Barack or Baraka?
Emil Pulsifer
on his U.S. birth certificate) is "Barack", after his father Barack,
Sr., but his father was a Kenyan, and I thought that the kiSwahili
name is Baraka, whereas Barack is an anglicized spelling of an Arabic
variation of "Mubarak".
I suppose that this is as much a problem in biography as it is in
genealogy, but any insights would be appreciated.
To me (an American) Baraka also sounds decidedly African, whereas
Barack might be almost anything. I don't know if that figured into
the spelling as it appears on the birth certificate, or if I'm barking
up the wrong tree.
Dana Turner
Yes, you are ba-rack-ing up the wrong tree!
Your thinly disguised "birther" inquiry appears to be based on your
incessant desire to demean, discredit or otherwise impugn the American
citizenship of our duly-elected President of these United States. Unlike
his predecessor President Barack Hussein Obama won the popular vote, not
just the electoral vote like Mr. Bush Jr. did.
Countless American citizens possess names of foreign or "foreign-sounding"
derivations. Parents have the right to name their child any name they
choose as long as it is not to advance some fraudulent purpose. There is no
reason whatsoever that a Kenyan father and an American mother must be
compelled to choose a name in a language of one parent or another. If that
were the case we would not have ever had an 'Angelina Jolie' or 'Madonna
Ciccone,' neither of whose parents were from Italy or Italian citizens at
the time of their daughter's birth.
Furthermore, there are many many languages spoken in Kenya such as Kikuyu,
Luhya, Luo, Kamba, Kalejin, Kisii, Meru and dozens of other languages. (For
your edification, there are more indigenous languges spoken on the continent
of African than any other continent.) kiSwahili is not a "language" per se
but a hodge-podge of words and syntax taken from Arabic and many other local
languages. Swahili is merely the 'commercial language' of East-Central
Africa. Kenyan citizens, have for centuries, spoken English and other
non-African languages fluently (and better than Americans as they were
taught English ... by the English who spoke the King's English ...not the
bastardized guttural that passes for the American dialect) as well as
Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, Italian, Russian and Mandarin which are all languages
propagated across the country through business, religious and social
intercourse.
More than 10% of Kenyans practice Islam and so the use of an Arabic first
name for a child would be no more unusual than it would be for a
Catholic-American to name their child a Latin name such as Xavier or
Augustus or Ignatius.
Kenyan citizens have every right to name a child from any of the above or
any other language. The idea that peoples of African descent are limited to
using any single language exclusively and are not free to draw-upon,
borrow-from or utilize names or words from any other language is
xenocentrist.
No one would ever challenge or question the choice of Caucasian parents to
name their child whatever name they have chosen. From 'River' to 'Apple'
inexplicable names and names of unexplicable origin are a mainstay of
American life, and, a hallmark of the freedoms that everyone it seems -
except African-Americans - are allowed to enjoy in this country without
causing so much as the raising of an eyebrow.
I suggest you spend your time belaboring weightier issues such as how to
take back the American economy from the financial services oligarchy that
has shipped our jobs across oceans and foreclosed upon the homes of honest,
hardworking citizens after selling them mortgages procured with
fraudulently-processed loans at exorbitant interest rates. Or, you might
consider the consequences of the most recent president fighting a
Congressionally-undeclared war based on deceptive and conjured-up
intelligence that has cost the lives of 5,000 American troops and hundreds
of thousands of innocent, non-beligerant Iraqis. But of course that is not
of concern to those who refuse to accept the reality that a man of African
descendant is the U.S. Commander-In-Chief. Please "get over it" and do
something constructive to save this country from the trillions of dollars
owed to China, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Shame on you and on your cohort that, as Jesus Christ said, is "willing to
strain at a gnat while gulping down a camel."
Yours In Christ,
Dana DeAndra Turner, J.D.
--
Dana D. Turner, J.D.
dana.tu...@gmail.com
Satyagraha
"First they ignore you,
then they attack you,
then you win!
- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
Quan Pruitt
No one could of said it better!!!!
Dear Emil,
Yours In Christ,
Dana DeAndra Turner, J.D.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Emil Pulsifer <e_pul...@yahoo.com<mailto:e_pul...@yahoo.com>> wrote:
> I'm a bit confused by President Obama's name. The original (appearing
> on his U.S. birth certificate) is "Barack", after his father Barack,
> Sr., but his father was a Kenyan, and I thought that the kiSwahili
> name is Baraka, whereas Barack is an anglicized spelling of an Arabic
> variation of "Mubarak".
>
> I suppose that this is as much a problem in biography as it is in
> genealogy, but any insights would be appreciated.
>
> To me (an American) Baraka also sounds decidedly African, whereas
> Barack might be almost anything. I don't know if that figured into
> the spelling as it appears on the birth certificate, or if I'm barking
> up the wrong tree.
--
Dana D. Turner, J.D.
dana.tu...@gmail.com<mailto:dana.tu...@gmail.com>
Karen King-Lavore
KAREN KING LAVORE
LIVE LONG, LOVE & PROSPER
----- Original Message -----
From: Quan Pruitt<mailto:pru...@msn.com>
To: gen-a...@rootsweb.com<mailto:gen-a...@rootsweb.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 6:56 PM
Subject: Re: [GEN-AFRICAN] Barack or Baraka?
Dear Emil,
Yours In Christ,
Dana DeAndra Turner, J.D.
On Sun, Feb 14, 2010 at 4:59 PM, Emil Pulsifer <e_pul...@yahoo.com<mailto:e_pul...@yahoo.com<mailto:e_pul...@yahoo.com%3Cmailto:e_pul...@yahoo.com>>> wrote:
> I'm a bit confused by President Obama's name. The original (appearing
> on his U.S. birth certificate) is "Barack", after his father Barack,
> Sr., but his father was a Kenyan, and I thought that the kiSwahili
> name is Baraka, whereas Barack is an anglicized spelling of an Arabic
> variation of "Mubarak".
>
> I suppose that this is as much a problem in biography as it is in
> genealogy, but any insights would be appreciated.
>
> To me (an American) Baraka also sounds decidedly African, whereas
> Barack might be almost anything. I don't know if that figured into
> the spelling as it appears on the birth certificate, or if I'm barking
> up the wrong tree.
--
Dana D. Turner, J.D.
dana.tu...@gmail.com<mailto:dana.tu...@gmail.com<mailto:dana.tu...@gmail.com%3Cmailto:dana.tu...@gmail.com>>