Nzingha Masani tells her friend, Noah Hairston, about receiving her name at an African naming ceremony.
Originally aired on August 21, 2007 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Nzingha Masani tells her friend, Noah Hairston, about receiving her name at an African naming ceremony.
Originally aired on August 21, 2007 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
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.
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