-As Dr. John Henrik Clarke has stated, "History is a clock that people use to tell their political time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they are what they are. Most importantly, history tells a people where they still must go and what they still be".
A name in African tradition was not a mere label: it was/is a synopsis of the qualities of the object or person. In ancient iKami (Egyptian) tradition the name is called rn (ran, leen -Coptic). We find cognates in the Bantu languages as rina, dina, zina, or leina. Everything has a cosmic name. By pronouncing certain words of power or names in the right pitch or right manner, a person could cast out evil spirits and heal the sick. This belief is still prevalent in the catholic and evangelical churches (especially in the practice of exorcism).
Dr. Fu-Kiau of the Kongo in his work Self-Healing Power and Theraphy, invested a considerable amount of space to discuss the importance of naming in African societies (the Bantu Kongo in particular). In regards to the importance of names, Fu-Kiau goes on to state :
"Your name is the real you. It is moving power, your moving power toward success. It is a socially given power to you that no one can prevent. Your name is the most important word that you will ever know in your lifetime. As such it is one of the most important keys to life. It has a radiating power in you and around you......When it is called, it produces waves and radiations in and around you because it represents the content of your potential package of kinetic power. There is magnetization between you and your name when it is spoken"
What fu-Kiau emphasizes in the above statement is that in the traditional African world-view, a name is more than just a name: It is a living packer of power that radiates when called by human voice. Also hinted above is that name of an individual holds the key to one's purpose and any muntu (human being) is required to literally "live up their name." In other words, man's purpose, in the African context, is embedded in their name. One's name is the source for one's self-healing power. It is your connection to your purpose and your ancestral vault of wisdom. This is also echoed by Malidoma Some in his book Healing Wisdom of Africa when he states (pg 3) :
"The Dagara believe that everyone is born with a purpose, and that this purpose must be known in order to ensure an integrated ay of living. people ignorant of their purposes are like ships adrift in hostile sea. They are circling around. As a result, tribal practices emphasize the discovery, before birth, of the business of soul that has come into the world. A person's purpose is then embodied in their name, thus constituting an inseparable reminder of why the person walks with us here in this world.
The name was so important to African people that in ancient Egypt the blotting out of someone's name was believed to discontinue their existence in the afterlife (Akhenaton Of the 18th Dynasty comes to mind). We see a similar practice today among gang members in urban cities- The Bloods, Crips, 4ch, GD's. For when they wish to eliminate their enemy physically, they 1st X out the name of their foe on the wall w/ spray paint, as to in a sense eliminate them in spirit 1st.
Even in the world of fiction a name is of the utmost importance. Even in The Never Ending Story, remember that the "Nothing" threatened to destroy everything in Fantasia. Fantasia is a 'fantasy' world that is created and expanded by the creative thoughts, dreams and hopes of human beings. The 'Nothing' represents the void that's left when humans stop using their imagination, stop dreaming (having vision) and gives up completely on their hopes. In the film, the only thing that could save fantasia was giving of a new name to the empress. A whole volume could be written on the rich philosophy this film conveys, but what's most important for us to note is the fact that the very existence of Fantasia was dependent on the name given to the feminine attribute that governs Fantasia. What this film suggests is that things exist once a name has been given to it. the very name, we can speculate, determines what type of existence it will have.
This concept derives from pharaonic literature in which the God-force Khepri (that which exist) conceived in its heart(ib) that which was to come to be (through Reason). this coming into existence was ushered in by the power of the Heka which is made existence palpable by the pronouncing of the names (rn, lina, dina, zina) of the forces of creation. In African ontology, to name is to beget, that is, to begin the process of an evolution. The great ontological power of speech, and by extension naming, can be seen by examining the wisdom text of the Luba people of the Congo. As Obenga notes concerning the Luba name for the Creator Maweja nangila and his creating way of the word and naming:
"He named them, and to name a thing is to empowerit (...) Amongthe qualities of Naming is the ability to transform. by giving things their name at the same time as he created them, Maweja Nangila gave them their forms, their characters, their virtues and their individual styles of behavior..... This is how Maweja Nangila caused humans to emerge, and at this time in creation, humans were entirely like Maweja."
Janheinz Jahn in his seminal work Muntu provides us w/ the greatest insight into the importance of a name, but takesit further and implies one's very existence depends on the name is given. He introduces to us conversations from the famous Dogon priest Ogotommeli who instructs us on the philosophical concept of Nommo which is the creative vital force of life. Nommo is water, the glow of fire, the word in one, the seed. It is the fluid type unity of spiritual-physical forces giving lifeto everything, penetrating everything, and causing everything.
"Therefore Ogotommeli says: "The word is for all in this world; it must be exchanged, so that it goes and comes, for it is good to give and to receive the force of life." Even the act of conception which produces a human being, who is not only a physical, but also a spiritual creature - muzim- is a conception not only through the seed, but at the same time through the word. Ogotommeli formulates this in his picturesque language: The good word, as soon as it is received by the ear, goes directly to the sex organs where it rolls about the uterus just as the copper spiral rolls about the sun. that the word of water brings and maintains the moisture necessary to procreation and by this means Nommo brings about the penetration of the uterus by a germ of water. It transforms into a germ the water of the word and gives it the apperance of a human person through the essence of a Nommo. Yet this Nommo, which effects conception and then calls forth birth, is not sufficient to produce a complete human being, a personally, a muntu. for the new-born child becomes a muntu only when the father or the sorcerer' gives him a name and pronounces it."
As we can see, the matrix of fantasia and the universe in Egyptian, Luba and Dogon literature, were created by the same processes: the uttering of name(s).
the importance and the value of a persons name extends beyond fiction and the continent of Africa. Among the Jews of American parentage, one would not name a child after an older living resident in fear that the death angel would mistake the younger for the elder and take the youngers life before it time. Among those in Tibet, it's believed that illness can be caused by an inappropriate name. The antitode for the Tibetan as the acquirement of a new name. This is further supported in the African world-view by Fu-Kiau when discusses the effect of African-American adopting African names. he states:
"names of africa are reappearing among blacks in the New World mu ningisa n'sing'a dikanda (to strengthen the bio-genetic cultural rope of the black community) worldwide. And this upward spiritual nonmenclature victory among black people in the New World will incontestably show physical manifestations of improvement in all aspects of their life. It also will increase their self-healing power, individually and collectively
I wonder how much of the African-American's condition in The United States can be attributed to having 'inappropriate' names? These names of European heritage cut us off from our bio-genetic rope ancestral power and heritage. This was a direct result of the holocaust of enslavement. In the book Slave Ships and Slaving Edward manning, a sailor on the slavor Thomas watson, says:
"I suppose they.....all had names in their own dialect, but the effort required to pronounce them was too much for us, so we picked out our favorites [slaves] and dubbed them main-stay, Cats head, Bulls eye, Rope-Yarn, and various other sea phrases."
Given the perspective of traditional societies concerning names, what kind of lives are we unconsciously bestowing upon our childrenby naming them names with arbitrary meanings that may not represent that childs purpose? Naming is a serious thing in African, indian and asian societies; to the point ceremonies are conducted for thre naming process. In the USA, names ae often selected because they are easy to say or they sound cute.
In West and Central Africa, names are given as stages in a individual's life and --- as among all people for whom magic is important ---the identification of a real name w/ the personality its bearer is held to be so complete that this real name, usually the one gien at birth by a particular relative, must be kept secret lest it comes into the handsof someone who might use it in working evil magic against the person. For this reason in Africa a person might change over time.
Asa G Hilliard in his paper Race, Identity, Hegemony and Education, talks about the history of African-American's struggles to reverse the negative connotations of European given descriptive names such as black, negro and colored. he mentions that due to European political and pedagogical hegemony, African people had forgotten the importance of names and how much we valued them before colonization. African people int the US had, after emancipation, in their civic , church, lodge, school, etc. Hilliard comments on this and the subsequent transition from African to descriptive nonmenclatures in that:
" These names [our original African names] were based upon our natal and cultural bonds and thousands of years of heritage. The names were based upon our collective history and creativity. Worse we had forgotten why we named ourselves and how we came to be given alien names in 1st place. Given the sacred nature of names to African people, and given the association of a name with our identity as a family, this was a tragedy of enormous proportions. Our focus on names became a barren one, a focus without the benefit of awareness of our rich cultural traditions. therefore, we were unprepared for the conversation about race, naming and identity. We had come to a point where we, as a people, were named by others. Most of us had lost control of this; the most fundamental of human processes, the self determining process of naming ourselves, of telling, not asking the world who we were.
there is so much more in regards to this , i'll touch in it more when i find time.
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Good luck though.