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A very interesting and valid piece by Chijioke Ngobili..... Igbo parents and parents to be pls take note..... This is very very important.... GIVE YOUR CHILDREN IGBO NAMES..... Pls read
Late last night May 17, 2017, I was given a sudden invitation to be a guest at a Radio presentation in one of the Nigerian universities’ Fm stations. The theme was on the Igbo People and the issue of their names in conflict with their origin. I had accepted and went there this morning. Between 9am & 10am, I tried to contribute my thoughts on this issue that has been one of my main concerns about ndi Igbo. I considered that I should share some of the highlights of what I said on air here on Facebook. Below are the highlights:
· A people’s language may go into extinction but the people may still remain relevantly identified to an extent because of the last marker of who they are, which is: “NAME”. But the moment their names begin to get tampered with either directly or indirectly, they, as a people would go into the final stage of extinction and that would be their instant end forever. As we battle to save the Igbo language, we must have to battle the eclipse of our Igbo names replaced by the pull towards English names which is happening among many young Igbo people who feel they need to answer English names for social acceptance—or even for the other one they call “global” acceptance—all revealing their problems of inferiority complex caused by the lack of/insufficient education on Igbo Consciousness.
· The first and last identifier of who you are and would be remembered to be, even centuries later is your name. Other things like your legacies, works, etc fall in between. If your name veers away from the language of your origin, you stand the chances of being given a forced identity and your history distorted. Today, there are “Black Americans” who also are the “Negro” and more recently “African Americans”—these are names forced on a people whose grandparents and great grandparents had their languages and names from those languages. But those grand and great grandparents were forcefully dispossessed of their names during the slavery and given “Johnson”, “Washington”, “Freeman”. The irony now is that nobody is forcing it on us, we simply submit to the slavery and inferiority, after the psyche had been done a severe damage as a result of insufficient enlightenment on Igbo Consciousness.
· Njideka Crosby was formerly Njideka Akunyili—and that’s one of the late Prof Dora Akunyili’s daughters. Had her sufficiently educated mother given her some English names like “Jenny, Lily” or anything of sort as we see some Igbo young mums do to their daughters today just for “global” or “social” acceptance, we’d have lost that lady entirely having been married to a White man. But with that singular show of Igbo Consciousness by her mum, her history in connection to her origin with the rest of ndi Igbo would never be blurted. Compare that with the other lady at CNN, Zain Asher, who changed her names completely for reasons I suspect to be connected to the same issue of “acceptance”. Many years from now, the Igbo people yet to be born would only ‘hear’ or ‘glean’ from books that she is Igbo from Enugwu State. And when she’s married, forget it! And when she must have gone the way of all flesh? That historical link is a goner, forget it! There’s the other lady, Ojinika Kambili Obiekwe with the PIX TV in New York. She represents our people appropriately and is known to easily switch Igbo and English without some forming of accents. She bears her full names just as you see them above in Igbo! No inferiority complex, yet she is on the so-called “global stage” from where she has rightly understood that you’re nobody when you seek to be something other than yourself! Would we or anyone ever forget her to be of Igbo ancestry even ten decades after she’s lived? No!
· I gave all the examples above to emphasize that this problem needs more of our ladies for it to be addressed better. When many of our girls in the universities are sufficiently enlightened on the indignity of bearing names that are not from their very own Igbo language, it goes a long way to help them as mothers in instilling the same consciousness in their kids. Women impact most on kids than the men, following that nature has conditioned it so. Meanwhile, young Igbo men are to be enlightened as well, so as to become fathers who are sufficiently conscious.
· Young Igbo people who are guilty of this inferiority complex issue as well as parents and institutions that aid this wilful slavery with so much dosage of ignorance should know that, in Igbo Thought, names—of human beings—are summarized histories, summarized memories, and summarized values. There is absolutely no reason why an Igbo person would have to be bearing foreign/English names if not forced on him or her by the people that birthed him/her or by the institutions that shadowed his/her life or by him/herself (which is wilful slavery: the highest form of human indignity!). But a good enlightenment can help break away from those shackles as well as impart the right thing to the next generation.
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Plus a few other things that would have made this lengthier even as I have tried to summarize briefly as possible. The host-presenter acknowledged that there’s the need for another day/session to dissect more on this where I’d get to slice deeper into the folds of this issue and give the modules on how to arrest the situation—both on short and long terms. I left the studio around 10.15am.
Daalụ kwanụ, ndị be anyị.
Ada React: I love this post of yours my brother Chijioke Ngobili Nna .... I simply love it....
Do you know that none of my kids bear English names other than when they are receiving the sacrament of Confirmation.... They are baptised with Igbo names.... Their first and second names are Igbo..... Chineke daalu
Their oyibo teachers struggle to pronounce their Igbo names and I can't be bothered.... They have often looked at me, silently imploring that I make it easier for them perhaps by adopting an English version but I look back at them and insist that my child's name is "Chukwuagozie" and if I can make the effort to pronounce "Siobhan" and "Caoimhe"..... Which are common Irish names which I pronounce correctly, pls kindly pronounce "Chukwuagozie" for me biko ..... The best I do is to tell them to informally call him Chuchu.... To show them a little empathy .... And they are always so grateful for that concession
I love the Igbo language fiercely..... God help me to continue to propagate it in any way I can Amen ..
My children are very Igbotic.... And they are so proud of their Igbo origins, they brandish it about in school.... They know their state of origin, local government and village and they recite it like they will use it to win the lottery..... Thank you so much for this Nna.
Odogwu Reacts:
Very apt, my point exactly, a friend was asking why I named my son Chinualumogu as first name, I simply said he's an igbo man, whenever I take him to see his pediatric doctor, the nurse is always having issues calling his name, I helped her to shortens it to Chinua...lol..besides I don't want him confused of his origin, born in American, but he is a full flesh Oguta by origin, I love the fact that his full names are ibo names, no confusion at all, no questioning before they will start messing with his head that he's halfcast... he's a full cast Biko... from Umuamechi kingdom of Oguta 1 Imo state and proudly Nigerian.......
Glory Ude reacts:
That's good. My son's name is Kamsiyochukwu but his teacher told me one day that the name is too hard to pronounce, that I should change it to English name. I laughed, however I told her since she can pronounce !!!!Russian and Slovakia!!!! names my son's own is as easy as abcd. Out of empathy I told her to shorten to ""Kamsi". Thinking that the problem has been solved, one day she told me that it is better that they write the name this way '''Camson". I vehemently said "NO". I told her that the name is our heritage and, she felt so bad.
Ngozi Reacts:
Totally concur with the writer's concerns ...People around me knows I love my igbo names, all my children go by their igbo names Living outside Nigeria succumbs you to all kinds of pressure to go by English name but I am unapologetically "Igbo girl" my son's school struggle with his name Ikemdinachi but I always tell them make an effort ..its not that difficult.
NOTE:
Women have the task to make these Igbo names stick to the children and make them proud of it.
If we struggle to pronounce Russian, German and Italian names..why should you care if people can't pronounce Igbo names. Re - arrange that child's name before he/she writes WAEC. Igbo amaka. If proud of your heritage. Share I love this |
