Names

Well, since I've come to Arusha, I've generally lived my life as Daniel (with some variations such as Dan, Don-nee, Dan-yelly and other interesting takes on the pronunciation) as opposed to in Maktau where the majority of people called me by my given Kenyan name, Maghanga. (It means witch doctor or herbalist. A man on a bus decided I would be his namesake one day, and it stuck. Later on, the other teachers concluded that mixing chemicals, which I did on a daily basis, was similar to mixing potions, so the name was completely appropriate).

A lot of people have three names: a local name, an English name and their family name. The local names vary from tribe to tribe and always carry some nice meaning. The English name seems a misnomer, since some of them (such as Gladwell, Crispus, or Staford) have probably never been given in England, but I suppose they come from English words. And of course, the family name which can be useful in guessing if people are related, however, most people only use the first two, so it's harder to reach that conclusion.

But there are other names too. Many people take a name for their first-born son (or in some areas, they take the name for their first born child even if it's a girl), so if the first born son is Peter, then the parents of Mapeter and Bapeter (pronounced Mapita and Bapita) as a contracted form of Mama of Peter and Baba of Peter. My coworker Philemon (that's his English name) is sometimes called Bachu (his first born son is Choosen, which is pronounced Chosen) and although I pass his wife's shop nearly every day and talk to Machu, I never knew her name. Today, as I was processing Philemon's social security paperwork, I saw spouse's name: Petromila. I think I'm going to keep calling her Machu.