On Names and Roots

“Tigers Die and Leave Their Skins; People Die and Leave Their Names.” – Author Unknown

Dale Carnegie refers to names as being, “the sweetest and most important sound in any language,” and I could not agree more. Names are vastly important. They are who we are, holding dreams that our parents laid out for us and they are the biggest gifts we could have received from them outside of the gift of life. Names in a matter of speaking are the roots of us, as individuals, as groups. They are our first identifier and our main next to our appearances.

Names are important in every single culture although the importance may be for different reasons. As such names should be treated with respect.

“When I started as an actor? No, and I'll tell you why. I had already gone through that. My family is from Nigeria, and my full name is Uzoamaka, which means "The road is good." Quick lesson: My tribe is Igbo, and you name your kid something that tells your history and hopefully predicts your future. So anyway, in grade school, because my last name started with an A, I was the first in roll call, and nobody ever knew how to pronounce it. So I went home and asked my mother if I could be called Zoe. I remember she was cooking, and in her Nigerian accent she said, "Why?" I said, "Nobody can pronounce it." Without missing a beat, she said, "If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.” – Uzo Aduba

In the story, Chike’s School Days the main character receives three names, John, Chike, and Obiajulu. All of these names must have very important meanings to Chike’s family but it is the last one Obiajulu that is the most impactful. Meaning, “the mind is at last at rest,” this name not only connects the main character to his native roots, but it holds the feeling of doneness, of completion for the family. It is the rest of the story that gives further context into Chike’s dual existence, to his having one foot equally in the door of Europe as well as the door of his homeland, Africa but it is in that first paragraph that we as an audience truly witness the groundwork being laid for the story.

In the short story, “Deep River” the importance of a name is also evident as the entire group chooses to go by the name of their Chief, the person of highest importance in their tribe. For as long as they can remember the people of the tribe have been Monemapee’s people until an incident involving the newest ruler splits the tribe in half. This fallout has a very big impact on the tribe as it leads to their identity being changed at the end of the story, not only in their thoughts and opinions but in their identity and name as well.

The impact that this change has on the people is very thought provoking and relatable. It makes you wonder what you might have done in the shoes of one of the tribe members. Would you have chosen to go with one leader or the other? Would you have been willing to change your identity for the sake of your people? Or would you have rather made a path for yourself?

The poet Leopold Sedar Senghor knows what it means to be part of a community with one foot in one door and one in another. It is in his poems, To New York, and Prayer to the Masks that we truly get a glimpse of what this dual identity means. In To New York Senghor provides us a love letter to his hometown, the city he has come to love despite its flaws. Prayer to the Masks provides us a glimpse of his dual life, of his roots in African and Europe, with Europe being tied at the navel.