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Pathisa Nyathi
IN some communities and societies naming takes the form of an elaborate ritual. This is particularly the case in West Africa where the various communities are more Afro-centric in outlook in comparison with those in Southern Africa where the colonial project was more successful and effectual.
This should not come as a surprise when the importance of a name is taken into consideration within the African cultural context.
A newborn baby is more of a biological entity than a cultural one. True, some cultural dimension would already have been infused and embraced in more ways than one. Certain food taboos were observed by an expectant mother to facilitate ease of birth, minimise spiritual vulnerability and offer protection to the unborn foetus.
The expecting mother would have bathed herself in some medicinal concoctions to ward off danger from malevolent characters such as witches and wizards.
At birth the cultural process was facilitated. Medicinal concoctions were administered based largely on symbolism and symbolic manipulation. A good example to illustrate the kinds of medicines applied is the placenta (ingqwatshi) from a donkey. This is a prized commodity based on observation of the speed with which a donkey delivers its young — quick and fast!
One herding donkeys will see the young walking feebly in front of its mother. Delivery would have taken place at the speed of lightning. That is a characteristic that is made use of through replication on a different plane — that of a delivering human mother.
It is not just speed that is taken advantage of. Slipperiness is equally important. This translates to minimal friction between the birth canal and the baby’s body. If you have tried to get hold of an eel, (inyeluka), in water, you will appreciate its slippery nature. Accordingly, its skin is one of the ingredients used to facilitate easier baby delivery. Many other ingredients are chosen on the basis of their role in facilitating ease of delivery.
What all this amounts to is the inclusion, even at this early stage, of the cultural dimension. Other processes follow which increase the cultural dimension and one of these is the naming ritual.
Relatives and neighbours are invited and blood, from a slaughtered livestock, is spilled or some white kola nut milk is used for the same purpose.
The new baby must be located and linked in terms of time and human dimensions. The baby is part of an extended African family which includes both the living and the living dead. The baby must be introduced to them. The baby belongs to the hierarchy of these ancestral spirits whose role includes, inter alia, protection of their living progeny.
That entails their getting to know the name of the baby. Sometimes they will even dictate the name to be given to the newborn baby. The parents, assuming they keep open communication channels with the living dead, will intercept messages from the world of spirits and name the baby as predicted messages.
The baby is thus located in a spiritual sense but also in a cosmic sense in terms of timing. The moon when the baby was born is regarded as its age mate and is used as the baseline in calculating the age of the baby.
As indicated in some earlier instalment, the year is identified on the basis of some major human or environmental/ cosmic catastrophe.
The chosen names are themselves influenced by several factors which find meaning within the cultural context, in particular, the worldview and beliefs of a given community. Today we shall deal with ideas that reflect the order of birth among siblings.
There are names that do capture the essence of order applicable in terms of placing or positioning within the order of birth in the context of siblings.
Let us begin with the name Fikile which is applicable to either sex. This is a name with a bearing on the ordering of siblings, not necessarily the order but rather the timing of the birth of an individual.
It is not a name that parents just pick from a basket of names. The lapse of time is an important consideration.
Further, the name, as given, is applicable within a Nguni cultural context. It is assumed that other cultures have names that capture and embrace the same idea, but rendered in the languages spoken in those communities.
There are a few people that I know of that bear the name Fikile. Nearer home, our last born daughter is Fikile. In her particular case, it was a name dictated by those with an interest in the affairs of their progeny. This is to say she was not named by us her parents, but by her spiritual parents. At the time of dictation, I was not au fait with the circumstances under which such a name is given.
Fikile, who turned 25 a few weeks ago, came after her brother Butho born in 1985. Fikile was born in 1994, nine years later and, in the process, denied Butho the honour of being the last born child but allowing him to retain his status as the only son.
The name translates as, “has arrived.” Fika is a verb meaning, arrive. But all children do arrive at some time or another but it is the uniqueness of arrival that courts the use of the name.
A cursory look at the spacing of babies reveals a two-year spacing period. Where the name Fikile is applied, the arrival is characterised by an unusually long non-arrival.
Instead of arriving after two years, Fikile arrived after nine years. Those in the other world shared the same culture as us their living progeny. The naming culture has thus been passed down the generations and is still being passed on even now.
This, we may term the inter-generational transmission of naming and, more specifically, the meaning attached to names or the circumstances surrounding the birth.
It is safe to surmise that the other Fikiles share the same circumstances in the timing of their births. They came after a sibling who is older than them by several years.
In South Africa there is Fikile Mbalula from the Xhosa community whose culture is Nguni. There was also Victoria Fikile Chitepo wife to Herbert Wiltshire Chitepo, the one time Chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union(Zanu) in exile in the 1960s till 1975 when he died after a bomb placed in his VW car exploded at Chilenje in Lusaka.
Let us have a look at yet another name which also depicts the order of birth among siblings. Fusi is one such name. The best known Fusi was Fusi Khanye who was the chief of Ingubo, eNgutsheni (village/ regiment). ENgutsheni is the locative form. The village/ regiment he led was located where the misnamed Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital is located in Bulawayo.
In the Nguni culture, Fusi is a name reserved for one who comes or is born after twins.
Here, once again, the name renders meaning associated with being born after twins. What I am not clear about is the significance of the name in relation to twins.
Surely there must be something special associated with being born after twins regardless of the time lapse. Names and names . . . our world is made sense of through names.
Cultures and traditions find expression through names. Names inspire imagination and render meaning to our world, be it terrestrial, cosmic or even spiritual.
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