Every generation blames the one before

I am tempted to conclude that the motivation to bestow names from some people in our parents’ generation was to show off that they understood the Queen’s language. That here we are, we understand English and so are giving our child this name to depict the circumstances or aspirations of the family in this language.

Remember, dear reader, that, for those of us in our thirties, forties and above, our parents’ times were beset with colonial influence. Colonialism was at its thickest and I would like to imagine that the ability to understand and master the Queen’s language must have inspired some feverish “shine” and resultant envy, which at the time I am sure could have given rise to discrimination of those that had gone to school from those that had not.

Hence names like: No Rest — to show that, for whatever reason, the family or parents of the child had had no rest; Tryagain — to possibly communicate that the parents would try again for a preferred gender of the child. Names like Donewell, Best and others signified that the parents were pleased with  how things  had gone either with the gender of the child, the success of the birth or other such.

Others from this generation who had compelling messages to convey to neighbours or family members, conveyed them through the names of their children. These are names such as Muchaneta (you will get tired), Muchanyara (you will be shamed/embarrassed), Tichaona (we will see) etc. Indeed these names were unfair on the children.

While you will find a few remnants of such child naming tendencies today — our generation, which is known as the Generation X (Gen. X) for those born roughly between 1960 and 1979 (this generation comes after the baby boomer generation which was born after World War II and before the millennia generations) flipped the script.

The majority of Zimbabwean Gen. X parents have christened their children Shona names usually with religious overtones in efforts to speak blessings on their children’s lives.

While our parents’ generation may not have given much thought to whether or not a child’s name had a bearing on how the child’s life turned out (which explains names such as Nhamo (poverty); Chenzira (of the streets) etc; Gen. X parents have appreciated that words are powerful and so name their children words pregnant with God’s blessings, Godly virtue — names which are prayers in and of themselves.

Examples include those ending with –ishe as a suffix — Tinomudaishe, Tinotendaishe, Anashe, Panashe, Anodiwanashe etc and others ending with –nyasha (grace) such as Tawananyasha, Wenyasha and so forth.

Vernacular first names for children have signified a wide-spread wave of ethnocentrism — which I must say, from a culture point of view, has been an admirable demonstration of pride in one’s heritage in general and one’s language in particular.

Although Gen. Xers have done remarkably well in evoking pride in their culture in the christening of their children, what they, however, have not mastered is how to instil that same sense of pride in one’s language in their children.

This has resulted in a crop of these children — themselves Generation Y, born roughly from 1980 to the 1990s; and Generation Z, born in the new millennium — with brilliant praiseworthy Shona names, which they themselves cannot pronounce. To hear these names spoken by the nose brigade owners, is pure massacre of the vernacular languages.

It remains to be seen how for their own part, generations Y and Z will  move the child christening crusade forward.  I guess each generation has its own idiosyncrasies and, as is normal, each generation blames the one before.

The Fabulous Forties column is for all readers: readers in their forties;  readers who were in their forties and who care to remember what it was like; and those readers still looking ahead to their forties and would like a foretaste.

Contact: maggiemzumara@yahoo.ie