgency. This is indeed a well-thought rescue
mission for thousands of our disadvantaged girls whose stories one
might not want to hear or even imagine, thanks to Queen Emma Mitchell
and Amazing Grace Centre Kenya for the safe places’ initiative.
Taking a Free-Pads Program for example, would it be sustainable or
practical in the long run if we chose to collect donated pads say from
Columbia or anywhere else and then import them to Bungoma County,
Kenya? My submission is that such an approach wouldn’t be the most
appropriate. In the book earlier quoted, Pg. 53 under sub-heading “Aid
effectiveness: a micro—macro paradox”, Dambisa Moyo makes a very
pertinent observation as quoted hereunder;
“There’s a mosquito net maker in Africa. He manufactures around 500
nets a week. He employs ten people, who (as with many African
countries) each have to support upwards of fifteen relatives. However
hard they work, they can’t make enough nets to combat the malaria-
carrying mosquito. Enter vociferous Hollywood movie star who rallies
the masses, and goads Western governments to collect and send 100,000
mosquito nets to the itched region, at a cost of a million dollars.
The nets arrive, the nets are distributed, and a ‘good’ deed is done
With the market flooded with foreign nets, however, our mosquito net
maker is promptly put out of business. His ten workers can no longer
support their 150 dependents (who are now forced to depend on
handouts), and one mustn’t forget that in a maximum of five years the
majority of the imported nets will be torn, damaged and of no further
use. This is the micro–macro paradox. A short-term efficacious
intervention may have few discernible, sustainable long-term benefits”
Such an observation may look or sound biased for someone who’s willing
and ready to unleash aid to any part of Africa just for the sake of
it. In lie of the quoted text, I present a more practicable and
sustainable approach to such a challenge.
When Universal Primary Education was instituted in Uganda starting
1997, it took another seven years for the whole country to realize
what educationists and social workers knew all along; that enrolment
and retention are different things. For while the enrolment almost
quadrupled when free education was announced, at the end of the seven-
year primary cycle, the number of children sitting for the national.
Primary Leaving Examinations was dwindling to almost half of those who
had started out in the first year of school
Several reasons for the high dropout rate were advanced, but one was
specific to the girls – menstruation. The onset of puberty simply made
many girls stop going to school. In the less developed remote areas
like Karamoja in north eastern Uganda, it means an awfully big
proportion of the girls who had beaten other odds to join formal
school. In this still extremely traditional society, a girl simply
couldn’t be let to be among others when she was bleeding, and visibly
at that. The sad state of affairs continued until it was no longer
tenable and two decades since the institution of UPE, that had long
been followed by Universal Secondary School –USE for the second school
cycle, the government announced that it would provide sanitary towels
for all adolescent schoolgirls
The government pledge for availing sanitary pads was however hindered
by shortage of funds. But some people were ready to give up on keeping
menstruating Karimojong girls in school. Working through the
Trailblazers Mentoring foundation –TMF, UNICEF with Irish Aid; from
2016-2020 chose to run a five-year program for strengthening
education in the region. One component of the program focused on
menstrual health which involved the Making of Reusable Pads
The old adage that action speaks louder than words was completely
proven with the menstrual pads project. It simply worked and delivered
what the whole country’s budgetary process had pronounced an
impossibility. Today, the girls of Karamoja can all have clean,
reusable menstrual pads, thanks to the creative initiative of having
them manufactured in the schools by the children themselves. And no
less than a cultural revolution is taking place as boys are equally
involved in making the pads for the girls!!
In their students’ club sessions, the teenage adolescents work in
pairs – a boy and a girl – to measure, draw, cut, shape and sew the
different layers and materials that make the reusable finished
menstrual pad. Five years ago, it would have been difficult to imagine
and describe the scene. In remote, conservative Karamoja, describing
the scene would have been an impossible fantasy. But it is happening
all over the region today.
From the outset, TMF decided to incorporate the boys in the pad making
exercise and it was a smart thing to do. For one major benefits of the
boys’ involvement has been making menstruation a normal thing in this
conservative community. The boy champions in the GECs are not only
doing a good job complimenting the girls, some of them are boldly
viewing entrepreneurial prospects of making the pads for sale to women
outside the education sector. Today, girls in the Karamoja districts
so far covered by the program can only drop out of school for other
reasons, but not menstruation.
In conclusion; to help we must for that’s why we are here. However, I
would suggest to our dedicated members as we begin to lay out rescue
plans intended for the good of our people, that we must not prioritize
giving fish to them if the same or less amount of resources can be
used to train and equip them with fishing skill or even the necessary
fishing gear. Let’s opt for projects that will outlive us!!
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