2.3 TRENDS IN ANTHROPONOMASTICS
2.3.2 AFRICAN ANTHROPONOMASTIC TRENDS
27 realm. This study wanted to establish the importance of personal names among the Shona and see the extent to which these names reflect the gender status of the name bearers.
According to Dumisani in Lieberson (2000), some languages do not have separate names for men and women. While in other languages,regular inflections are used respectively on the names for grammatical gender difference to indicate the gender status of the names.So that
“John and Jane” for instance, who are both from the same Hebrew name, are represented as
“Johann and Johanna” in German respectively. These world-naming trends considerably informed this study; in that while the existing research establishes that there are separate names for men and women, this study wanted to find out exactly what in Zezuru personal names make them gendered. For his research, Dumisani in Sue and Telles (2007) studies the naming practices among the Italians and Jews in the United States in 1910.It emerges that the names Mary and Joseph were popular among the female and male Italians as Sara and Louis was among Jewish females and males respectively.
The colonization of many parts of the world, including Zimbabwe, significantly affected or influenced world anthroponomastic trends. Early settlers brought with them ‘imported names’
of foreign or exotic origin into the new areas they settled in, thereby injecting their “...alien culture...” Ramose (1999:130). These personal names were also used for subordinating and assimilating people. Additionally, personal names were used asa form of claiming and confirming possession over space (Neethling 2005). Frederiskse (1982) remarks that only those bolder in opposition to white dominance maintained their names. Hudson (1980:78) states that
“those who adopted new names did so through learning from the colonizers by direct instruction or by watering their behaviour.” Some names were chosen for sentimental, humorous, literacy, religious or high cultural reasons. This is the reason why some Zezuru names cannot be traced locally. This research gained some meaningful or insightful views on the study of personal names from other continents.
28 Klerk and Bosch (1995), Haron (1999), Mabuza (1997), Molefe (1999) and Prabhakaran (1999) later built on. Koopman writes about female names among the Zulu, but this present study looks at gender and naming among the Shona. Koopman looks at Zulu female names in terms of their linguistic structure, whereas this research focused on the meanings of Zezuru names – both the denotational and connotational meaning of the names.
This section explores the notable contributions to the study of names across Africa. Makondo states that Cloete (2000) deliberates on names and spaces in Kenya with reference to Wambui Waiyaki Otieno.Willis (1994) conducted research onpersonal names and the construction of social ideas among the Bondei and Giryama. Molema (1920) in Makondo (2009) studies the naming trends among the Bantu.Monning (1967) in Makondo (2009) examines the situation amongst the Pedi people. Alia (1990) studies women, names and power. Research ononomastics and the Igbo tradition of politics was conducted by Ebeogu (1993).Ekpo (1978) study the structure in Ibibio names. Ramose (1974) studies how the Sanuma acquire their names and Lieberson and Bell (1992) conducted a thorough study on children’s first names.
The above mentioned studies informed the present research by providing important information for the analysis of gendered personal names.
Msiti (1970:213) states that “from an African point of view the naming ceremony is a big social event because a personal name executes multiple functions.” The Swahili people in Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia and the Comoros Islands have a proverb that says if you inherit a name you must also adopt its affairs (Finnegan, 1970; Ibekwe, 1998 in Makondo, 2009).Musere and Byahutanga (1998) in Makondo (2009) state that the use of Buganda personal names demonstrates that those traditional names have deeper meanings than is generally apparent and are summaries of the society’s philosophy.Among the Banyoro people,the first-born male twin is commonly named Singoma while the female is named Nangoma. The different names point to gender difference between the twins.
Nissim (1973) in Makondo (2009) studies the naming system of African societies in Chad, Togo, Cameroon, Mali, and Upper Volta and tries to show how traditional names reflect the ritual relationships between God and the people. Weiner (1976) in Makondo (2009) describes names as having the potential of denoting cultural identity. Folom (1958) in Faik-Nzuji (1974) analyses selected personal names of people among the Bakongo of Lower Zaire.Faik-Nzuji (1974) states that Luba personal names are a result of a social-cultural motivation, and not a random fact. The research conducted by the mentioned scholars informed this study because
29 personal names are rich in and can carry information concerning gender, which is the thrust of this research.
Neethling (1995:957) notes that name-giving among African cultures reflects the socio-cultural circumstances of the group or clan. In Angola, Angolan Ovimbundu women’s names convey the thought patterns of a people. For instance, the given name Vihemba is meaningful as it denotes a child whose birth was difficult and required the use of change. The Huli and the Wim people of New Guinea use peathonyms (sorrow name) (Glasse, 1987:204 in Neethling 1995).The Nyoro people of Uganda who name their boys and girls after four and three months respectively, use personal names to express the names’ “...state of mind...”as they are illusive, and their understanding demands some knowledge “...of the web of thought, imagery and metaphor” (Beatrice 1957:100).
Odebode and Onadipe (2011) use a pragmatic approach to study the naming patterns of the Obiku among the Yoruba. They find that certain politeness phenomenon are either violated or obeyed during the course of naming the Abiku children; this is reflected in the meanings of some of the personal names. It is established that Abiku names are usually short and thereby economical, as more is communicated (within a few strands of letters), but the names were also found to be rich in meaning. The study is generic and sociocultural and is very relevant to this research. The research by Odebode and Onadipe is general in nature and is different from the current study which aimedto study the relationship between the names given to individuals and their gender status.
The introduction of Christianity was observed by Saarelma-Maunumaa (1996) in Namibia among the Eling Okakoa and Oshigambo congregations who abandoned their traditional names for biblical and Finnish ones .It emerges that the phonotactics of the Ovombo written languages namely, Oshindoga and Oshikwanyama, accounts for the etymological shift of European and biblical names like Mary (Luke 10 ;38-42;John 11 :1-7) to Martha, Marta (the popular female name) and John to Johannes ,Johannes, Johannes (the popular male name).
After analyzing English and Xhosa naming practices De-klerk and Bosch (1995:69) conclude that the African cultures are significantly different from the English in terms of the motivation for naming among the English, there is a wide range of information available on naming practices (Herbert 1994). What is noticeably absent in most cases is reference to the meaning or etymology of the name. In some western societies naming is primarily a system of reference not symbolization and for English speakers; proper names typically differ notably from other
30 words in their lack of sense or meaning in relation to the total linguistic system to which they refer.
Koopman (1990:43) concludes that in Zulu society, givers and bearers are always aware of the meaning of the name and the literal meaning of the name is always directly related to the reason for giving it.The ability to read between the lines as it were depends upon a cultural continuity in much language is embedded and which is not open to all. Only those who grow up within the community can perhaps, participate fully in this expanded communities interaction.
Beatrice (1957:37) reiterates by saying, “It is well-known that African names have meaning.”
De Klerk and Bosch (1995:69) say, “African names retain their meaning –bearing function and are much less arbitrary, their meaning generally being transparent and accessible and often recording complex details about their bearers”. De Klerk and Bosch’s views on the characteristics of African names will give direction to the present study in that this study wants to establish the extend to which Zezuru personal names can categorize the bearers of the names along gender lines.
Koopman (1998) says that the effects of western acculturation, religion and economic pressures on the Zulu people of South Africa is reflected in male names like Umziwenhlanhla (house of fortune), Uzwelabantu (country of blacks) and female names like Untombikamina (girl of her motives). Koopman (1998) identified six reasons behind the Zulu personal names that shed valuable light to this research. Koopman and Suzan (1994) focused on factors behind Zulu personal names used in the rural and urban settings and concluded that names, culture changes with social changes. She observes that Zulu children have two personal names their amagama asekhaya (home names) and their English or school names. Still on the Zulu people, Turner (1992) in Herbert (1994) posits that names perform various psychological functions when they express tension, discontent and censure. Within these contexts, names minimize friction by providing a means to redress problematic issues in society.
Turner’s (1992) realization that the message insinuated in names thrives only in its ‘native’
climate is vital for a study that seeks to understand the given names from the perception of their users. Neethling (1998) identified five factors behind the use of personal names by the Xhosa, Sotho, and Tswana and Pondo people of South Africa. These are religious symbolic names (explicitly mentioning God, spirits or ancestors), commemorate names (marking an event, date or person), delegatory protective names (used as destructors to make the ancestors think the child is not wanted, owing to pronouns deaths or misfortune in the family names encode social
31 commentary (Thipa, 1984) and names which record physical characteristics of the baby or emotions such as joy or gratitude. Herbert (1994) realized that the South African Tsoya people use personal names to keep their history, protest socio-political discriminatory practices like apartheid. These scholars’ observations were handy as this study sought to establish the relationship between naming and gender among the Shona in Zimbabwe.
Neethling (1995) has it that that name giving among Bantu cultures reflects the social- cultural circumstances of the group or clan. Moyo (1996) observed the Ngoni-Tumbuka speaking people of northern Malawi who prefers names with a historical importance that respectively comment on the family and clan condition. Koopman (1990) found out that in Zulu society name givers and recipients of the names are usually aware of the meaning of the name and the literal meaning of the name is always related to the context in which it is given. Mbiti (1970) says personal names in Africa execute multiple functions. For instance, to the Twi or Akan people in Ghana, a personal name is given as a way of finding out on evildoers while among the Nuer people of Sudan, personal names are used to define people’s relations with other members of the society. While the observations by various scholars looked at many other aspects which relate to personal naming in the African onomastics landscape they did not look at how personal names relate to gender hence this study seeks to establish the relationship between names given to Zezuru people and their gender status.