#ChangeYourColonialName
The world is abuzz discussing racial issues, from racism; cultural appropriation and colourism, and it is about damn time!!! South Africa is also sitting up on the table to discuss racial issues as personally experienced here. We are a group of people that have been segregated, and cautioned to remain within the confines of “what makes everybody happy” for many, many years, over 600 years to be correct. Black people in South Africa have, amazingly, lost ALL chill on racial issues, and I say amazingly because for the longest time, black South Africans have been so uncomfortable to discuss race, racism and the tug of war it has created between African culture and modern society. BUT! It’s all turning on its head.
Early this month, #ChangeYourColonialName, started making the rounds on social media. More than just a hashtag, this is a movement that seeks to encourage black South African to drop their colonial names and embrace their cultural names. I must be honest, when I first heard about this movement, I thought it was unimportant, having no way it could possibly contribute to the bigger picture and the real work on the ground for freedom in our democracy, but with more conversations and listening to other people voice their opinions, I realized that this was another step on the long path for black people to be really free, a step like the girls of Pretoria High took, it was about more than just hair, or the step taken by University students, it is about more than just school, or the step taken by this movement, it is about more than just a name. It is all about saying, black South Africa has been labelled “disadvantaged” for a very long time, our culture, heritage, names, hair, accent, skin tone, has for a long time been looked down on and called primitive, but not anymore, the misrepresentation and misunderstanding ends here, NOW! We deserve the same privileges everybody else has, we deserve the right to wear our hair however we feel, we deserve to call ourselves and be called in the names of our ancestors, without fear of making the next person uncomfortable because they can’t pronounce my name, we deserve the opportunity to go to school, without being called disadvantaged anymore.
I don’t have a colonial name, so Home Affairs won’t be seeing my face anytime soon, although I wish my mom was big on Western names so I can drop that name like its on fire! But, my sense of pride in my name has just jumped through the roof, and now when I get the question “who are you?” my response is Ke nna Moshibudi Mabelane, morwedi ‘a Madia, Bahananwa ba di thaba tša Blouberg. Ke nna wa leshaka la bo Phashe o mošweu wa bo Lesetša la bo Ngwanaphalama peretla Malesela, le bo Sekepe setlhohlola dinaga ka di foraga. AGEE! What a time to be alive.
*Google translate that*
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