Tag: Names

Caroline Hooper-Box, writing a few years ago for the Sunday Independent, tells the movingly tragic story of the tribulations of an immigrant painter at the hands of South African police and Home Affairs officials. No money for guessing which country the man, named Between Siziba, hails from. A decade and a half ago, the Woolworths Food Market in Sea Point, Cape Town had in its employ (in its meat section) a gentle, hardworking and friendly man, unfortunately now late, from up north. His name? Delicious Mafanya.

Malawians too have been at it. As soon as the cellphone appeared there, talking names followed : Selefone Banda, Eyatime Sakala, Richaji Phiri, Netweki Mwale, Simikadi Mbewe, Henisfree Ngoma are some of the names reported in a widely distributed e-mail.

But why are Zimbabweans so uniquely fond of these names? To be honest my queries drew blanks. A friend suggested that an African name must say something. Many, if not all, African nations have names that “speak”. In fact a typical African name reflects the hopes, wishes, fears, feelings and prevailing circumstances of the parents, family or community of the newborn. My own grandfather, Njini, was so named because he was born in 1897 when the first railway engine steamed into Matabeleland. I used to think my late great uncle Fleza’s name was a distortion of the name Frazer until my grandmother explained to me that he was born in 1918 in the height of the great influenza epidemic that swept the world that year.

In Africa, speaking names are normally in the indigenous and first language of the family. They are common in Zimbabwe too. Rudo, Tererayi, Simbarashe, Kudakwashe and so on among the Shona. Thulani, Nkululeko, Thokozani among the Ndebele. Nothing different from any other African peoples. But what should we make of Zimbabweans’ penchant for direct translation to English?

Is it the famed love for education? The love for English in particular. And loved it is. I recall the speaking of indigenous languages being a punishable offence at Mpumelelo, my township primary school in Bulawayo. Justification for a two hour slog in the school vegetable garden was provided by no more than a two word entry in a prefect’s notebook- “Ndebele speaking”!

It is as if parents are competing to show off their knowledge of the Queen’s language. Why call the little girl Ntokozo when you know how to say Happiness? or Sicino when Last is only an English word away? Why Babusi, Baphathi or Vatongi when Rulers is there for the taking?? There is no problem really. Well , not until the love for English gallops a little too far ahead of the knowledge of it. And Thulani ends up in someone’s birth certificate as “Keepquiet” or even “Shutup”!!

Babusi Sibanda. Mobile : +27721969188 E-mail: kwizeen@gmail.com
Zimbabwean born, South African, freelance writer and columnist .
Has had numerous articles published in a variety of publications in the last 25 years including The Chronicle (Bulawayo), The Sunday News (Bulawayo), Moto, Parade, The Cape Times, Food & Home, Rootz, Femina, African Decisions, Mercedes , Mail & Guardian and others.

Member of SAFREA (Southern African Freelancers Association). Visit us at www.safrea.co.za

This has been a submission by Babusi Sibanda.
You can connect with Babusi Sibanda via the following: http://www.safrea.co.za, , .
You too can become a Citizen Journalist by submitting your story here: Citizen Journalism by Living Zimbabwe.

At home, Zifudlana (meaning little streams in siNdebele) Ndlovu, the man who helped herd our cattle, and taught me most of what I know about the bush, had his first born daughter named Surrender! There are numerous other examples. One of my abiding childhood memories is of a cousin (Given Maphosa) , chasing us around the cattle kraal while we taunted him with a newly learnt Salvation Army Sunday school chorus “ My sins are for-given…. Are yourrrrrrs? Aaaare yourrrrrs?”

For some odd reason the country’s footballing world seems to attract more than its fair share of interestingly named players. I remember Doubt Sithole’s blistering right wing runs (for Bulawayo’s Highlanders FC, in the late 70s). The National team in the early 80s boasted Shakeman Tauro, Friday Phiri, Sunday Marimo. All in one team! And these were not nicknames. We are not talking about the likes of Sugar Muguyo here. The latter, whose real name was Ebson, together with Onias Musana were well known Zimbabwean expatriates in the South African soccer scene of the late 70s. The number of interesting names in one team has never been bettered although we have had people like Boy Ndlovu, Mercedes “Rambo” Sibanda in the mid to late 80s.

In the last few years we have also seen the likes of Pressmore Moyo (former under 17 player) Master Masuku (AmaZulu) and Pope Moyo (who kept goals for Highlanders) to name a few. A recent Zimbabwean national team headed for the 2006 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt with a squad that included Gift Mudzadzi, Energy Murambadoro, Method Mwanjali, and Honour Gombani.

After Kirsty Coventry sensationally bagged Zimbabwe’s 3 swimming gold medals in the 2004 Olympics (and was, rather disingenuously, feted by Robert Mugabe) a hilarious e-mail did the rounds among Zimbabweans all over the world. It listed some of the names, purportedly garnered from Zimbabwean maternity wards, in the weeks after Kirsty’s feats, that parents gave to their newborns. These included Freestyle Madongo, Goldengirl Mazorodze, Threemedals Sibanda, Backstroke Karimanzira and yes, why not, ….Kestricoventry Munyoro

The more refined “sports” are not exempt. Zimbabwe’s entrant in the 2005 M-Net face of Africa Finals has the name Greatmore Chatya. A few years ago, after an earthquake rocked part of Zimbabwe and Mozambique another e-mail doing the rounds referred to nurses from Harare’s Ambuya Nehanda maternity home announcing that names of newborns discharged the next day included: Shakes Dube, Vibration Kunonga, Tremble Magwaya, Tremor Dangare, Tectonic Muzondiwa, Kudengenyeka Charovachii, Richter Sibanda and Earthquake Maposa. The e-mail was probably a joke but it could only have been a Zimbabwean joke!

Babusi Sibanda. Mobile : +27721969188 E-mail: kwizeen@gmail.com
Zimbabwean born, South African, freelance writer and columnist .
Has had numerous articles published in a variety of publications in the last 25 years including The Chronicle (Bulawayo), The Sunday News (Bulawayo), Moto, Parade, The Cape Times, Food & Home, Rootz, Femina, African Decisions, Mercedes , Mail & Guardian and others.

This has been a submission by Babusi Sibanda.
You can connect with Babusi Sibanda via the following: http://www.safrea.co.za, , .
You too can become a Citizen Journalist by submitting your story here: Citizen Journalism by Living Zimbabwe.

You have probably heard the story : some of the names of babies born in local clinics and hospitals after the 2008 “harmonised” Zimbabwean elections-

Runoff Moyo
Senatorial Chirumhanzu
Candidate Pote
Independant Maposa
Rigging Hamadziripi
Electoral Commission Ndlovu
Foreign Observer Chimunda
Neck Toneck Nyamadzawo
Sadhaki Sibanda
Heavyweight Utaunashe
Percentage Ndlondlo
Released Results Matongo
Meticulous Verification Chinengundu
Free & Fair Pazvakawambwa (Twins)
Rerun Mombeshora
Rural Stronghold Khaliyathi
Constituency Madison
Polling Station Nhamoinesu
Ballotbox & Ballotpaper Kunonga (Twins)
Harmonised Chitanda

And…..Parliament Nyathi!

My fascination with Zimbabwean names dates back, some two decades, to my first university vacation job as a personnel records clerk at Monarch Products, a Bulawayo household and travel goods manufacturer. Perhaps I should change this to a fascination with the way ‘indigenous’ Zimbabweans name their children in English. To be sure, this intriguing tendency is not exclusive to Zimbos. Happy Sindane is, after all, a South African. But who else in the world gives their children names such as Passmore, Scholastic, Promotion, Lovemore, Godknows, Promise, Knowledge, Moreblessings, Trademan, Bornfirst , Boniface, Takesure and many other suchlike gems?

I landed myself the princely vacation job because Monarch Products (part of the Treger Group of Companies) was, for the first time, computerising its personnel records. The first part of the job consisted of trawling through each employee’s personnel file for copies of birth and death certificates, note entries, and any evidence of family changes in the employee’s life and then updating the official record cards which for some reason had not been done for the previous decade or so. Once updated the card would then be passed on to some data capture clerk for the computerisation process. My part, in other words was painstaking and extremely boring. That is until I stumbled upon some of the most amazing examples of interesting names and decided to keep a toll and further amuse myself by working out the story behind each of the gems.

Anyone meeting Promotion Ncube today (perhaps now some hot-shot lawyer, teacher, soldier or one of Zimbabwe’s millions of refugees) would not know that in 1981, a month before his birth, his father- a leading hand in Monarch’s Travel Goods division- was promoted to first line supervisor! Old man Treger himself, probably late now, may not have known that at least three of his employees named their children “Treger” in appreciation of continued employment. Or perhaps even in some sycophantic search for that elusive promotion!

But my fascination goes back even further- to childhood days. I had a brother ,now late, called Bigboy , who has a son called Agreement. I attended Primary school with three boys, Sunrise, Sunshine and Sunset, the children of a neighbouring school headmaster. Or- as they were affectionately known- Rise, Shine and Set. (Incidentally, their three sisters were Ntombikayise, Ntombikanina and Ntombiyelizwe- literally father’s girl, mother’s girl and the nation’s girl, respectively).

At about the same period, a village bully named Ambulance Ncube, five years older but two grades behind me, terrorised the whole school. One day I forgot to bring his “order” of cooked peanuts and he fractured my elbow with a knobkerrie. Our freedom from Ambulance’s tyranny only came when he ran away (from the pressures of yet another repeated lower primary school academic year!) to Geneva (as Zambia was popularly known after the 1975 Geneva Conference on Rhodesia) to “join the liberation struggle”. But that was not before my older brother Sibangilizwe, and an uncle, Smile Moyo, cornered and thrashed him until his own arm was broken! (Sibangilizwe, incidentally, means “we are fighting for the country” in siNdebele. A very nice name to present at a pre-independence Rhodesian Army roadblock, as my brother frequently found out!)

– Babusi Sibanda . Johannesburg, 2008

Babusi Sibanda. Mobile : +27721969188 E-mail: kwizeen@gmail.com
Zimbabwean born, South African, freelance writer and columnist .
Has had numerous articles published in a variety of publications in the last 25 years including The Chronicle (Bulawayo), The Sunday News (Bulawayo), Moto, Parade, The Cape Times, Food & Home, Rootz, Femina, African Decisions, Mercedes , Mail & Guardian and others.

Member of SAFREA (Southern African Freelancers Association). Visit us at www.safrea.co.za

This has been a submission by Babusi Sibanda.
You can connect with Babusi Sibanda via the following: http://www.safrea.co.za, , .
You too can become a Citizen Journalist by submitting your story here: Citizen Journalism by Living Zimbabwe.