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Names and Naming pp 227–241Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in a Postcolonial World

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Abstract

European imperialism forced Western cultural concepts onto colonised societies which had no choice but to somehow cope with the new living conditions. After independence, not even the fiercest struggle for decolonisation could undo history. Furthermore, in times of postcolonial globalisation, Western cultural patterns are ever more influential. In this regard, names and naming offer a prime opportunity to study the complex, but also dynamic interplay between Western and non-Western cultural practices. With a focus on Tanzanian personal and street naming, this chapter explores the ways in which local and Western ideas interact in shaping naming practices.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This was reported by several international media and relates to the terrorist attack in Christchurch on 15 March 2019, where at least 50 people were shot dead. Citation from SBS News: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/he-is-a-terrorist-jacinda-ardern-refuses-to-speak-gunman-s-name (accessed in March 2019).

  2. 2.

    For an overview, see Rattansi (2011).

  3. 3.

    For an overview, see Young (2003), Göttsche et al. (2017).

  4. 4.

    For a detailed description of this millennia-old intercontinental network see Sheriff (2010).

  5. 5.

    On the history and the present of Swahili society see: Caplan and Topan (2004), Glassman (2011), Middleton (1992), Sheriff (2002 [1987]). Interestingly, only Middleton (1992: 213n26 and 214n33) mentions names—very briefly—and this only in the context of genealogy.

  6. 6.

    For a general overview on colonial legacies in African urban place naming see Bigon (2016).

  7. 7.

    In this chapter, the noun neighbourhood is used in a very general sense as opposed to the concept of street.

  8. 8.

    The lasting significance of name meaningfulness is stressed by Clasberry (2012) throughout her study Culture of Names in Africa.

  9. 9.

    Musere and Odhiambo (1998: 2) attribute the importance of meaningfulness to the fact that “names have served as cultural history maps that depict milestone events in a family’s history, as well as depicting the needs, values, and concerns of Africans in the past and the present”.

  10. 10.

    These naming motives—and the following—are found in other African societies, too. See, for example, Saarelma-Maunumaa (2003: 52–54), and Musere and Odhiambo (1998: 1–5). The latter is an overview of the most common naming motives, based on the analysis of more than 4000 personal names from Southern and Equatorial Africa. A detailed discussion of—quite similar—naming motives in Nigerian-Ibibio culture can be found in Clasberry (2012: 25–70).

  11. 11.

    Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar.

  12. 12.

    All examples and meanings are taken from the female and male name lists in Zawawi (1993: 39–74). Also due to Arabic influence is the use of bin “son of” and binti “daughter of”, as in “Amina binti Muhammed bin Salim, Amina daughter of Muhammed son of Salim” (Zawawi 1993: 4). However, the extended form “is now used formally, as, for example, in passports or in marriage ceremonies” (Zawawi 1993: 4). In less formal contexts, Swahili full names comprise the given name and the name of the father and, sometimes, the name of the grandfather, as in the above example: Amina Muhammed Salim.

  13. 13.

    See also Saarelma-Maunumaa (2003: 57–60).

  14. 14.

    It should be borne in mind, however, that European names became fashionable for some and a sign of progress for others (see Saarelma-Maunumaa 2003: 58). At the same time, some Christian missions “encouraged the use of indigenous African names with Christian meanings” (Saarelma-Maunumaa 2003: 59).

  15. 15.

    See: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/tanzanian-baby-names-with-their-meanings_00353098/#gref (accessed in March 2019).

  16. 16.

    Citation (my emphasis) taken from: see previous note.

  17. 17.

    Citation taken from: see note 15.

  18. 18.

    The Hadzabe are a very small group of people living in north-western Tanzania around Lake Eyasi with an estimated population of about 1600 (see Lusekelo 2015: 15). A distinctive feature is their language which belongs to the Khoisan group. In Tanzania, this language is an isolate, since speakers of Khoisan languages live in particular in South and Southwest Africa.

  19. 19.

    Datooga, Swahili, Iramba and Isanzu are Bantu languages, whereas Iraqw pertains to the Cushitic language family.

  20. 20.

    The Sukuma originate from the Mwanza and Shinyanga Regions south of Lake Victoria, and are “Tanzania’s largest ethnic group” (Ndembwike 2010: 36).

  21. 21.

    Kenneth Kaunda was the first President of Zambia (1964–1991).

  22. 22.

    Negative or derogatory names are quite common in Africa as a means of safeguarding.

  23. 23.

    Back in 1973, Dodoma, lying in the country’s very centre, was designated capital city. Because of persistent budget concerns, the project was implemented only recently with all ministries expected to move from Dar to Dodoma by June 2019.

  24. 24.

    See: @jmkikwete, 15 September 2012 (my translation).

  25. 25.

    In the present context, the term classifier denotes a toponymic constituent “which assigns the [named] geo-object to a given ontological category” (Stolz et al. 2018: 191), whereas modifiers are individualising elements. Together with (optional) classifiers, they form toponyms for specific geo-objects (see Stolz and Warnke 2018: 24–25).

  26. 26.

    It should be noted that the noun mtaa stands for both the local neighbourhood and the Western street concept.

  27. 27.

    Translations taken from: https://africanlanguages.com/swahili/ (accessed in March 2019).

  28. 28.

    See: https://www.ncd.co.tz (accessed in March 2019).

  29. 29.

    The corpus is based on the Street Directory of Tanzania: https://tanzania-streets.openalfa.com (accessed in March 2019).

  30. 30.

    In Swahili, a white person is called mzungu. The prefix u- means ‘land of’, the suffix -ni ‘in, at’.

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  1. University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Marie A. Rieger

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  1. Faculty of Letters, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, North University Centre of Baia Mare, Baia Mare, Romania

    Oliviu Felecan  & Alina Bugheșiu  & 

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Rieger, M.A. (2021). Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in a Postcolonial World. In: Felecan, O., Bugheșiu, A. (eds) Names and Naming. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73186-1_15

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