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Mon, 06 Jan 2025 Feature Article

What’s in a Name

What’s in a Name

In the last book of the Christian scriptures, overcomers from the church of Pergamos were told that they would receive a white stone and a new name. In the Jewish scriptures, Abram’s name is changed to Abraham and Jacob is given the new name of Israel. When the Jewish prophet Daniel and his friends were taken captive to Babylon, they were all given new Babylonian names reflective of Babylonian culture and religion.

In his emotionally charged series Roots, Alex Hailey included the story of the psychological breaking of Kunte Kinte by the slave making process in the US. Kunte Kinte was tortured continuously until he finally capitulated and accepted his new plantation name which was Toby. Kunte Kinte’s African helped him to remember who he was, where he was from, and who his people were. Toby, on the other hand, had no meaning for Kunte.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and many other ministers in the Nation of Islam are constant in their reminder to Black people around the globe that we need to shed the names of those responsible for our historic dehumanization, exploitation, and humiliation. The Nation of Islam reminds Black people in the Diaspora that we have been robbed of our history, our religion, our original languages, our culture, and our original names.

The X given to new members of the Nation of Islam is a symbol of the unknown African names of our ancestors. Members of the Nation of Islam as they mature in the faith are given new Islamic names by the leadership of the Nation of Islam. Rastafarians join the Nation of Islam in their repudiation of European names.

The logic of the Nation of Islam and the Rastafarian community is inescapable. What could be more ridiculous than a pitch-black man our woman bearing the name of Mr. or Mrs. White. People of all races are easily recognized by their names. When you hear the name Chin you expect to see a person of Chinese extract. If your last name is Romanoff, you should be the bearer of a Russian passport. A Polanski should be Polish while a Hernandez should speak fluent Spanish. Persons bearing the name Fukuyama should be Japanese and a Macron is definitely French.

Africans like all other ethnic groups have their own unique names which vary from region to region on the continent. Africa is such a vast continent with thousands of linguistic and ethnic groupings. Black people therefore have an extensive repertoire of names to choose from. Many Rastafarians who identify with Ethiopia settle for Ethiopian sounding names. Blacks in the Diaspora who identify more with Nigeria and the rest of West Africa have a rich pool of West African names to draw from.

While it is true that African first names are becoming more popular in the Diaspora, European last names are still the norm among Diasporan Blacks. Regrettably, all our last names lead us back to either the plantations our ancestors worked on or to the European family that was responsible for our enslavement. This in itself ought to be sufficient reason for more Black people in the Diaspora to consider a rebranding of themselves.

Black people in the Diaspora do not have to wait until Caucasian Jesus returns to give them their white stone with a new name in it. It may or may not be significant that Caucasian Jesus is pictured as returning on a white horse and surrounded by an army clothed in white which is also riding on white horses. It is not improbable that the name in the white stone that is given by Caucasian Jesus will not be an African name.

Neither do Black people in the Diaspora have to wait on any religious authorities to confer on them a new name. As a first step, Black people in the Diaspora can choose an African nick-name which can be used for ordinary day to day use. For legal purposes, our given names at birth can be retained and used until we are able to make the legal transition to our chosen African name which would then appear on all our legal documents.

Many liberated women in the modern world refuse to give up their family names when they get married. Increasingly, women are also reverting to their original family names when their marriages are dissolved by divorce. Many divorced women recoil from continuing to bear the name of the beast they just dragged over hot coals in divorce court.

Black people in the Diaspora and some on the continent are a completely different kettle of fish. After centuries of brutality, humiliation, and oppression, many Blacks in the Diaspora and on the continent continue to wear the names of their oppressors as though it was the most natural thing in the world. This seems to speak to the pathology that exists among many Black people, especially those in the Black Diaspora.

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka
Lenrod Nzulu Baraka, © 2025

Lenrod Nzulu Baraka is a graduate of the University of the Southern Caribbean with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religion and History. He is the author of several books including Piarco Affair, The Black Paradigm, Echoes of the Ancestors, The Rebirth of Black Civilization, Oreos Coconuts and Negrope. More Lenrod Nzulu Baraka (aka Leonard R. Phillips) is a native of the Caribbean island of Barbados. HIs hobbies include reading, writing, travelling and meeting interesting people. He describes himself as an Afrocentric Freethinker with a Black Christocentric bias. Lenrod has a great sense of humor and enjoys watching and reading anything that is funny. He favorite genres of music include reggae, calypso and easy listening. His favorite Black artistes are Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and the Mighty Sparrow. He is also an eternal fan of Phil Colins. He will read anything by Tom Sharpe, Stephen King or Malachi Martin Column: Lenrod Nzulu Baraka

Disclaimer: "The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect ModernGhana official position. ModernGhana will not be responsible or liable for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in the contributions or columns here." Follow our WhatsApp channel for meaningful stories picked for your day.

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