Report from Kenya #642 -- Names
David Zarembka
Names
Report from Kenya #642 – February 12, 2021
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This is Trinah, our grandniece’s birth certificate. Note that her African name is “Kamonya” as she was named after Gladys who is her great-aunt. Note also that she does not take the name of her father and that her father and mother have different names.
There is probably nothing more confusing between European/American customs and African ones than how people are named. Since many of my readers are Africans, I will start by describing the European/American system.
My grandfather is Frank Zarembka; my father is Richard Zarembka; I am David Zarembka; my son is Tommy Zarembka; and my grandson is Matias Zarembka. This last name that is carried down through the father is called a “patronymic.” Traditionally when a woman marries, she changes from her father’s name to that of her new husband. So my mother, Helen Jane Colvin, became Helen Jane Zarembka when she married my father. This is emphasized in the traditional marriage ceremony where the father “gives away” his daughter to the groom. This patronymic system has its advantages. For example, my Peace Corps director, Paul Sacks, was walking down the hallway at the University of California in Berkeley and saw a sign on the door, “Paul Zarembka.” He immediately went in and, lo and behold, this was my brother. There are no more Zarembkas in Poland as all five of my great-grandfather’s sons moved to the United States before the First World War. Zarembka is an uncommon name and if you run in to someone with this last name, that person is related to me via by great-grandfather. One consequence of this custom is that men want to have sons to carry on the family name.
In Africa, each tribe, or even sub-tribe, has its own customs in naming people. I will use the example of the Maragoli, Gladys’ sub-tribe of the Luhya, to indicate how this is done in her family. The most important difference is that there are no patronymics. People do not carry their fathers’ name through the generations. My father, Richard, would be son of Frank; I would be the son of Richard; Tommy would be the son of David. Gladys’ name is Gladys Kamonya, daughter of Okwemba. Gladys is her Christian name, but Kamonya is her given African name. Where does this African name come from? Gladys is named after her great-grandmother who must have been born in the 1850s – she had died before Gladys was born. More frequently a child is named after one of the grandmothers if female or grandfathers if male. For example, we have a nephew named Vincent Okwemba, who is a grandchild of Gladys’ father by her sister, Janet. The parents chose a name from the possible ancestors. This is often based on the reputation of the elder. Gladys has had many granddaughters and grandnieces named “Kamonya” after her. The grandniece, Trinah, who used to live with us, was called “Kamonya” after Gladys.
This implies that you cannot identify a person’s family by their name. Two people with the same African name may not be related at all. One cannot determine that two people are brothers by their name because they have different names. This also implies – contrary to the expectation of westerners – that African women do not take their husband’s name because there is no family name to take.
One implication of this is that the hints Americans/Europeans have on how names help to determine how people are related is not possible with the African naming system. This means that people have to know and remember the relationships between people. After years attending Lumakanda Friends Church, I am always amazed when I realized that a certain man whom I know is married to a certain woman whom I also know. Unless I am told or visit them in their home, I have no way of knowing this.
Many Kenyans will call me “Mr. David” or just “Zarembka” following the custom here. What I find most ironic in all this, is that many people, both Americans and Africans, think “Zarembka” is an African name. In 1999 I was being picked up at the Nairobi airport by Samson Ababu. He has a sign saying, “David Zarembka.” I went up to him and said, “Hello, I’m David Zarembka.” He replied, to my amazement, “No, you’re not” as he was expecting an African. My shocked expression made him quickly realize his mistake. We laugh about this ever since.
One issue with African names is that it often can indicate which tribe or even sub-tribe a person is from. For example, “Kamonya” indicates that Gladys is a Luhya/Maragoli. If her name were “Kamonyi”, it would indicate that she is a Kikuyu. As a result it is extremely easy to determine with fairly good accuracy the tribe of a person by his or her African name. During the tribal conflict in Kenya in 2008, in order to remain safe, I know a Luo man, when he was going through territory hostile to the Luo, who took on a temporary Luhya name in order to hide his tribe.
Note that some Africans, particularly prominent elites, are adopting the western custom and giving their children their own African name. But there is a catch – if a man has two sons, he can’t give his African name to both sons.
There is also one last complication. Often the custom is to put the African name before the Christian name. (Muslims have their own naming customs, but I do not know what they are.) So it is Bucura David, not David Bucura, in Rwanda, or Ntakarutimana Florence, not Florence Ntakarutimana, in Burundi. Some Kenyans and other Africans also follow this custom. I often change names like this putting the Christian name first as is the American/European custom, but I am questioning if it is proper for me to do this.
Naming is again another issue where westerners need to realize that the Africans do not follow the traditional American/European customs.
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David Zarembka
Email: davidz...@gmail.com
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