What Afrikan Names May (or May Not) Tell Us About the State of Pan-Afrikanism

Abstract

Names are important to Afrikan=Black people of the continent and diaspora as, traditionally, one’s name is seen as playing a crucial role in the fulfillment (or lack thereof) of one’s life purpose. However, due to enslavement and neo-enslavement in the diaspora as well as colonialism and neo-colonialism on the continent, many Afrikan=Black people now give their children the names of their enslavers or colonial enemies. In this article, we utilize a comparative anthroponymic analysis making use of case studies from two institutions, namely, the Institute of African Studies (IAS)–University of Ghana at Legon and Abibitumi Kasa, with locations in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Accra, Ghana, in order to observe how some Afrikan=Black people adopt Eurasian names and/or reclaim Afrikan names, as well as the forms such names take. In our findings, we observe that in the case of names from Abibitumi Kasa, pulling largely from the diaspora, Afrikan=Black individuals tend to have names from all over the Afrikan world whereby the first name may be from one cultural-linguistic group while the surname is from another. There also may be a disparity whereby a preferred Afrikan=Black name may be different from one’s “legal” name, which may still be Eurasian. In the case of IAS, we find that names tend to be either from colonial enemies, a single Afrikan cultural-linguistic group, or a mixture of these two. In conclusion, we argue that these tendencies of the continent and the diaspora as represented by these two Afrikan=Black institutions may serve as a litmus test for understanding the current state of Pan-Afrikanism.

Keywords

Afrikan names pan-Afrikanism Abibitumi Kasa Institute of African Studies neo-enslavement neo-colonialism

Look, your name will exist forever in the temple (of the Netcher)! (Griffith, 1889, p. 23)

Introduction and Background

This study was sparked by a conversation at the annual conference of the Linguistics Association of Ghana in 2013 at the University of Cape Coast. In the context of an informal conversation after one of the sessions, a Ghanaian colleague remarked to the first author of this article that Afrikans of the diaspora have an odd practice of changing their names and “randomly” picking one Afrikan name from, say, East Afrika, and another name from somewhere on the other side of the continent. In the ensuing conversation, I reflected upon an observation that I had made previously in terms of an even more marked practice whereby Ghanaians will have one Afrikan name with another British, German, Dutch, or Hebrew name from somewhere on the other side of the world. I further reflected upon this discussion and I considered that many Ghanaians have the assumption that Afrikans of the diaspora with Afrikan names must have necessarily changed their names, neglecting the fact that many are born with Afrikan names due to the Afrikan consciousness of their parents. On the other side, many Afrikans of the diaspora are completely unaware that there are continental Afrikans who have Eurasian first and last names and who have never had any Afrikan name whatsoever due to factors such as historical circumstances and/or anti-Afrikan consciousness/Eurasian religions/missionary schools.

More profoundly, there seems to be a major gap in the literature in that studies on Akan names, Yorùbá names, and onomastics/anthroponymy of Afrikan cultural-linguistic groups tend to focus on wholly indigenous names and how naming was done traditionally 100, 200, or more years ago before the massive incursion of Eurasian cultural imperialism disguised as universalism. Many of these studies do not take into account that there are many Afrikans who self-identify as ethnically Akan, Yorùbá, Gĩkũyũ, Zulu, Vai, Mandinka, and many others who do not bear Afrikan names in content, form, structure, origin, or meaning. In some places, even when an Afrikan name is used, it may be only in the context of the household while, in public, a Eurasian name is preferred and used. This study, therefore, hopes to fill a significant gap in the literature in terms of what names are Afrikans of the continent and the diaspora giving ourselves and our children as one of many potentially significant indicators in terms of the current state of Pan-Afrikanism. This study also aims to fill a gap in terms of comparative onomastics by means of synchronically comparing and contrasting Afrikan naming practices of the continent and the diaspora via an ambitious pilot study targeting two specific institutions whose stakeholder bases are overwhelmingly biogenetically Afrikan=Black.

As such, in this study, we will look at the names of Afrikans belonging to two different institutions and ponder the implications of these names. Various proverbs, idioms, and other primary sources speak to the significance of names for Afrikan=Black people. In the concept of destiny as found in Afrikan=Black languages such as Akan and Yorùbá, known as nkrabea and àyànmọ́/àkúnlẹ̀yàn, respectively, the name is seen as playing a significant role in its fulfillment or lack thereof. According to Mazama (2018), destiny can be redefined by one’s oppressors through renaming an individual or group thereby depriving Afrikan=Black people of “the strength, power, and structuring meanings derived from our culture” and by “causing us to give up our African agency.” Thus, names are important to Afrikan=Black people of the continent and the diaspora mainly because they interact with or they have an impact on one’s life and purpose and this is an Afrikan thought. This concept can be seen in the Yorùbá proverb Orúkọ ń roni; àpèjà ń roni “One’s name affects one’s character; one’s war name determines how one behaves” (Owomoyela, 2005, p. 271). However, due to enslavement, neo-enslavement, colonialism, and neo-colonialism, oftentimes, these days Afrikans give their children names of their Eurasian enemies including, but not limited to, (white) Americans, Arabs, Israelis, British, French, Belgians, Afrikaaners/Dutch, Germans, Portuguese, Russians, and Indo-Aryans. In this article, we utilize a comparative anthroponymic (human name) analysis making use of case studies from two institutions (Institute of African Studies [IAS]–University of Ghana at Legon and Abibitumi Kasa) in order to observe how some Afrikan=Black people adopt Eurasian names and/or retain/reclaim Afrikan names and the form such names take.

Afrikan Names as Conceptualized in Traditional Afrikan Proverbs and Reflections

According to Akinnaso (1980),

the basic purpose of naming is to provide a symbolic system of individual identification. Like every aspect of culture, such a symbolic system is usually historically constructed, socially maintained, and based on shared assumptions and expectations of members of a particular community. (p. 277)

Thus, for Akinnaso, the basic function of naming is to serve as a system of individual identification. This idea is encapsulated in the proverb Nítorí ọjọ́ tí ọmọ bá maa dáràn ni ó ṣe ní orúkọ tirẹ̀ “It is because of the day a child will commit an offence that he/she has his own name” (i.e., Each person has a name, which will be used to identify him or her whenever there is a problem; Fasiku, 2006, p. 56). The same concept is found in the Akan proverb Onyankopɔn mpɛ nsɛmmɔne nti na ɔkyɛɛ din mmaako mmaako “The Supreme Being doesn’t like badness so he/she gave names one by one” or Nsɛmmɔne nti na yɛkyɛ din “Because of badness, names are given” (Opong, 2002, p. 176). Mambo Ama Mazama (2018) gives a tripartite function of names as incorporating (a) the integrative social function of names, (b) the spiritual alignment function of names to seal and reveal one’s destiny, and (c) the psychological function, which lets the child/world know how the name-giver sees the child and what is expected of the child.

Additionally, in the Afrikan context, the construction of personal names may demonstrate lexical, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and pragmatic considerations relative to the cultural-linguistic group from which the name is derived (Akinnaso, 1980; Obeng, 1998, 1999; Orie, 2002). For Obeng (2001), Afrikan names provide channels that speak for and about their societies. Worth quoting at length, he states that names

. . . are used to achieve a number of goals, including showing human relationships and social roles; revealing Africans’ quest for truth and meaning in life; showing the polarity—e.g., goodness and badness—in human behavior; pointing to the name users (name-givers’ or name-bearers’) hopes, dreams and aspirations; showing Africans’ perception of cosmic elements like the sun, moon, wind, and rain; and many others. African names may reflect the name-users’ geographical environment as well as their fears, religious beliefs, and philosophies of life and death. Children’s names may even provide insights into important cultural or socio-political events at the time of their birth. (p. 1)

Fasiku (2006) echoes this sentiment noting that this phenomenon is not limited to the Yorùbá stating that “Among Africans, names reflect the worldview of a people, hence some names are used to accentuate and situate the significance of an experience, an event or a phenomenon” (p. 50). Speaking with regard to the Yorùbá socio-cultural context specifically, Oduyọye (1972) avers that “virtually every name has an extant meaning” (p. 4). For Johnson (1966), Afrikan names express “what the child is, or what he or she is hoped to become” (p. 85).

A similar view is demonstrated in an interview by Obeng (2001) wherein the Akan interviewee stated,

Sɛnea yɛde wo to Temanmuhunu a, woremmɔ bra pa biara, na yɛde wo to Kɔɔayie a, ayie mpa wo fie da no, saa ara nso na sɛ yɛde wo to Afiriyie a, berɛ biara na siadeɛ di w’anim.

Just as one leads an unproductive life if one is named Sit-in-a-country-do-nothing, or one’s life is riddled with deaths (funerals) if one is named S/he-went-to-a-funeral, so does one have good luck in abundance if one is named He-came-at-a-good-time. (Kwabena Darko in Obeng, 2001, p. 1)

This quote basically conveys the essential idea that Afrikan=Black names are thought to have an influence on one’s life, path, and destination. A similar sentiment is expressed in the following Yorùbá proverbs:

Orúkọ ọmọ ni ìjánu ọmọ “A child’s name is his/her bridle.”

Orúkọ níí ro ọmọ “A child is influenced by his/her name.”

Orúkọ ìsọ ọmọ níí mọ́ ọmọ l’ára “A child gets used to behaving like his/her name.”

Ọmọ asẹ́gità tí ń ta èèpo igi, orúkọ l’ó ń rò “The child of the wood dealer who sells wood’s bark is influenced by his/her name.”

A similar proverb in Kiswahili may indeed serve as a relevant conceptual framework for understanding the current state of Pan-Afrikanism: Ukirithi jina urithi na mambo yake “If you inherit a name you must also adopt its affairs.” That is to say, those with Afrikan, non-Afrikan, or anti-Afrikan names may indeed adopt Afrikan, non-Afrikan, or anti-Afrikan affairs on the basis of the names that they bear—particularly with regard to engaging in pan-Afrikan naming practices or not.

In articulation of the connection between the circumstances of a child’s birth and the name that he or she may bear, it is stated that

Na me nana-baa frɛ me Ama Kɔɔayie efisɛ yɛwoo me Memeneda; ɛda a ɔhene panin no wuiɛ no. Nso nnipa a yɛne wɔn bɔ afipam no frɛ me Ama Dapaa efisɛ saa Memeneda no yɛ dapaa.

My grandmother used to call me Ama Kɔɔayie “Saturday-born female person who went to a funeral” because I was born on Saturday, the day on which the big Chief passed away. However, the people in our neighborhood call me Ama Dapaa because that day was “Holy” Saturday. (Ama Dapaa in Obeng, 2001, p. 25)

A Yorùbá proverb that speaks to this issue is Ilé l’à á wò kí a tó sọ ọmọ l’órúkọ “The home is what we look at before we name a child” (i.e., “A child is named according to the circumstances of the home”; Fasiku, 2006, p. 53). In a similar quote with regard to birth circumstances an interviewee says,

Efie obiara frɛ no Kwame Hema anaasɛ Kwame Ɔpɛ efisɛ yɛwoo no Memeneda anɔpahema ɔpɛ berɛ mu.

At home everyone calls him Male-born-on-Saturday-at-dawn or Male-born-on-Saturday-in-the-dry-season because he was born on Saturday at dawn during the dry season. (Kofi Agyare in Obeng, 2001, p. 9)

Thus, Afrikan names “constitute an integral part of human existence” as they can be “instruments of arousing, defining, manifesting and establishing the expectations, aspirations and consciousness of the bearers” (Fasiku, 2006, p. 52).

A proverb that demonstrates this idea is found below:

A sọ ọmọ ní Sódé, ó lọ Ẹ̀bì, ó dé, a sọ ọmọ ní Sóbọ̀, ó lọ àjò, ó bọ̀; a wá sọ ọmọ ní Sórìnlọ, ó lọ s’ájò kò dé mọ́, a ńṣọ; tani kò mọ̀ pé ilé l’ọmọ ti mú orúkọ anù lọ (we name a child Sódé, he went to Ẹ̀bì and returned, we name a child Sóbọ̀, he went on a journey and returned; we now name a child Sórìnlọ, he went on a journey and never returned, we are expecting him, who does not know that the child takes the name of never return from home), demonstrating that the name of a person can, in a sense be a platform for the destiny of the bearer thus providing an explanation for the bearer’s behaviour. (Fasiku, 2006, p. 56)

So important were/are names considered to be by Afrikan=Black people that even during life, people could be essentially deprived of existence by banning their names: for example, a man named Mentuhotep, who had been banished from society, could be referred to as “he who is separate from the name Mentuhotep” (Hayes, 1955, 54, 57–58).

Politicization of Afrikan Names

Beyond these aspects of Afrikan naming, names may also be political both in terms of content and the circumstances surrounding them (Obeng, 2001). According to Mazama (2009), the naming process reflects a deeper issue of self-definition, which is inherently political, particularly in the context of neo-enslavement and neo-colonialism. According to Azania (1988), cited in Akwamu (2004),

The first step in one’s struggle for freedom (free-mind) is the naming of oneself with the best of names that identify with the best of one’s vanglorious [sic] past. Rejecting the slave name, protesting against it, is actually defying it. This marks the place where a substantial step towards self-determination is made. (Zolo Agona Azania, political prisoner on Indiana’s death row; p. 1)

He goes on to argue that:

To destroy [something] is to call it by any name you see fit. However, the case may be, whole nations have been destabilized, disrupted, put into social confusion, brainwashed, misdirected, deprived of food and re-named after they were conquered. The power to educate and train people to uplift themselves on one hand, and to tear down and destroy somebody else on the other, is a power game to name. (Akwamu, 2004, p. 2; Azania, 1988)

This process is referred to by Mazama (2018) as the double process of cultural suppression and conversion which encompasses the “obliteration of the original identity by denying one’s African name” and the “severance of ties with original self-governing community through de-naming and renaming.”

Afrikan Names and Pan-Afrikanism

We can examine traditional Afrikan=Black names and their role in recording history and birth circumstances and also in terms of proverbial, political, survival, hypocoristic, spiritual (divination) names, and so on. To this, we can add the more overtly political aspect of naming in asserting one’s identity and as a form of resistance against suppression and conversion. A related consideration relates to the name that one gives one’s child/receives from one’s family or community and how that process is political. This naming process relates to what one truly owns and what belongs to a person. Three evaluative criteria can also be considered with regard to Pan-Afrikanism, which can be thought of in terms of the “three Rs”:

How it RELATES

How it is RELATIVE

How it is RELEVANT. (Kambon, 2007, p. 43)

In the context of names, we can ask how does the name relate to Pan-Afrikanism, how is it relative and how is it relevant?

In this study, we will look at what different naming patterns may tell us about the state of Pan-Afrikanism. In its initial conception, the agenda set for the Pan-Afrikanism Movement by its founders, and the coiners of the term "Pan-Africanism" itself, contains the following projects:

To promote unity feeling and friendly intercourse among the peoples of the Negro/Afrikan race;

To achieve self-rule with civil rights and responsible Black governments for colonized Negro countries;

To achieve voting rights, physical security, prosperity, progress, and justice for Afrikans abroad (Negroes in the countries of the white race);

To promote the business interests of Afrikans abroad (Afrikan people living in the countries of the whites);

To create “a great central Negro State in Africa” for the Black race;

To secure integrity and independence for self-governing Negro countries (Ethiopia, Haiti, Liberia, and any others that emerge); and

To earn for the Negro race equality with, and the respect of, the other races of humanity (Chinweizu, in press).

Although, of course, naming was not an explicit objective of Pan-Afrikanism, it fits in with core goals related to self-determination. This is expressed by Mambo (Professor) Mazama as the “first act of agency” (Mazama, 2018). Thus, naming is certainly in alignment with the spirit of Pan-Afrikanism in its original conception. This begs the question of how much do we buy into Pan-Afrikan agency and self-determination as expressed through the names we call ourselves and that we give to our children?

More specifically, while Pan-Afrikanism may be included under goals, hopes, dreams, aspirations, philosophies of life or political anthroponyms, at this juncture, it may be useful to develop a test of sorts to assess how a name relates, is relative, and/or is relevant to Pan-Afrikanism. Such an assessment may involve

a. whether a name is indigenous Afrikan or not;

b. whether a name is restricted to one cultural-linguistic/ethnic group;

c. whether or not a name is restricted to one country; and

d. the relevance of the name’s meaning to Pan-Afrikanism.

Generally speaking, with regard to (3a), for example, one may interpret an indigenous Afrikan name as being expressive of a more Pan-Afrikan tendency than, say, a wholly Eurasian name. By the same token, one may expect a name restricted to one cultural-linguistic/ethnic group to be more expressive of ethnic consciousness than of a Pan-Afrikan consciousness in any broad sense of the term. That is to say, if one is Afrikan, yet the only names that one regards as truly one’s own or worth passing to the next generation are Eurasian names or those that happen to come from one’s own village, this raises serious questions about how internalized that pan-Afrikan identity actually is. Where the name may transcend ethnic boundaries, a further question may involve whether or not the name extends beyond the artificial neo-colonial Berlin-Conference cages referred to as countries in which many continental Afrikans are now located. In other words, where ethnic boundaries are transcended, it may not be due to the intentionality of understanding that all Afrikan names are one’s own heritage to be passed on, but simply due to the circumstances of having one parent from one group and the other from another group and each contributing a name reflective of that reality. Such a name may be less conscientiously Pan-Afrikan than one that expresses intentionality in terms of self-definition as one interested in concrete Pan-Afrikan living rather than abstract, theoretical, conference room/coffee shop “pan-Africanism,” a.k.a. “pan-halfricanism.” Furthermore, (3d) brings us to the point of how is the actual meaning of one’s name relevant and/or relative to pan-Afrikanism? Does the form, structure, and/or content point the child on a particular path of realization?

As evinced by Obeng’s (2001) typology, such considerations with regard to Pan-Afrikanism may not be at the forefront of one’s mind in terms of name-giving in either a traditional or modern context. Indeed, our three Rs by way of evaluative criteria of “relate, relative, and relevant,” to some degree, impose upon us the question of how does a given name relate to Pan-Afrikanism with regard to the name’s source, the intent behind giving the name, and the behavior that the name may be meant to engender. For example, is the name from a single ethnic group? Is the name one imposed by one’s erstwhile colonizer or current neo-colonizer? What is the meaning of the name and is that meaning designed to tell the child to aspire to Pan-Afrikan consciousness, ethnic consciousness, Afropean consciousness, or Eurasian consciousness among other possibilities? Is the name circumstantial? Does it express Pan-Afrikan hopes or aspirations if the meaning of the name is known at all? If not, then the four considerations with regard to Pan-Afrikanism as expressed in (3) will not be evident in the names one gives to one’s children. Expressed differently, the question may be posed in terms of what is relevant to you and what do you consider to be a part of your history? In terms of ownership, if one is truly Afrikan, then what would prohibit one from passing on the names beyond one’s cultural-linguistic group other than ethnic/family/clan consciousness trumping a broader pan-Afrikan consciousness? This brings us to the related question of what is appropriation and can you appropriate what is yours? Phrased differently, if one is Afrikan, can one appropriate that which is also Afrikan? Some would say no more than one can appropriate one’s own eyebrows or one’s own nose because all of your body parts already belong to you. This is a more prototypically Pan-Afrikan view than the restrictive ethnic/neo-colonial/Afropean consciousness view.

If you are Afrikan=Black and identify as Afrikan=Black, does whatever is Afrikan=Black (regardless of location, ethnic group, culture, language, time period) belong to you and if so, how does that more prototypically pan-Afrikan view surface in the important and inherently intimate realm of naming? In other words, how is one’s thinking embodied in one’s life choices/decisions including, but not limited to, Afrikan=Black and/or anti-Afrikan/anti-Black naming traditions? We will also explore the question of whether we have Afrikan=Black consciousness or ethnic/fragment consciousness based on where we come from or what we have endured (e.g., enslavement/colonization). Is one’s consciousness expansive or restricted? We also examine the correlation between one’s consciousness and one’s behavior with specific reference to naming. These are just some of the considerations that we set out to explore in this article. In lieu of these questions, a pertinent video clip of Professor Théophile Obenga (2018) discusses the need to build Afrikan consciousness rather than “tribal consciousness.” (see references for the direct link to the video). The type of Pan-Afrikan consciousness discussed in this video articulates a good point of departure for the topic at hand, which is pertinent to anthroponymic decolonization as a potential indicator of the state of Pan-Afrikanism as expressed in names as a manifestation of Pan-Afrikan consciousness synchronically and diachronically.

Method: Institutional Sources of Data

In this article, we used purposeful sampling (Patton, 2002) methods, with the intent of gaining a greater amount of insight into issues related to naming patterns of Afrikans of the continent and diaspora. As such, our study participants came from two Afrikan institutions, which are the IAS and Abibitumi Kasa. As far as IAS is concerned, it was apprised to be suitable for this intellectual exercise because the majority of the names are primarily from continental Afrika with 270 students graduating from the Institute during the period of between 1961 and 2011, comprising the data which we had available. Abibitumi Kasa was also chosen because it represents not only continental Afrika but the global Afrikan world. Abibitumi Kasa has over 2,000,000 users and 600,000 are out of the United States, 200,000 are from Ghana, 140,000 are from Nigeria, the rest are distributed around Kenya, the United Kingdom, South Afrika, and so on. So, the intention was to get some of the data specifically coming from the diaspora. Essentially, we looked at these two institutions due to their overtly Afrikan constituency that they serve and due to availability of data across time.

Data

As far as IAS is concerned, what we found is that from the time period of 1961 to 2011, out of 270 people who completed and graduated from IAS, the majority of such people either of the masters or the PhD level, 155 of them had one Afrikan name and one Eurasian name as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1. An example of this pattern includes John Mensah, where the John is the Eurasian name and the Mensah is the Afrikan name. Sixty-seven of IAS graduates, which is the second highest total, had names of Eurasians only (e.g., Betty Johnson or John Miller). This is followed by 29 who had Afrikan-only names, but which came from one specific culture. So, if the name is Akan, it is Akan only; if it is Ga, it is Ga only; if it is Ewe, it is Ewe only; and if it is Yorùbá, it is Yorùbá only. There were also Afrikan names coming from different cultures and languages, plus one Eurasian name. So, for example, the name may be Eric Odoi Mensah. These are Eurasian, Ga, and Akan, respectively; these were 10 in number. Then there were also Afrikan names coming from different languages and cultures, but from one country and this pattern obtained for six individuals. The final type is Afrikan names coming from different cultures and languages and also from different countries, which amounted to just three. The latter is what we see as the most miniscule, in terms of crossing these neo-colonial boundaries; and this phenomenon was almost nonexistent in the IAS data, as shown in Table 1 below.

Table 1.

IAS Categories of Names 1961-2011.

IAS: Categories of names	Number
Afrikan Eurasian	155
Eurasian Only	67
Afrikan Only One Culture/Language	29
Afrikan Different Cultures/Languages + Eurasian (One Country)	10
Afrikan Only Different Cultures/Languages (One Country)	6
Afrikan Only Different Cultures/Languages (Different Countries)	3
Total	270

Note. IAS = Institute of African Studies.

Figure 1.

IAS categories of names 1961-2011.

And again, in Figure 1, we see that over 80% of the data out of those who completed IAS had either Afrikan and Eurasian names or only Eurasian names. The third highest percentage was that of Afrikans coming from only one language or cultural group from one country.

In the case of Abibitumi Kasa as shown in Table 2 and Figure 2, we saw Afrikan and Eurasian names as well. Indeed, we had 194 Eurasian-only names. This was followed by the Afrikan-only names coming from one language and culture. However, the one we want to focus on is the one that transcends ethnic and neocolonial nation-state boundaries. In comparison to what was only three (3) individuals in the case of IAS as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1, we find a total of 94 for Abibitumi Kasa. It should be noted that we have the details of 473 collated, but again, this pattern is the one that we want to focus on as these types of names go beyond the boundary of the country and the cultural-linguistic group as was atypical of the largely continental-Afrikan IAS constituency. As may perhaps be expected, Eurasian-only names were in the majority, but tied for second were the 94 names that were Afrikan, but which came from different cultures, languages, and ethnic groups. However, even in the Abibitumi Kasa data, we found that one may have a name like Afia Marfowaa,¹ which derives exclusively from the Akan ethnicity of Ghana.

Table 2.

Abibitumi Kasa: Categories of Names.

Abibitumi Kasa: Categories of names	Number
Afrikan Eurasian	94
Eurasian Only	194
Afrikan Only One Culture/Language	86
Afrikan Different Cultures/Languages + Eurasian (Different Countries)	3
Afrikan Only Different Cultures/Languages (One Country)	2
Afrikan Only Different Cultures/Languages (Different Countries)	94
Total	473

Figure 2.

Abibitumi Kasa categories of names.

In the case of Afrikan-only names coming from different ethnic backgrounds, you can find examples like Sedem Allottey (thus Sedem [Ewe] and Allottey [Ga]). Then there are those who have Afrikan-only names (Different Ethnic + Different Countries) and, given the comparatively larger number, we can say that for those with any type of Afrikan=Black consciousness, such a naming pattern could be said to be very typical in the diaspora. An example is the name Ama Auset (Auset coming from the ancient Nile Valley, Kmt, and Ama coming from the Akan of Ghana). Examples of such names appear in Table 3.

Table 3.

Research Study Name Typology Examples.

Afrikan only (1 ethnicity)	Afrikan only different ethnic (Same country)	Afrikan only (Different ethnic + different countries)	Afrikan (Different ethnic different countries) + Eurasian	Afrikan/Eurasian	Eurasian only
Afia Marfowaa	Sedem Allottey	Adéwọlé Sankɔfa (Robert Booker)	Kwabena Shaka Jackson	William Diakité	John Clay Humperdink (Ɔsɛe Mɛnsa)
Amenhotep Rekh-mi-Re	Kwaku Chentiwuni	Ama Auset	Winston Jehuti Ampɔn	Ọgúnwọlé Adétúndé Alastair	الحاجّ مالك الشباز‎

Then there are not only those with names coming from different Afrikan countries but also those with Eurasian names. An example of which may include a name Kwabena Shaka Jackson. Then there are those with names from Afrika and Eurasia just as in the case of the aforementioned IAS names. The major difference is that, in the Abibitumi Kasa data, the first name tends to be Afrikan, while the last name tends to be Eurasian, while, in the IAS data, it tended to be the reverse. Some of these types of names include William Diakité or Ọgúnwọlé Adétúndé Alastair. Then there were also only Eurasian names like John Clay Humperdink.

It is useful, at this point, to note that in the diaspora context, some have put their Afrikan names in parenthesis. Oftentimes, this may be done in instances where people would have Eurasian names, but then have Afrikan names that they might use on weekends or at events, lectures, and other “Afrikan-centered” occasions. This contributes to a type of schizophrenia (euphemistically called double-consciousness), whereby the person has an ostensibly Afrikan name and/or personality when operating in an Afrikan=Black environment while maintaining a Eurasian/white name elsewhere. This type of schizophrenia is also seen in the case of what in Akan is called the fie din “house name,” which, as the name intimates, is what is used in the house while one assumes a different, typically Eurasian, sukuu din “school name” when in the public sphere. We will return to this point in our “Conclusion” section.

Findings

In terms of findings, there were a few gray areas where it was not entirely clear with regard to how to categorize names. For example, my middle name is Bakari and my parents picked it from a name book where it was identified as a Kiswahili name. When they learned of the name بَكْر أَبُو “Abu bakr,” they thought the Kiswahili name was derived from Arabic. However, in the works of Chiekh Anta Diop and Cook (1989, p. 182), the authors actually showed how bȝ-kȝ-rˁ “Bakari” was an actual name of the last ruler of a united kmt “Land/Nation of Black People” and kȝš “Kush” of the so-called 25th dynasty as can be seen in Figure 3, and this is how the Arabs even got the name in the first place (Mariette, 1872, II, pl. 81; von Beckerath, 1999, pp. 210-211, 7:T). This is a pertinent discussion to avoid the conundrum of painting ourselves into the proverbial corner along the lines of “What they steal of ours is theirs and what’s theirs is theirs.” At the end of the day, if we relinquish something because Eurasians have appropriated it, it is very possible that we could eventually end up with nothing at all, as they have demonstrated a proclivity for theft over the past few thousand years.

Figure 3.

Image of t(ȝ) nt-imn, bȝ-kȝ-rˁ, the last ruler of united kmt and kȝš.

Patterns of Names of the Diaspora and Continent

Thus, in our findings, we observe that in the case of names from Abibitumi Kasa, pulling largely from the diaspora, Afrikan=Black individuals tend to have names from all over the Afrikan world whereby the first name may be from one cultural-linguistic group while the surname is from another, in different countries. However, there also may be a disparity whereby a preferred Afrikan=Black name (or, what we may term a “weekend name”) may be different from one’s “legal” name, which may still be Eurasian. It should be noted, however, that this phenomenon is not exclusive to those of the diaspora and the exact same phenomenon may be found for continental Afrikans as well.

In the case of IAS, we find that names tend to be either from (neo)colonial enemies, a single Afrikan cultural-linguistic group within neo-colonial boundaries or a mixture of these two. Also, similar to the phenomenon of “weekend names” is that of the efie din “home names” as we find in Ghana whereby a person may have an Afrikan name that they use in the household among family, while they may have a Eurasian name that they may use everywhere else. Also of note is that whereas oftentimes, when there is a mix between Afrikan=Black names and Eurasian names, in the diaspora it tends to be a situation of Afrikan=Black first name/Eurasian last name while on the continent, by and large, it is a situation of Eurasian first name/Afrikan=Black last name. As far as the Abibitumi Kasa data are concerned, the differentiating factor between that and the IAS data, however, is the significant presence of names that cut across cultural-linguistic/ethnic/country lines. This factor is, in large part, the difference between intentionality and circumstance.

Generally speaking, on the continent there is a tendency towards naming as a marker of history (i.e., under the so-called pre-colonial, colonial, and neo-colonial paradigm wherein the Afrikan’s entire historical perspective is focused on the Afrikan=Black encounter with whites). In terms of circumstance, this is a scenario whereby a name is given on the basis of the idea that a name should be given because it is one’s grandfather’s name or because it comes from one’s particular cultural-linguistic/historical circumstances or because one was born within particular boundaries. There is a pertinent quote from Farrakhan, wherein he states that “He who gives you the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activity” (Muhammad, 2012). A related quote from Nana Kwa David Whitaker states that “What you do for yourself depends on what you think of yourself. And what you think of yourself depends on what you know of yourself. And what you know of yourself depends on what you have been told” (Rashidi, 2014). That is to say, one can only act upon that to which one has had exposure and access. This is relevant because we find that oftentimes, particularly on the continent, one tends to have exposure to the naming systems of one’s own cultural-linguistic group and those of one’s colonial enemies and these are the only resources that one may feel he or she has a “right to” or even know about. This is what I refer to as the backward/forward paradigm. This is the false paradigm referred to as the tradition versus modernity conundrum whereby we look back to the village/town/city of one’s origin and forward to the United Kingdom, France, or Portugal without looking around at other Afrikan people. However, in the diaspora, there seems to be more of a tendency towards a circular/relational view whereby one looks around and selects from any and all of that which is Afrikan=Black. If the name is Afrikan then one may come from Zimbabwe, Somalia, and Senegal with considerations of evaluative criteria including Afrikanness, meaning, sound, location, ethnic group, spirituality, origin, benefit, kwk. Thus, we find that the majority of Afrikan names, where they appear in Abibitumi Kasa data, are those that were selected intentionally, and which can be interpreted as a marker of a conscientious and intentional Pan-Afrikan consciousness. Thus, overall, the names found at IAS tended to be that of the backward/forward paradigm and that of Abibitumi Kasa tended toward a more circular/relational paradigm. That is to say, those with any Afrikan names whatsoever seemed to be employing a set of evaluative criteria related to, but not entirely the same as that articulated by Obeng (2001); interestingly, oftentimes with the name-bearer selecting his or her own name in the Abibitumi Kasa data.

As mentioned, it is important to note that the evaluative criteria of the diaspora Afrikans who have Afrikan names from multiple cultural-linguistic/ethnic groups may include considerations related to Afrikanness, meaning, sound, location, cultural-linguistic group, spirituality, origin, and DNA testing. However, it is important to keep in mind that these are trends and not hard and fast rules because there are continental Afrikans with names like Sekou (Fula/Arabic/Guinea-Conakry), Nkrumah (Nzema/Ghana), as well as diaspora Afrikan names like Nana Akua Kyerewaa Opokuwaa (Akan [Ghana] only). Out of the aforementioned evaluative criteria, for those of the diaspora with names from one cultural-linguistic group, this tends to be a result of initiation into an Afrikan spiritual system such as Akan, Yorùbá, Kemetic, or due to DNA testing. Afrikans who take/receive such names may, however, be running back to the fragments that led to the situation in which we find ourselves. That is to say, rather than seeing ourselves as Afrikan=Black people with common Eurasian/white/non-Black enemies, Asante people may raid the Akyem, the Akyem may displace the Akwamu, the Akwamu may enslave the Akuapem people, the Ọ̀yọ́ may enslave the Ìjẹ̀bú and so forth and so on. In running back to these fragments, it becomes difficult to collectively defend ourselves against the type of race-first coordination seen clearly at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 in which whites came together to subjugate ALL Afrikan=Black people regardless of their ethnonyms or self-identification. This is why, in our view, it is quite anachronistic to say “Afrikans enslaved Afrikans” in that those who we now retroactively identify as Afrikan=Black people involved in enslavement did not identify as Afrikans=Black people themselves. Indeed, if they did have such a broad identity in which we saw our neighbors as the same as ourselves, such an outlook may have lent itself to a greater degree of inter-ethnic coordination and coming together to fight our collective white enemies on the basis of what we have in common—our Afrikanness=Blackness. Unfortunately, to this day, that type of “we’re all Black people” worldview tends to be found in the diaspora (among those with any significant level of Afrikan=Black consciousness) more than on the continent as we see in names given and received. Indeed, for many continental Afrikans, it may seem odd or curious for an Afrikan=Black person to have a name outside of one’s ethnic group. In fact, I (first author) have been asked by continental Afrikans with names like Eric, Eunice, and John whether or not I am ethnically Yorùbá. When I tell them the circumstances of my parents giving me the name Ọbádélé, I have had many cases where they do not believe me or perhaps think I am ashamed of my supposed Yorùbá ancestry. However, they have Eurasian names without me assuming that they must be Nordic, British, or whatever else. This is to say, it tends to not even occur to many here in Ghana as even the remotest of possibilities that an Afrikan can have a name on the basis of Pan-Afrikan consciousness instead of simply due to one’s cultural-linguistic affiliation. Because this idea does not even occur as a possibility, it seems to be far from reality to expect this to be a widespread practice here in Ghana specifically or on the continent in general. In other words, while the circular/relational Afrikan=Black worldview is often due to Afrikan names being forcibly stripped from Afrikans of the diaspora, this has led to a Pan-Afrikan consciousness whereby those with any appreciable level of consciousness beyond that created and fostered by white-induced mis-education see ourselves as connected with other Afrikan=Black people by default. Due to this, the tendency is to see any Afrikan=Black names as our names. On the continent, the dominant tradition tends to only see names of one’s ethnic group and that of one’s colonial enemy as fair game.

Interestingly, this naming tradition of the diaspora wherein one applies the circular-relational paradigm is lampooned in Osiris Rising by Ataa Ayi Kwei Armah (ironically with a royal name from one fragment/ethnic group within a single Berlin-Conference-created fragment), wherein the villain Ras Cinque Jomo Equiano has names from all over the continent, but is portrayed as a veritable buffoon while Asr and Ast with solely Kemetic names are presented as level-headed and respectable.

“Ghetto Names” With Afrikan Syllable Structure

At this juncture, we will also briefly examine what are usually referred to as “Ghetto names” in places like the United States including, but not limited to, the names given in Table 4 (Turner, 1949/2002).

Table 4.

Nonexhaustive List of Afrikan=Black Origin of So-Called “Ghetto” Names.

Anika–Vai “She is very beautiful”	Tanisha–Hausa “born on Monday”
Ànítã́–Yorùbá “complete possession/ownership”	Tinashe–Seshona “The Creator is with us”
Aliya–Fon for “staircase”	Wânda–Kikôngo “a net; to strike”
Amandla–isiZulu and isiXhosa “power”	Yâya–Kikôngo “honorific title, respectful appellation addressed to a person (usually women)”
Aya–Yorùbá “wife”; Akan “fern”	Zendaya–Seshona “give thanks”
Goober (Nguba)–Kikôngo “peanut/groundnut” (Often used for boys with peanut-shaped heads)	Zola–isiZulu “quiet, tranquil”
Lulu–Kikôngo “bitter leaf”; Mandinka “five”	Zuri–Kiswahili “good, beautiful”
Tâmika–Kikôngo “measure”	(annoyingfeministbitch, 2015)

As we can see, a whole host of these names are derived directly from Afrikan languages, which, overwhelmingly, exhibit open syllable structures of predominantly three types. As shown in Figure 4, the preponderance of Afrikan languages have simple to moderately complex syllable structure and so-called “Ghetto names” follow this morphological affinity. In the figure, the white dots indicate a simple syllable structure of (C)V, the pink dots signify a moderately complex syllable structure CVC, CCV, and CCVC, while the red dots indicate a complex syllable structure of the type (C)(C)(C)V(C)(C)(C)(C). By far, the first two types of syllable structures are the predominant ones, while the third, complex syllable structure is more typical of places under Eurasian (Arab) linguistic hegemony. Because of the influence of the first two types of the continent, it becomes clear that this is also the preferred type of syllable structure among Afrikans=Blacks in the diaspora. In other words, there is an adherence of Afrikans=Black people throughout the global Afrikan world, to these original Afrikan syllabic paradigms, especially in nicknames, but also in proper names termed “Ghetto” (Bennett, 2018; Brown & Lively, 2012). What is remarkable about such names, especially nicknames, is that even without direct knowledge of continental Afrikan languages, as shown in Figure 4, phonological structures of these so-called “Ghetto” names parallel the types of structures that are preferred in the place where humanity and human language came about first: Afrika (Atkinson, 2011; Beauvilain & Watté, 2009).² These are the structures that we can say are prototypically human (i.e., non-Neanderthal) and given that Afrikan=Black people invented language itself, it follows that we should have some say in the matter with regard to what syllable structures should look like, whether found in Afrika or in the diaspora (Geographic, 2013).

Figure 4.

Distribution of syllable structure in Afrikan languages of the continent.

Significance of Naming Patterns in Understanding the State of Pan-Afrikanism

We argue that tendencies of the continent and the diaspora as represented by these two Afrikan=Black institutions may serve as one of various indicators for understanding the current state of Pan-Afrikanism. Although these are tendencies, we must take other factors into account such as the phenomenon of Efie din “house names” found in places like Ghana and the conscious “weekend names” found in the diaspora.

At this juncture, it is also very important to note that these types of names are merely taken to be possible indicators of one’s level of Pan-Afrikan consciousness and the way that such consciousness takes form through tangible behavioral practices of naming. However, these names are not taken to be predictors; which is to say just because one has names from Senegal and South Afrika, or a name like “Chimbwido (Seshona) Gerima (Amharinya),” this does not mean that one is an authentic Pan-Afrikanist, but may rather be a pro-Arab anti-Afrikan/anti-Black Marxist continentalist who holds no allegiance to indigenous Afrikan=Black people whatsoever. Such persons may decide to be sell-outs and always take the side of their white ideological (or biogenetic) parents any time there is an Afrikan=Black issue. So, again, taking on or bearing such circular/relational Pan-Afrikan names is not expected to be a failsafe predictor of the state of pan-Afrikanism in general on an individual or collective level, but merely a possible indicator that is thought to be indicative of a pan-Afrikan=Black worldview through embodied/overt behavioral practices.

Selective “Purity” and “Mixture”: Coffee With or Without Cream

Another important point is that, in our view, if you are Afrikan=Black, then Afrikan=Black names belong to you (regardless of location, ethnic group, culture, language, or time period). Such a broader consciousness, which we coin here as kmtyw m hˁt “Black people in the front” consciousness transcends ethnic fragment consciousness, or be-content-under-the-heel-of-our-white-Eurasian-enemy colonial consciousness, or neo-colonial consciousness, or national consciousness, or Afropean/Afropolitan consciousness, or worship-imaginary-Eurasian-gods-of-our-enemy-conquerors-in-the-form-of-Christianity-and-Islam consciousness. All of these may be understood as different manifestations of fragment consciousness that Tata Obenga (2018) referred to as “tribal consciousness.” This type of fragment consciousness can be seen clearly in Ghana when you greet people in Asante Twi, the indigenous language with the greatest number of speakers within these particular neocolonial boundaries and the person may tell you “That’s not my language!”; however, this declaration is invariably stated in English, which is definitely not their language. This is an example of how we may have strict boundaries when it comes to other Afrikan=Black people, but we have very permeable, perhaps even nonexistent boundaries when it comes to Eurasian culture. This is what I call the coffee-with-cream analogy as exemplified in Figure 5. According to Nana Malcolm X,

It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too black, which means it’s too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won’t even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep. (Malcolm X, 1963)

Figure 5.

Independence from each other, while allowing for infiltration of white/Eurasian names.

However, it is a more Pan-Afrikan situation when the white cream is kept out and rather the Afrikan=Black people come out of their white borders and begin to take on names from another metaphorical “cup” as their own as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6.

Afrikan=Black names exchanged from the circular/relational paradigm.

Cultural-Linguistic AIDS

Another analogy with regard to anthroponymy on the continent and the diaspora relates to what we term Cultural-Linguistic AIDS, where a culture’s immune system is so broken down that anything Eurasian, particularly Eurasian names in this instance, can come in. The difference on the continent, however, tends to be that although Eurasian names are able to penetrate, rigid borders are maintained with regard to other Afrikan=Black names.

As illustrated in Figures 7 and 8, white/Eurasian Cultural-Linguistic AIDS breaks down one’s culture, but only selectively in that it allows white names to penetrate individual cultures, yet it does not allow Afrikan names from elsewhere in the Afrikan world to do so as shown in Figure 9. This analogy is made by Mama Marimba Ani (2010), who argues that Culture is

a means by which a people protects themselves . . . We can understand culture as the immune system of a people. Culture is that immune system, right? . . . The virus is the Yurugu virus. . . . That results in a condition of cultural AIDS. (Ani, 2010).

Figure 7.

Cultural-linguistic AIDS and the breakdown of Afrikan-culture-as-immune-system due to the Yurugu virus.

Figure 8.

Infiltration of the Yurugu virus allows for any white/Eurasian name to be taken on by the infected Afrikan=Black person.

Figure 9.

The Genetically Modified Afrikan (GMA) is amazingly still largely impervious to Afrikan names from other cultural-linguistic groups.

This begs the question of how a continental Afrikan from a specific cultural-linguistic group and/or who was colonized by a particular Eurasian country overwhelmingly tends to have names reflective of these circumstances rather than a name expressive of an understanding that whatever is Afrikan belongs to him or her. We argue that this state of affairs may be indicative of the current state of Pan-Afrikanism whereby there is a tendency toward the backward/forward paradigm on the continent and the more circular/relational paradigm in the diaspora.

Indeed, even in the context of Yurugu-induced cultural-linguistic AIDS where any white/Eurasian names can infiltrate, in the IAS data, where the majority of graduates come from Ghana, we do not observe a statistically significant number of individuals with names from Ghana and Zimbabwe, or Ghana and Kemet, or Ghana and Mali, for example. Indeed, it appears that many seem to be convinced that the only names that belong to those of us of continental Afrikan extraction are those imposed upon us by colonial enemies or the ethnic group of one’s parents. These seem to be names more related to circumstance (and self-identification on an ethnic consciousness level) rather than names reflective of one’s self-determination as a lived manifestation of one’s Pan-Afrikan consciousness. However, we must note that adherence to names limited to one’s own ethnic group may come from rootedness and connections to one’s own cultural-linguistic/ethnic background and specific history. Because, oftentimes Afrikans=Black people of the diaspora have had these types of links forcibly severed, that apparent weakness is at the same time a strength when it comes to seeing ourselves as connected to a greater Pan-Afrikan=Black whole. Indeed, based on the data at hand, it seems that these ties that bind on the continent may have actually served as hurdles to Pan-Afrikan naming practices that go beyond colonial borders or ethnic affiliation.

At the same time, we must factor in the idea that names are not entirely arbitrary and, again, one can only select from what one is exposed to and/or has meaning to that person. In such a context, passing on a name simply because of its meaning and the fact that it is Afrikan may seem unconscionable to those committed to keeping their family/clan/ethnic ties strong. Another compounding factor is that, oftentimes, a newborn child in the Afrikan=Black context is seen as a returned Ancestor, who, once identified as such, will retain the name that he or she had in his or her previous incarnation. According to Nna Kamalu (1998),

The occasion of birth in Africa is seen as the transition from the spiritual into the physical realm. The ritual marking of the early stages of transition in the life of a person therefore serve[s] to emphasize the process of breaking away from the world of the unborn. The naming ceremony is the first of these and the idea that the unborn come from the ancestors is shown by the fact of the newborn being named after the ancestors. (Kamalu, 1998, pp. 35-36)

Nna Kamalu (1998) further states that “In ancient Egyptian tradition as in traditional Africa, a person’s name dies if he dies without offspring. For the name must be remembered in order for the person to live on” (p. 21). As such, the name that the child will bear is not seen as a matter of expression of one’s Pan-Afrikan consciousness or lack thereof, but is related to the worldview and is interpreted as operating on the spiritual plane. According to Tata Fu-Kiau, worth quoting at length,

[T]he mother’s name can only be used as a formal name by daughters of her daughters for as long as the name is remembered throughout the branching or ramification of the kânda (“clan”) and n’singa-dikânda. This naming process through generations is called ndukulu or ntombodolo, respectively of the verbs luka and tọmbula making alive one’s root-ancestors by name. The process involves formalities, ceremonies, rituals, taboos, dance, and teachings. The bearer of such a name of ndukulu is the ndusi, i.e., the made alive by name or the root-ancestor living in the community within a young body (Fu-Kiau, 1983). . . . From his childhood an ndusi (the made alive) has all formal and legal relationships within the community; respect, honor and address due to the root-ancestor whose name he/she bears. (Fu-Kiau, 1991, p. 12)

This is the worldview that is at the root of so-called “title names” translating typically as king, queen, or ruler, such as Nana, Naa, and Nii, that the Births and Deaths Registry of Ghana attempted to ban in Ghana (3news, 2018; Azumah, 2018; Frempon-Ntiamoah, 2018; Heritage, 2018). Ironically, the Births and Deaths Registry had no such parallel ban on white “title names” such as Richard “dominant ruler,” Henry “state ruler,” Harry “estate ruler,” Walter “army ruler,” and Malik “king” (Navuluri 2018). Although it is likely that the Births and Deaths Registry did not even know the meaning of the white/Eurasian names that they accept without question, such a policy speaks volumes about the disconnection that has taken place where someone may be Afrikan=Black biogenetically and phenotypically, but thoroughly drained of Afrikan=Black content and character due to Yurugu-induced cultural-linguistic AIDS.

To return to the above quote, pertinent to both the IAS and Abibitumi Kasa data is the Afrikan=Black worldview in which a root-ancestor is made alive through their name. This brings up an extremely problematic situation with regard to the giving/bearing of Eurasian/white names whereby un-Afrikan, anti-Afrikan white enemies are “made alive” within a young Afrikan=Black body. According to a Kiswahili proverb, Ukirithi jina urithi na mambo yake “If you inherit a name you must also adopt its affairs.” Given that it is expected that a name will have an impact on the name-bearer, one need not be surprised to find biogenetic Afrikans engaging in un-Afrikan, anti-Afrikan behaviors consistent with the white root-predecessor. Having such a label—which we can scarcely refer to as a name—applied to one certainly creates a situation of ambivalence if not outright contradictory schizophrenic “double-consciousness.” This phenomenon is also at the root of Afrikans who do not see themselves as Afrikans who are connected to their Ancestors from throughout the Afrikan=Black world beyond the confines of the cages mistakenly referred to as countries or their ethnic fragments referred to as “tribes.”

Additional considerations with regard to naming may relate to the question of does the name have a meaning in a language that one actually understands (i.e., the language of the Afrikan root-ancestor), which would be expected on the continent, but perhaps less so in the diaspora. In instances where a white/Eurasian root-predecessor is invoked, it is also the case that many have no idea what their white/Eurasian names mean, they just know that these are white names, sometimes referred to euphemistically as “Christian” or “Muslim” names. Such names are about as far away as one can get in relation to the “three Rs” with regard to Pan-Afrikan naming practices. It should be noted, however, that in Afrika, the meaning of archaic names may be obscure to native speakers. In Yorùbá, names like Àmọ̀ó, Àbẹ̀ó, Àkànó, Àlàó, Àj̀àó, and Àyànó are morphosemantically opaque with different Yorùbá authors proposing a variety of meanings (Orie, 2002, p. 138; Oyetade, 1991). Similarly, Akan names such as Birago (which, interestingly is a name also given in Senegal, cf. Birago Diop), Antwi, Agyei, Korama, Kakari, Gyamfi/Gyamfua, and others have evoked a wide range of folk-etymological interpretations due to morphosemantic opacity, while for others, Obeng (2001, p. 132-133) simply glosses some of these as “proper name.” In such cases, the origin may actually be an earlier stage of the language, in which the constituent parts still had transparent semantic content or from an entirely different language brought by migrants who have joined the cultural-linguistic group. If the latter is the case, the facts of that origin may be unknown to the name-givers/name bearers and, thus, may still lack the intentionality expected for an expression of pan-Afrikan consciousness.

In naming, there is the consideration of the history with which one connects and identifies. As demonstrated in the data, this may be the pre-colonial/colonial/post-neocolonial/neo-colonial paradigm, which Eurasia-centrically focuses one’s entire historical existence around one’s interactions with whites from western Eurasia rather than a circular/relational one based on identification with a common Afrikan=Black collective with one Creator, one aim, one Ancestry, and one destiny. In other words, even for those who pay lip service to the idea of identifying with other Afrikan=Black people, there may be scanty evidence of that supposed belief when it comes to the decision of what one will name one’s children. In fact, ironically, many may perceive giving a name from another ethnic group as a case of appropriation (although, apparently not so for names like Esther, Roland, John, Paul, Eunice, Priscilla, Joyce, Muhammad, Ibrahim, kwk). What does it tell us about the state of Pan-Afrikanism when one is hesitant to identify one’s child with one’s racial relatives, yet happily identifies him or her with one’s historical, current, and future white enemies? If, indeed, identifying with one’s Afrikan=Black racial relatives, i.e. the original concept of Pan-Afrikanism, is seen as appropriation, this is illogical; if one actually identifies as Afrikan=Black as, if you are truly Afrikan=Black yourself, you cannot appropriate that which is your own any more than one can appropriate one’s own eyeballs or head. However, if one identifies with a fragment (i.e., Akan, Yorùbá, Wolof, Afrikan amerikkkan, Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Ghanaian, Nigerian, and South Afrikan), then that primary identity would necessarily lead one to think that a giving a name other than that which is historically associated with one’s own fragment is a case of appropriation. This is the fallacy of fragment consciousness in that we can see clearly that those who suffer from it are more likely to identify with their white/Eurasian enemies than they are to identify with their brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles—their Afrikan=Black racial relatives—a good potential indicator about the current state of pan-Afrikanism.

Conclusion

This exploratory study has addressed a topic in onomastics/anthroponomy which has not received significant attention in the literature—that is a comparative analysis of contemporary naming patterns of the continent and diaspora. Although relying on institutional data, future studies could approach the subject from a different methodological angle in terms of conducting qualitative interviews to get the views of subjects on the names that they bear and give and how these names relate to professed ideas of Pan-Afrikanism that they may hold. Furthermore, in terms of institutional data, other institutions can be incorporated in future studies including overtly Pan-Afrikan Organizations of the continent and the diaspora including, but not limited to Afrocentricity International (AI), the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP), the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), and so on.

In conclusion, we return to the idea that thinking and consciousness may be embodied in one’s life choices/decisions including, but not limited to, the practice of Afrikan=Black and/or un-Afrikan/un-Black and/or even anti-Afrikan/anti-Black naming traditions. Indeed, there may be a direct correlation between one’s consciousness—whether Pan-Afrikan=Black consciousness or Fragment/Cultural-Linguistic AIDS consciousness, and so on,—and one’s behavior. In the former, the three Rs of relate, relative, and relevant may be employed as evaluative criteria in one’s determination of how a name relates to, is relative to, and is relevant to Pan-Afrikanism in terms of content, form, and meaning. In the latter, other considerations, including some of those outlined in Obeng’s (2001) typology relating to one’s birth circumstances and the like may be in play. In the case of the first author, in the naming of his children, there was an intentional decision not to be limited to a name from one ethnic/cultural-linguistic group due to considerations of Pan-Afrikanism. As such, the names of the first author’s children, whose photo can be seen in Figure 10, are:

Ama (Twi) Onyankopɔnbo (Twi*) Àjàgbẹ̀yàlà (Yorùbá*) Diasîzi (Kikôngo) Diasîlwa (Kikôngo) Mpolo-Lunungu (Kikôngo) Ẹ̀sankìígbé (Yorùbá) Kambon (Dagbanli).

Kwaku (Twi) Gaanaba (Twi) Abibifahodieba (Twi*) Olómìnira (Yorùbá*) Ọjó (Yorùbá) Àjàyí (Yorùbá) Oyèdọlá (Yorùbá) Ṣóyínká (Yorùbá) Tukula (Kikôngo) Kamau (Gĩkũyũ) Kambon (Dagbanli).

Akosua (Twi) Sunkwa (Twi) Abayie (Twi) Ọ̀kẹ́ (Yorùbá) Alárà (Yorùbá*) Láyíwọlá (Yorùbá) Àkànbí (Yorùbá) Kukiniâkisa (Kikôngo) Kimpwânza (Kikôngo) Kambon (Dagbanli)

*indicates a coined name with Pan-Afrikan thrust based on anthroponymic structures of the language in question

Figure 10.

Afrikan=Black names are important for Afrikan=Black children.

The names given to these children were due to an intentional embodied Pan-Afrikanism in practice, drawing from various Afrikan=Black naming traditions. We began this article with a quote that said, “Look, your name will exist forever in the temple (of the Netcher).” Given what we now know about the whitewashing of Kmt “Land of Black people,” a place where the people referred to themselves as Kmtyw “Black people” and had Afrikan=Black names, it is a distinct possibility that those Afrikans who do not even have Afrikan=Black names will be lost to history, because hundreds or thousands of years down the line, someone will be able to look at a census and say that based on the name, the name bearer must certainly have been a white man/woman. We have many generations that may be lost in the future due to mislabeling and misidentification with one’s enemies rather than with one’s Afrikan=Black racial relatives. We should recall the proverb Ukirithi jina urithi na mambo yake “If you inherit a name you must also adopt its affairs.” If pan-Afrikanism is not where we would like it to be, it may, in part, be related to the affairs we have adopted based on the non-Afrikan and anti-Afrikan names we have inherited. This is why it is important for us to consider the following quote, which entreats us to make our own Ancestors’ names live so that, in turn, the same will be done for us by our own Afrikan=Black descendants: Ẹ jẹ́ a pàjùbà sílẹ̀ de iṣu ọ̀lọ̀, ẹ jẹ́ kí á jẹ́ orúkọ tó dùn sílẹ̀ d’ọmọ “Let us prepare the barn for the new yam, let us bear and leave a good name behind for our descendants.” When this is done, then we will be able to say,

Look, your name will exist forever in the temple (of the Netcher)! (Griffith, 1889, 23)

Footnotes

Authors’ Note

In this article, when we refer to Pan-Afrikanism, we mean the original authentic one, which entailed Black people regardless of location rather than the contemporary counterfeit version, which means whoever happens to be on the continent whether or not they are indigenous Afrikan=Black people or non-Black Eurasian invaders and enslavers. Thus, Afrikan and Black are used interchangeably as synonyms.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The first author notes ties to both institutions in terms of accessing data.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Ọbádélé Kambon

Notes

Author Biographies

Ọbádélé Kambon completed his PhD in Linguistics at the University of Ghana in 2012, winning the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s award for the Best PhD Thesis in the Humanities. Later he won the 2016 Provost's Publications Award for best article in the College of Humanities. He is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Language, Literature and Drama Section of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana, Editor-in-Chief of the Ghana Journal of Linguistics, Secretary of the African Studies Association of Africa and a special advisor to UNESCO (ICM). His website is .

Roland Mireku Yeboah is a PhD student in International Affairs at the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD), University of Ghana. He is a product of the Institute of African Studies, and LECIAD both UG, where he obtained MPhil in African Studies (history and politics) and MA in International Affairs respectively. His areas of research interest include Africa’s international relations, African diaspora studies and the global Black struggle of the 21st Century and public international law. He assists in teaching Africa in World Politics, International relations theory and Regional Integration and Regionalism in Africa.

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