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African Names and Naming Practices: The Impact Slavery and European Domination had on the African Psyche, Identity and Protest

Fitzpatrick, Liseli A.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338404929

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, African-American and African Studies.
This study on African naming practices during slavery and its aftermath examines the centrality of names and naming in creating, suppressing, retaining and reclaiming African identity and memory. Based on recent scholarly studies, it is clear that several elements of African cultural practices have survived the oppressive onslaught of slavery and European domination. However, most historical inquiries that explore African culture in the Americas have tended to focus largely on retentions that pertain to cultural forms such as religion, dance, dress, music, food, and language leaving out, perhaps, equally important aspects of cultural retentions in the African Diaspora, such as naming practices and their psychological significance. In this study, I investigate African names and naming practices on the African continent, the United States and the Caribbean, not merely as elements of cultural retention, but also as forms of resistance – and their importance to the construction of identity and memory for persons of African descent. As such, this study examines how European colonizers attacked and defiled African names and naming systems to suppress and erase African identity – since names not only aid in the construction of identity, but also concretize a people’s collective memory by recording the circumstances of their experiences. Thus, to obliterate African collective memories and identities, the colonizers assigned new names to the Africans or even left them nameless, as a way of subjugating and committing them to perpetual servitude. In response, my research investigates how African descendants on the continent and throughout the Diaspora resisted this process of obliteration of their memories and how they deployed the practice of naming for survival in such a hostile environment. Therefore, this study not only focuses on the deliberate attempt made by European colonizers to obliterate African memory and instill a sense of shame within the African community, but also the various ways Africans resisted and sought to maintain their identity through names and naming practices, and the important role names played in their lives – both on the African continent and throughout the Diaspora.  
Lupenga Mphande, PhD (Advisor)
Leslie Alexander, PhD (Committee Member)
Judson Jeffries, PhD (Committee Member)
104 p.
African American Studies
Names; Naming; African Psyche; Identity; Slavery; Colonialism; Black Power

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fitzpatrick, L. A. (2012). African Names and Naming Practices: The Impact Slavery and European Domination had on the African Psyche, Identity and Protest [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338404929

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fitzpatrick, Liseli. African Names and Naming Practices: The Impact Slavery and European Domination had on the African Psyche, Identity and Protest. 2012. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338404929.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fitzpatrick, Liseli. "African Names and Naming Practices: The Impact Slavery and European Domination had on the African Psyche, Identity and Protest." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1338404929

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1338404929
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.
Release 3.2.12