Murder me... it's at your peril

I remember back then in our Traditional African Communication class (TACS), my lecturer, Mr. Lanre Akinola was so passionate about this particular topic that day,: NAMES, yes names.

What’s in a  name sef?

In Africa, well particularly with my Nigerian experience, we take our names serious and we don’t just give names, there is usually a reason for giving names, I remember him being angry then that some would have beautiful local names but because they want to “form civilization” would go for “atowoda”(self-given) English names that they in most case, don’t even know the meaning.

In this part of the world, we believe that there is power in a name, your name can make or mar you. Just remembered a story I heard sometimes ago, according to the narrator, there is this classmate of his whose name is “Araragbaya”(meaning I can take all sufferings) and indeed  he gets punished almost on a daily basis even for someone else’ offence.

Yeah, I also remember back then when I was in Primary 2(don’t ask me when.lol, but of course it’s in the 90’s) I use to have this class mate that goes by the surname OTAPO(enemies are countless) are you guessing her own fate in school already?

Well, let me tell you, hers was that our headmaster then, Mr Onofowode would just show up in the class, call her to the front and start beating her while he repeats her name, for no reason, oh sorry because her name is Otapo, he hated the name and showed it.

At a point, I think we all started looking forward to the  scene everyday in class, it became part of our timetable taught by the headmaster himself OTAPO  VS  HEADMASTER.

And you know, we were so young then, I guess she wouldn’t dare mention it at home, not like these days, am sure the parent would have gone for the headmaster’s head.

Back to my point, there is power in a name, even in nicknames, hence, we should always watch it before we choose it, don’t get me wrong, am not saying we should not adopt a nickname but adopt the ones that are positively meaningful if you must choose one, likewise your name, let people see the beauty in pronouncing it well and saying it in full. Your name or nickname should be reflective of who you are and who you wanna be.

Do you know what my lecturer called this, he calls it Name murdering,if your name is Oluwadamilola and you decide to shorten it to Dam for instance, I guess you did get damned! So at whose peril are you murdering your name.

You know sometimes I find it really annoying  why an Oluwabukola would decide to spell her name as Orhluwabukholar, just because they want to Englishnize their name, especially on social network, apart from the fact that the spelling looks annoying and irritating you changed the meaning of the name to Only God know what?

The power in a name did reflected on our number one citizen in the country as he keeps coming from nowhere to “big place” and thus became the man with no shoes  with countless shoes, you can imagine how the number of babies that begin to go by the name Goodluck skyrocketed within that period even some adult became Goodluck over night. Though I wonder if people still want to be goodluck? ,because these days I hear when people say I wish you goodluck and you get reply like goodluck ko, patience ni, abeg wish me best of luck not goodluck.(lol) I guess we know the reason for this. This goes to show that one needs to work even on a good name to sustain it, how much more when we give ourselves name that we know nothing about its root, origin or meaning.

Because good names not worked on gets bad over time, when the likes of names such as Oyennusi is mentioned, we all know what comes to mind?

 But on a serious note, there is  power in a name or even nicknames, in Africa we don’t just give names just for the sake of it, our names have roots  and can be used to trace our lineage and the way we apply  it goes a long way…

I see no reason why a Subulola would want to be called Subu, the name has been murdered at her own peril, yes, because Subulola means fall into wealth, but when she allows herself to be called Subu which simply means fall, then she can probably fall into anything.

Lets keep it positive, whether as names or nicknames, you don’t have to “funkify”(don’t ask google for the meaning of this word oooo.lol)the spelling or pronunciation of your name all in the name of civilization, because most times you lose the beautiful meaning of the Name in the process.

Now, before you axe me, am not saying  we can’t be called by our nickname or have a short form pronunciation of our names but then let’s make it positive not like the “Subu” type.

Whatever the swag you want to give to your name, don’t lost its meaning and keep it positive, because if you murder your name, it is at your own peril.

There is power in a name!

Halybee…

Well, any  of the names used is just what came up in my thought , no personal vendetta okay, and I hath to use mainly Yoruba names because am familiar with them and know their meaning.