My name was given to me and the name was Queen Nzinga. She was a warrior, fighter, she fought slavery in Angola. She was a very strong woman, very strong and I’m sitting there — shy, didn’t talk to nobody. And I said, ’Is this going to actually be me?’ And this man said, ’This is going to be your name now, and be proud of it.’ So I went on to accept it. I wrote my mother that night, I was so excited. You know, I wrote to all my family members and I told them all that this is my decision and it’s nothing against the name I was given by my father.

My best friends, to this day — I mean my best girlfriend still calls me by my other name and I have to nicely tell her, ’If you talk to me or relate to me you must call me Nzinga or we’re just going to end this conversation.’ I mean I went on and sent back mail that I got out of my birth name. And I know I hurt my mother’s feelings because some of the mail was birthday cards, some of the mail was really you know from family members but I wanted them to accept me and my decision.

I got my name changed while I was working for a politician and I went to a lot of community meetings and I got up one night and this ninety-five percent polish meeting. I told them proudly that, ’Please do not call me by my old name, my birth name. I’m proud to tell everyone that my new name is Nzinga Motisla Masani’ And I told them how nervous I was to tell everybody but I’m very proud of my African heritage, I’m very proud to be here. And they gave me a standing ovation. Well a lot of the Polish people came up to me after the meeting and they had to immediately change their name when they got here in order to get a job, or in order to fit into society. They admired me for doing it and they said that some of what I said to them motivated them to tell their children the importance of their history and the importance of your name.