I really wanted to touch on two issues..

The first is connected with this story about the young girl who was taken to Pakistan by her father....now it emerged that she decided to change her name to Misbah... I noted however that ever media outlet kept referring to her as molly first and then Misbah.. To me this is the height of disrespect..settig aside that she is a European surely if someone of sound mind states this is how I now wish to be known...shouldn't people respect that?

The second issue which is connect is my personal experience when I reclaimed, (i don't say changed) my proper name....I legally dropped my Europeanised name in favour of one that reflected me culturally...

I remember in the early day some Black people absolutely refusing to accept my name, much less call me by it...Some thought I had insulted my parents..(I must state btw both were fine with my decision). However I thought it was interesting that in comparison between black and white people...Black people i met appeared to have the most problem with me reclaiming my cultural name...

Now however hardly anyone knows or questions my name because unless I tell people, no one knows what name I was given at birth. Although again it is strange that once some people know, they absolutely insist on knowning what my slave name was...naturally i refuse to give it..because it no longer represents who or what i am...i don't even think about it anymore...

As anyone else decided on this process if so what were your experiences..?

Been thinking about doing it for years. BTW what di you drop 1st/ surname or both?

I dropped my first and second European name..I wanted to drop the surname too..but It would have meant changing the children's name too and forcing my then Wife to change hers as well..

Ethically I didn't think it was right to force my choices upon my children...and naturally I couldn't force my then wife to change her surname...So i left that bit alone... Now I do realise that there are contradictions either way..I just choose to not to impose my choice on them..for me this was a personal decision...

I did mine legally...in fact if memory serves Omerwale from Galaxy gave me a legal format which i copied and then got a Solicitor to noterise boy I can tell you he was pissed ..normally they charge something like £100...and I got off with £5..man was curt like hell...lol

My passport, bank detail and all other important documents are now in my RIGHTFUL name..and for me it felt bloody good..although my slave name wasn't bad...I hated it with a passion alway have even as a child...

Kunjufu - definitely will..one day. For the record I see myself on a journey.one started by our ancestors from Africa and into slavery. I will not be at peace until I'm back home!!

Welli did decide a while back that after Uni i am going to get rid of my first European/Christian(delete as appropriate) name...doing it now would be too much hasle with the LEA and so on.

When i told some family members they just called me an extremist and went on with their colonial mentalityrambling as usual.

But then again these are the samepeople who even after overdosing on documentaries about Leopold, our country's demise and how we came to have such pathetic names as Serge, Patrice, Larent, Mimi etc, still insist on calling their children pathetic names that they very well know was brought into the country by the same monsters.

I can't believe that some of them even say that "its just that European names are practical and easy"I give up!!

The "Colonized" mind. Makes me "despair" a little bit, knowing that other black folks would question your choice to regarding your name. I keep thinking of the line from "Roots", when Louis Gossett Jr's character "Fiddler" looked at a black man who was trying to escape and said,

"I don't know how to be no free n!gger."

Some of us have broken minds, it seems. Well anyway, it's awesome to know that you have reclaimed your name. We definitely do not have to "force" these decisions on others. But when you lead by example like this, it makes me a little bit ashamed that I have not reclaimed my name.

But I think I would like to go through a process of doing that. I haven't quite thought out how I would like things to unfold in that regard.

Again, I applaude you. This thread lets me know that I have a few miles to go in terms of truly recognizing my own identity.



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Kunjufu wrote:

I have been thinking about changing my name for years, but as you mentioned, I have been concerned how my mother might feel. The second thing is I want a different name, but how to choose one poses a huge problem. I don't know where I come from in Africa, so I am not going to randomly choose a language and then a name from the vast number of cultures. When people hear my full name, they most certainly think of a rich white man, specifically because I have a first, middle, last name, and a suffix (Sr., Jr., III, IV, etc.).

Anyhow, I don't know much about you Kunjufu, so perhaps you didn't have the same concerns I am dealing with now.

Kunjufu/Shemsi - be it your parents (mother) or the mother of your children, is it common that it's always the women that need convincing of such moves. I know of one woman that only dated African men because she knew an African name for any offspring would be standard. At the same timeI know severalmen who have had to convert women to this way of thinking. Any sistas found it's their dads or boyfriend/husband who needed converting?

Choosing the name is a big problem....very big problem...I think many people take the reactionary approah and go Islamic because its perceived as 'black' and anti White... But in truth that is equally a contradiction...

In the end in my case I revisted one of our traditions the 'naming ceremony' I got all the people that knew me to give me the best adjective that best described me as a person..I then choose a name closet to that adjective.. Hence my Middle name is Kolonji (he who will suceed) and my Last name if I had changed it legally would be Kunjufu (ever dependable)...

However if I were reclaiming my name now..instead of 15 plus years ago I'd be tempted to get a DNA check to trace which region of Africa my Family was taken from and choose my name from that region...unfortunately that wasn't around when I made my choice..