Names and naming: Depiction of gender in Ndebele names

THERE are names that send a shiver down the spines of some people. That could be a result of what particular names are associated with, sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly.

One such name is UMthwakazi, first captured in a historical novel written by Peter Sivalo Mahlangu in 1957. In its historical context, it was a name which referred to the erstwhile Ndebele State and nation.

However, for some unknown reason after independence, the name seemed to carry a totally different meaning which was no longer palatable, either feared, hated or both. Before independence, the colonial regime established Radio Mthwakazi which was based in Bulawayo, at the Montrose Studios. Amon Maqhulayibambe Nyamambi was the Head of Station.

There were many fine and polished broadcasters at the time including the likes of Thandiwe Khumalo, Abbey Dube, Harry Nleya, Ona Maphosa, Englam Nyathi, Sam Mkhithika, Maplot Jubane, Cephas Dlamini, Nonceba Mnkandla, among several others.

The radio station was soon destroyed with some of its staffers terminating service and others deployed to Harare. Some of them faced political humiliation and sought to quickly forget their painful experiences soon after the advent of independence.

I remember very vividly in the late 90s when I was working on the biography of veteran nationalist George Malan Tarcisius Silundika. I approached Nyamambi who worked with Silundika in the broadcasting field during the days of the Federal Broadcasting Corporation (FBC).

I had to do a lot of persuading and pleading with the man to get an interview.

His experiences at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) were nasty and he did not want to be reminded of that past. Ever persevering, I finally did manage to secure an interview and Silundika’s biography was penned and is due for publication in the few coming months.

I also recall when Publisher Barbara Nkala, then at Longman Zimbabwe, phoning me to find out if the name Mthwakazi was more tolerated then and whether she could use it as the title for her proposed Ndebele poetry anthology. My immediate response was, “Please do proceed and use the name.” I made no reference to perceptions and attitudes towards the name. The title was duly given as “Giya Mthwakazi,” loosely translating as “Be proud Mthwakazi.”

Since then I have entertained several people, some even coming on covert missions to enquire about the meaning of the name Mthwakazi. Some of the disguised researches were politically inspired. In all cases, including some in very recent times, I have obliged and given a rendition of UMthwakazi to the best of my innocent ability.

This ought to be understood against the proliferation of politically oriented organisations bearing the name UMthwakazi.

I am not, in this instalment seeking to explain the meaning or origin of the name UMthwakazi. I have done that more comprehensively in one of my books, “Fluid Ethnic Identities: A History of the Makhalima People of Zimbabwe.”

However, I am here dealing with the suffix –kazi in order to bring out its meaning. The suffix may be augmentative, meaning big or it could mean female. In the case of UMthwakazi, it is used to carry the female connotation. We find the suffix used with reference to names of cattle.

Among the Ndebele, cattle were named on the basis of their skin colour or horn formation. Male and female beasts are differentiated through suffixing –kazi. A beast with black and white patches is named iwaba, and that refers to a male beast.

When reference is made to a female one, then the name is iwasakazi. A school in Bulawayo bears the name of a beast with this colour configuration. It is Amawaba and the names is pronounced with a very strange intonation. A red and white beast is insipho when it is male. Its female counterpart is insiphokazi.

The descriptive term is inspired by the similarity between the colour of the dregs, insipho that are separated from traditional beer during the straining known as ukuhluza, using a reed strainer, isihluzo made from reeds, imizi.

However, we should be alert that the red and white colour combinations may differ in their relative proportions. Inkone and inkonekazi refer to red and white of a specific proportion. There are numerous examples that we could cite: isibawu, impevu, ingcotsha, ibhidi, iklalati, insundu and many more. To get to the female rendition of a name, one has to suffix –kazi to denote gender.

The gender differentiation regarding names equally applies to Ndebele people’s names. Names that start with No- are names that are given to females. N- seems to denote “Mother of.” Nokuthula, therefore, means the mother of peace. It is understood that Nokuthula is not a name that may be given to a boy. Nokulunga, mother of goodness, is another example of a name for a female.

One colleague and friend of mine named his daughter Nomqhele. Quite clearly, this is not a name for a boy child. Indeed, it was given to a girl. Names, as we have often stated in the past, bring out or document what is taking place at the time of birth of a child.

Umqhele means, in IsiNdebele, a crown. You may recall lots of diamonds obtained from Africa that found their way to England here Kings and Queens used them to grace their royal crowns.

Once upon a time, after our independence, the Queen of England visited Zimbabwe. In order to memorialise the visit, my friend named his daughter Nomqhele. The name does not tell whether that visiting royalty was male or female. We turn to the school that got its name at the same time.

There is a school in Nkulumane Township in Bulawayo which bears the Queen’s nameQueen Elizabeth. So, Nomqhele was born in the year when Queen Elizabeth II visited Zimbabwe. Queen Elizabeth Primary School was established or named at the same time. There are several names in this category: Nonduduzo, Nokuthaba, Nonsikelelo, Nobuntu, Nomashawekazi, Nobenguni, inter alia.

We hope we have definitively established the principle. When certain names are mentioned we should be in a position to tell whether they apply to males or females. What then are some of the names that are associated with males? Males are fathers and the prefix that captures that is So-. Sobukhazi is a well-known name.

There is a school in Bulawayo’s Mzilikazi township of that name. Quite clearly, it is a name for a male, and we do know that Sobukhazi, not Sobukazi, was a famed traditional healer of the Masuku clan, the Phenyane section rather than uMlondo, uNqamakazi.

In fact, Sobukhazi is short for Sbukhazikhazi, meaning one of a light and shining complexion.

These were the Masukus that had, in the company of other Nguni people, crossed the Drakensberg Mountains (uKhahlamba) and settled among the Sotho on South Africa’s Highveld. Sobukhazi was responsible for cleansing soldiers returning from raids.

The soldiers, together with the booty in the form of captives (abesihlangu) and cattle were cleansed in fear of ingwendela/ uzimu, the calamity that results from an angered and avenging spirit of one killed during raids.

Whereas Nobantu as a name refers to a female, Sobantu on the other hand, refers to a male.

So- denotes male and No- denotes female. Be that as it may, there are names that we recognise as gender neutral. Such names may be given be given to either boys and girls. One such name if Fikile. Fikile Mbalula in South Africa is male. Fikile Nyathi in Zimbabwe is female, so was Fikile Victoria Chitepo, also in Zimbabwe.

The story of names is a never-ending story. The world and its objects, animal or plant, are named by several societies and communities that use their languages to name their world, including their children and livestock.