The debate about using traditional African names in lieu of Western or Arab
ones has for a long time now caught the attention of Africanists,
intellectuals and politicians alike.  If I'm not wrong the late Kwame
Nkrumah preferred to go by his traditional rather than his christian
baptissimal name, if he had one for that matter.  The late Mobutu Sese Seko
Kuku Wazabanga (whatever in the world that means) prohibited Zaireans the
use of Western names.

In The Gambia, as in most other African countries people have a tendency to
use a Western or Arabic name to baptise their children. There is a general
belief that African names have an echo of paganism tied to them and that
they should always be superimposed by a "biblical"/Jewish, Greek or
"Islamic"/Arabic name.  Often it is from the latter category that a name is
chosen for the new and it is this name that is recorded in the birth
certificate of the child.  Some christian denominations would even go so far
as to add another name after confirmation.

A philospher once said that a peoples' religion will always carry elements
of the culture of the founders of that religion.  In pre-islamic Arabia as
in pre-christian Europe the names that we so commonly consider holy and
sometimes sacriligious are the same names that were used by the
idol-worshippers of those eras.  I can bet that Abu Bakr = father of the
cattle, Al-ahssan = the best or Peter and Paul do not bear more significance
than Ngone, Samba and Demba in the eyes of God.

Whatever the reason advanced for borrowing Arabic and Western names to
baptise our children (when we have an endless list of our own names is it
has just been proofed in this List), we cannot ignore the fact a peoples'
culture is their best I.D. in the arena of nations.

PS.   For the sake of clarification I think that Almami, Alkali, Alpha,
Asiatou, Boubacarr/Babucarr,  Sana (Hassan), Sainey (Alhuseiny)and Yassin
are Arabic and not traditional Gambian names.  Our Islamic scholars and
Arabophones will agree with me on this.




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