When I
did my initial round of introductory one-on-ones with the students in my Print Journalism class, I said
something to one of the young women about her long string of names, and she
quickly replied – “But you should call me Baaba. In our language, that means I
was born on a Thursday.”
Later,
when we mentioned this to one of our drivers who has become a friend, he
nodded. “That’s right – I was born on Saturday, that’s why I’m called Kwame.”
Turns
out that each gender has not only a name, but several similar names to choose
from, based on the weekday of their birth. In addition to Baaba, I have an Aba
in my class – another Thursday woman. Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General
of the United Nations (and now the Chancellor of the university here), was born
on a Friday. Esi, a woman who was just hired to the faculty in my school, was
born on a Sunday, which means she could alternatively have been named Akosua. Abena, another lecturer, was born on Tuesday.
And so forth.
This
tradition, according to an article in Wikipedia, is also still practiced in
Jamaica – with which we are continually seeing tight Ghanaian connections. And
here in West Africa, people’s names get even more specific. The Wikipedia
article lays out some of the other naming protocols: Kofi Annan also has “Atta”
in his name, for example, meaning he was born as one of twins.
So it
seems that the answer to Shakespeare’s question, “What’s in a name?” is, “A lot
of information, that’s what” – at least in Ghana.
 |
Kofi Annan, Friday’s child, being installed as Chancellor of
the University of Ghana in 2008
|
No comments:
Post a Comment