Kebba, thanks for pointing out the truth.  Just like they did to our
brothers and sisters in the diaspora, we in the mainland were also
bamboozled.  The only thing I would have wanted my parents to have given me
in my existence, is to have given me an African first name.  Other than that
they did a fine job for who I am today.  It is incumbent on me, therefore,
to give my children purely African names.  Some may ask, what's in a name.
My response, everything and the examples you cited are at the very core.
Your posting may not speak for everyone, but it definitely spoke for me.

Chi Jaama

Joe Sambou


>From: Kebba Sanneh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
><[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Black Inventors/Its a Black Thing/Archibald H R GRAHAM
>Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 10:36:48 +0100
>
>I guess you would understand why people like me born and brought up in
>Africa would suggest that these name thing played and still playing
>a vital role for the African to identify himself.I believe that names like
>Chrles, John, peter and the rest,were introduced primarily to maintain the
>grip that former colonial masters had on the African nation and it's
>people.This is not just the christian colonisers but
>also their Arab counterparts.I strongly believe that as long as the black
>people do not define themselves on the bases of NAME,HISTORY,
>CULTURE and TRADITION the, the full story of our existance would be either
>white or Arab related.Am not calling for a continental divide,
>but as you know the whites in south Africa would not change their names to
>Mulungu, neither the north African Arabs would change their names to
>Sankung
>or Bintang.We can be christians without being called
>Peter the Baptist or Muslims without being Muhammad or Haruon.
>Our names mean everything, our entire existance from then, present and
>the future for ever.
>By the way my name is kebba and it means old and wise even though am only
>30.If you know anybody call peter or Ibrahim, ask them to tell you the
>meaning of their names without refering to the bible or the
>Koran.What were our names as black people before the bible or the Koran? or
>we did not have any names before 2001 years of the history of christianity
>or the 1431 years of Islam? The black people must prove to world that we
>were the first and so we had names before they
>they had the bible or the koran.By the way call yourself Sankung if you
>were
>born in december.It means the end of the year "sankung".
>No disrespect,I love you and everyone of my brothers and sisters,
>from Africa today or from Africa 500 years ago.
>
>    Kebba Sanneh
>    Sweden Scandinavia
>PS: Our names were our inventions, lets preserve and protect them.
>
>>From: Archibald H R Graham <[log in to unmask]>
>>Reply-To: The Gambia and related-issues mailing list
>><[log in to unmask]>
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Re: Black Inventors/Its a Black Thing
>>Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 23:31:09 -0000
>>
>>Following the discussion on this subject, may I say thanks to the
>>contributors for enlightening me further on this matter.
>>
>>Some few months back, I happened to listen to a BBC world service program
>>discussing a topic similar to this. I found it exciting and I was so much
>>amazed by what was being said about black presence in the Americas before
>>Colombus that I burst out of my room that early morning to invite my flat
>>mate to tune in to the program. To my disgrace, when my flat mate heard
>>what
>>I was excited about , he gave me one of those looks and asked if that was
>>news to me. Having boasted with a 1 in my History paper of the O'level
>>WAEC
>>Exams you can imagine how embarass I felt.
>>
>>Anyway, I made a record of the program for furture ref. And as if I was
>>not
>>embarassed enough I wanted to spread the news with some friends.
>>Unfortunately for me, the third person I discussed the program with also
>>just gave me that look as if I ought to have known my history better.
>>Coming
>>to my rescue he offered to lend me a book entitled 'They Came Before
>>Colombus, The African Presence in the Americas' (Sorry I did not note the
>>Author's name).
>>
>>I must admit I tried reading it but found it was not some kind of light
>>read
>>material. It was heavily researched stuff and I could not go past the 3rd
>>chapter as I was studying for my course work at the time.
>>
>>In any case, I thought I might share this personal experience of mine to
>>show how much there is for some of us to get to know about our history in
>>the passage of world events regardless of what we might have been taught
>>at
>>school.
>>
>>Can you believe me but until now I never knew that those items listed on
>>the
>>list of black inventions were actually masterminded by black. Regardless
>>of
>>their nationality or where they live at the time of their invention I am
>>now
>>better able to associate those things to the respective heritage. At least
>>thanks to your enlightenment, I would not be like those who attribute
>>everything that makes our life easy on earth to the white race.
>>
>>By the way, for those who may have the tendency to class others by name,
>>please be assured that I maybe one of the most black breed of Africans
>>around. As a matter of fact, where does name differences come into
>>equation?
>>Will names such as Nelson, Jerry, Abdoulie, Charles etc. necessarily makes
>>one less black African than others with name like Kwame, Kojo, Dawda,
>>Obasanjo etc?.....Maybe its time to give this name thing a break and think
>>objectively and give credit where it belongs regardless of name and its
>>origin.
>>
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