CALL US BY OUR NAMES

 

I experienced a new thing today, and the novelty of the experience is so exciting, I want to force everyone to hear/read about it.

<I'm already doing that, hehe>

I was privileged to be a part of a christian rural medical outreach today and I got to spend time with the children of the indigenes of the community where the outreach was held.
I would be lying if I said I enjoyed every second of it because I got tired out towards the ending, however, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We played games and sang and danced and told bible stories and did some alphabet singing and more dancing and more games and biscuit sharing and lollipop licking...I should stop now.
I know very well the danger of a single story so, apart from telling you that a lot of the kids did not exactly look clean and healthy and that the roads in the community were in a very distasteful state, and some of them couldn't attend school because their parents could not afford to pay their fees, and that a lot of the locals presented with hernia that is most likely as a result of increased intra abdominal pressure from strenuous work, I will tell you that a lot of them smiled easy and they were very warm in welcoming us, and language barrier was not a problem because they were understanding and patient with us while we tried to get interpreters, and a lot of the kids are very smart and super sweet, and it was kind of them to create a makeshift vigilante group to keep us safe, and they were excited about Jesus, and they prayed with and for us and when we had to leave, they gifted us A LOT of plantain.
That said, I will now write about an observation I made.
<I don't know why I notice things like this>
Their names were what shocked me the most, the ridiculousness of it, how ironic it was that most of those kids that could barely speak English had <what I like to call> "conc" english first names and last names.
John Sunday, Dennis Williams, Peace James...
Maybe I am overthinking it. Maybe names are just names and it doesn't matter what their origins are as long as they do not mean anything terrible.
Doesn't akara remain akara even when it is called bean cake? Or does it?
For some reason, it feels very wrong. More so because the locals that had native names had such beautiful names.
It reminded me of one of Ijeoma Umebinyuo's poems, the one about how we were convinced by the colonial masters to get baptismal names because our native ones were too heathen and God wouldn't recognise them.
I do not think I have rights enough to talk or write about preferring indigenous names because my first name is an English verb<it's the only one of my 7 names that is not Igbo, really > and a lot of times while reading books inspired by Igbo cosmology, I start to imagine what would happen if I were a character in those stories, how after I have died and my Chi ascends to the courts of Beechukwu in Eluigwe to appeal for my safe arrival into alandiichie, Chukwu would say<in Igbo of course>, "what kind of name is Excel? Send that one to the abyss! No reincarnation for her!"
<okay, I need to calm down, plus I'm sure that my Chi would use one of my other names...or something>.
My point is, the post colonialism effect is still very much apparent in the kinds of people we have become, how we see the things that belong to us as inferior, sinful and vile, from our names, to our dressing styles, to our hair—especially our hair!
The other day, I went out to take pictures with my friend, Triumph and she was wearing her natural hair<gloriously, by the way> and this uncouth elderly woman that had trouble with minding her business<sorry, mild burst of irritation> replied our greeting<we greeted her> and then proceeded to tell my friend that her hair was very ugly and she looked like a Calabar person.
(Two major offences, first, how can you use Calabar as a derogatory term? Second, UGLY¿!)
You may not believe that my friend's hair was far from ugly and only insulted because it was natural, but don't you see it in the way boys were punished in school for keeping afros, and, wasn't it one of the things that triggered the #endsars movement? How people were profiled for growing their hair in AFRICAN LOCS?
I think we could do a lot better. I want to do a lot better. I think I already started by writing and sharing my African stories. You can too by supporting indigenous writers e.g me, info on how to below.

<no this is not me indirectly asking you to support my blog, hehehe>


Author's note:
While reading this after I had written it, I felt proud of myself, because it looked like something Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie would write<some parts at least> and after the swell of pride came this stinging blanket of shame<again, something CNA would say/write hehe>, because it struck me how my pride in MYSELF stemmed from creating something that could pass for something someone else created.
There are all these amazing women I admire for their eloquence: Oprah Winfrey, Mitchell Obama, J K Rowling and so and so, however, I have realised that the sooner I come to terms that I do not have the potential to be any of these women, the better for me.
I do not mean that I do not have the potential to do great things like them, I just mean that, I cannot be them. Even if I got married to some other Obama that eventually became president of the United States, I cannot ever be Mitchell, and nobody else can be Oprah except Oprah and it is the same for every other amazing woman I have come to love and admire. I am Agochukwu Excel Nmesomachi and that is the only person I can ever be.
So yes, I am extremely proud of this piece of writing because of the experience that birthed it, the people I was able to connect with to tell the story and most importantly because I was brilliant enough to write it.
<the Nigerian in me that has learned humility by suppression of achievement is sooo uncomfortable, but heck, I wrote it didn't I? Hehehee *scratches head>
I know I've deviated a bit from the subject matter and I apologise from the bottom of my heart.
I hope reading this made you feel something.
Let me know what it made you feel in the comments please? *inserts extremely cute, hard to resist puppy eyes*

Thank you.

P.S My friend that I wrote about? Check out her Instagram here and see how beautiful her hair is by yourself:

www.instagram.com/_typical_triumph

Meanwhileeeee, *drum roll please*

I have done a thing! 

Do you enjoy the content on this blog?
Do you want to be a part of the creation process?
www.hernaijamoments.blogspot.com would be revamping soon and I want you to be a part of it!
Become a partner today for just:
 5 000NGN 2 000NGN (till 15th December, 2021)

Perks of being a partner from January 2022:
-You get to be on my mailing list
<and get juicy life updates first>
-Every month, you will get polls containing content topics sent to your email and then get to pick what content you want posted next.
<yes, you get to control me>
-Discounts on ads 
-Discounts on products during purchase from ads.
-General feeling of happiness and contentment.

Click here: Blog support