From the earliest of times in Africa, practically all African names, rather than being a mere handle or tag, derived from the supernatural world located between the one high God and man.
One could not exist without a name. These names served to link the newborn to his/her ancestry and spiritual path. Whether characterized as a blessing or as a curse, a given name could never be a product of chance. Rather, a person’s name was a reflection of his/her Soul. Thus it was extremely important to have just the “right” name because it referred to his/her total identity and would endow its receiver with some sort of magic–perhaps to have a magical effect upon some other person(s); or the power to control or influence those supernatural forces believed to direct natural events; or to control, influence, or compel spirits to do the person’s bidding; or protect the person from harm; or soothe the angry spirits. In other words, such presumed powers conferred an atmosphere of magic over the object so labeled (e.g. a newborn’s name). Hence naming was a creative act that gave structure to ones personal development. For Ancient Africans, human names were something living and carried from God the power of continuing existence--a concept that found its way into the Bible (Isa. 66:22, 30, 27). Ones name set boundaries around what was designated and thus segregating and spotlighting one individual from all other things--important for a healthy self-esteem. In this sense a given "name" became a symbol of differentiation of qualities or the differences by which each quality became distinguishable from other qualities. By contrast, to Ancient Egyptians the effacing of a man’s name from his tomb destroyed his continued existence in the next world. Having the “wrong” name was at the core of how “curses” began. To be assigned a “cursed” name was equivalent to entering a fate of bad luck throughout ones life and it was rarely possible to live down that curse. The victim and all concerned attributed their troubles to the “hoodoo” name (the name that brings bad luck).
The suitability of the name in promoting the person's destiny (or portion thereof, given that the name might need to be changed as the person ascends the spiritual or social ladder) would also be verified by the oracle. Regardless of how the final name came about, thereafter in African Tradition ones name describes the essence of the person; exposes the profound reality of the Being who carries it; and communicates the character or the reputation of the person named. Knowledge of the concepts contained within African names were powerful because they implied acquisition of the qualities indicated by the name--qualities that could then be manipulated and influenced by evil people. Therefore, that sacred name needed to be kept secret for a period of time after birth or completely from those persons capable of using "Black magic."
Countless creative measures were devised to avoid revealing ones true names to others. In order to gain access to African power the ancient Greeks and Romans dedicated themselves to discovering the secrets contained in African names. However, they could not penetrate the African Allegory practices (a subtle abstract meaning inside an obvious concrete meaning). As a result, they got information about Africa all wrong and thus built up fictitious Indo-European Aryan and "Semitic Peoples" stories around this misinformation. Meanwhile, all Europeans had an obsession for renaming all that was of African creation. This accounts for many names for the same place and the same name for different places. For example, although the indigenous Africans of the White and Blue Nile Valley and elsewhere had many names for it--e.g. Ta-Merry, Tety-Mery, Lower Ethiopi, and Kimit (land of Black People)--the Greeks renamed it Egypt. Ref: Bailey, Word Stories Originated by Ancient Africans. |
