GHANA: Akan Naming

Kofi Annan was the only Ghanaian leader that we knew by name before we came to Ghana. Much to our surprise the name Kofi seemed to be everywhere. Eventually we found out that in Ghana, and in other African countries, children are named according to the day they were born (Kofi = born on Friday for example). Less frequently they receive surnames based on the order they were born in. In our part of Ghana people also receive what are called Christian names (these names would be thought of by us as "Western Names" or "English Names", as they are not specifically linked to Christianity), like Daniel for example. About half of the students in our class in Azani introduce themselves with their Christian names, and the other half introduce themselves with traditional African names. In our class in Butre (which is smaller) almost all of the children introduce themselves by their Christian names. This only applies to their first names, their last names are African in all cases.


The distribution of English names seems very different compared to the distribution of names in America (at least the distribution in my part of America--the greater Washington-Baltimore area). Three English names that seem to occur much more frequently here in Ghana are Emmanuel, Ebeneezer, and Bertha. The Wikipedia page about Akan naming has more interesting details (the Akan are the historically predominant tribe in Western Ghana).

Tomaž


Edina vidna ganska politična osebnost, ki sva jo, preden sva prišla v to državo poznala, je bil diplomat Kofi Annan. Hitro sva ugotovila, da je ime Kofi eno najbolj pogostih ganskih imen, srečevala sva ga namreč na vsakem koraku. A ščasoma sva spoznala, da Kofi ni zgolj nekakšen ganski Jože! Ganci, kot tudi nekateri drugi afriški narodi, svoje otroke namreč poimenujejo po dnevu rojstva. Če se navežem na omenjeno ime - vsi Kofiji so ugledali luč sveta v petek! :) 
Zanimiv običaj (sicer redkeje v rabi) je tudi glede priimkov, ki jih dobijo glede na to ali so prvorojeni ali drugorojeni itd. 
Poleg "imen tedna" pa dobijo  otroci tudi krščanska imena (oz "zahodna" oz "angleška" imena - zdi se mi namreč da niso neposredno povezana s krščanstvom), kot npr. Danijel, Sara, Frank. 
Zanimivo, približno polovica otrok iz Azanija uporablja tradicionalna afriška imena, medtem ko se v Butre skoraj vsi predstavljajo s krščanskimi imeni. 


Ugotavljam, da so se v Gani prijela druga "angleška" imena kot v Združenih državah (to velja vsaj za širši del območja Washington-Baltimor, kjer sem živel). Izstopajo tri ganska imena, ki so, nasprotno kot v ZDA, v Gani zelo pogosta: Emmanuel, Ebeneezer in Bertha. Več podrobnosti glede ganskih imen, lahko najdete na Wikipediji:) (Akan naming).