TY - JOUR
T1 - What Afrikan Names May (or May Not) Tell Us About the State of Pan-Afrikanism
AU - Kambon, Ọbádélé
AU - Yeboah, Roland Mireku
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/9/1
Y1 - 2019/9/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Abibitumi Kasa
KW - Afrikan names
KW - Institute of African Studies
KW - neo-colonialism
KW - neo-enslavement
KW - pan-Afrikanism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072128281&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0021934719867923
DO - 10.1177/0021934719867923
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85072128281
SN - 0021-9347
VL - 50
SP - 569
EP - 601
JO - Journal of Black Studies
JF - Journal of Black Studies
IS - 6
ER -