1st Edition
Names Fashioned by Gender Stitched Perceptions
Names are very powerful and significant, especially in the African context. Across societies, there is a universal, albeit taken-for-granted fact that all human beings have names. Names Fashioned by Gender is a collection of essays on onomastics—a linguistics field of study focusing on the origin, form, history and use of proper names. The study of naming potentially provides significant evidence about the role of gender in the assimilation and/or enculturation processes as personal names evoke insight into the construction of gender and personhood in African societies.
The book takes intellectual course from the idea that how names are viewed and used is heavily context-dependent and gendered. It demonstrates that personal names are narratives derived from different contexts within various cultures and circumstances subsequently imposing different identities on name bearers. Through persuasive essays, this book elucidates that naming is an activity that needs to be conducted cautiously because names tend to determine the destiny and character of an individual.
Print editions not for sale in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Towards developing feminist onomastics scholarship
Thenjiwe Meyiwa and Madoda Cekiso
Chapter 1: Assessing the origin and perceptions of gendered Yoruba names
Temitope O. Adekunle
Chapter 2: Gendered personal names in Yoruba and Chichewa
Alfred Jana Matiki and Modupe M. Alimi
Chapter 3: Setswana naming system: a gendered outlook
Goabilwe N. Ramaeba and Joyce T. Mathangwane
Chapter 4: Gender stereotypes embedded in the labels of female subjects in a cross section of Zimbabwean music
Duren Jhamba
Chapter 5: Child naming and gender transformation in Gutu, Zimbabwe
Christopher Rwodzi
Chapter 6: Beyond the name: Maniangas tribe ways of naming
Luvisa Bibiche Bazola
Chapter 7: Subculture socio-cultural nicknaming phenomena embedded in izindlavini of amaMpondo of the Eastern Cape
Thenjiwe Meyiwa and Madoda Cekiso
Chapter 8: Re-considering the idiom ‘If God is male, then the male is God’ in light of selected Shona personal names among Reformed Church in Zimbabwe Christians in Chivi, Zimbabwe
Excellent Chireshe
Chapter 9: Gender in the personal naming practices of the Shona in Zimbabwe: a socio-onomastic study
Zvinashe Mamvura and Margret Chipara
Chapter 10: Xhosa female initiates’ (intonjane) perceptions of meanings and values attached to their new names
Khanyisile Rose Masha and Ilse du Toit
Chapter 11: ‘Get this straight, that is (not) my name’, retorts a Xhosa woman
Nolutho Diko
Chapter 12: ‘Hold the roof woman’: exploring how the naming practices amongst isiXhosa speaking people contribute to a high divorce rate in South Africa
Nosisi Feza
Chapter 13: A feminist approach to the naming and circumstances of women in the Bible in relation to the naming of prominent Zulu women
Nobuhle Ndimande-Hlongwa and Thandi Mwelase
Chapter 14: An examination of names and gender in Ngugi’s Devil on the cross and I will marry when I want
Cheela Chilala
Chapter 15: Gender shift in the use of the formative -no- in Zulu given names
Adrian Koopman
Chapter 16: Fluid identities: naming and recognition in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We need new names and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah
Ken Junior Lipenga
Chapter 17: Queer(ing) onomastics: names and the construction of non-normative genders and sexualities in selected short stories in Queer Africa: New and collected fiction
Gibson Ncube
Chapter 18: A feminist interrogation of Owé gendered naming practices Josephine Olufunmilayo Alexander
Chapter 19: The gendered nature of naming children among the Shona in Zimbabwe
Vimbai Matiza-Mtombeni
Chapter 20: Names of council beer halls and shebeens in Bulawayo: A feminist analysis
Liketso Dube and Sambulo Ndlovu
Chapter 21: Anti-women nomenclature: a selection of Zimbabwean ergonyms in family businesses
Sambulo Ndlovu
Chapter 22: Interrogating the female politicians selected motherhood and wifehood label in the Zimbabwean print media: The case of the Financial Gazette 2002
Mandiedza Parichi
Chapter 23: Rethinking the framing of women in the nation through ‘self-naming’ and ‘self-definition’ of female nationalists in Zimbabwe
Phillip Mpofu and Charles Tembo
Chapter 24: Naming female characters to achieve a colonial agenda (‘de-womanisation’ of African womanhood): The case of Zvarevashe’s novel Kurauone
Tyanai Charamba
Biography
Thenjiwe Meyiwa, a feminist scholar, is the lead editor of this book. She is Deputy Vice-chancellor for Research, Innovation, Commercialisation and Postgraduate Studies at Unisa. She is a member of various parastatals, community and civil society organisations, such as the Rural Women’s Movement where she is the Advisory Board member; the South African National Heraldry Council where she serves as its Chairperson and a Deputy Chair of the National Heritage Council; to name but a few. She has authored several research gender studies articles, including co-publishing five books.
Madoda Cekiso, the co-editor of this book, is senior professor at Tshwane University of Technology’s Department of English. He has published widely in the field of reading and writing with a significant number of his recent research projects and publications focusing on the gender analysis within this subject field.
