KWAME, KOFI NOT FIRST NAMES

This one may seem trivial. However, I am compelled to write because of an earlier posting by Monk on December 16 under " Ghana is plagued by the demons of stupidity."

While I will make reference to the Akans in this posting, I would like all of you to recognize that I do so not because I am being tribalistic. I do so because unfortunately, my frame of reference is Akan and I need to draw on what I know to explain my point. I am fully aware that the Akans are not the only ones who give day names.

In recent times, we are known as Kofi Tweneboa Kodua, Kwame Sapong Kumankoma and so on. The order of these names makes Kofi ( the day-name) a first name; Tweneboa, a middle name and Kodua, the last name. However, in Akan of antiquity, this was not the case.

In Akan of old, a person was known mostly by his given name. In the examples above, the given name is Tweneboa. Kofi was automatic. You have it just by virtue of your very existence. In fact Kofi, the day-name was not considered a name at all. It was used as an additional adjective, sort of an additional description when two or more people happened to be called Tweneboa, say. Even today, in a typical Akan village, our relatives and friends would rather call us by our given names - ie Tweneboa, Sapong, Agyei, Akyeampong than Kwaku, Kofi, Kwame etc. This is simply because, those "names" were originally not names at all. We, Westernized Akans have forced these day- names to become first names.

In the old, a person was Tweneboa Kofi, Agyei Kwame, Osei Kwadwo etc. Tweneboa, Agyei, Osei who were born on Friday, Saturday and Monday respectively.

There are remnants of this nomenclature in today's Akan tradition. For example, we have Onyakropon Kwame, Asase Yaa, Okonoro Yaa - not Kwame Nyankopon, Yaa Asase. In fact, in the olden days, people were hardly called Kwaku Tweneboa, Kwasi Akyeampong etc. Only people of dubious character were called in that order. A most notorious one being KWAKU ANANSE. While Kwaku Ananse was called KWAKU ANANSE in that order, the other nicer characters were called simply Ntikuma (note no reference to the day name). Where a reference was made to a day-name, the day-name followed the given name, ie Aso Yaa ( Kwaku Ananse's wife), not YAA ASO.

To this day, the Akans in the villages hate to be called by their full name - ie AKOSUA FRIMPOMAA. If you called someone Akosua Frimpomaa, she would most likely respond very rudely with " Aden na w'atu me din ase saa?" Frimpomaa, simply, would do for these people. In fact, my mother called me KWAKU TWENEBOA only when she was angry with me. Returning to the names I rhimed off at the beginning - ie Kofi Tweneboa Kodua, Kwame Sarpong Kumaankoma. What appears to be the last name ie Kodua, Kumankoma were originally nick- names (mmrane). You were called by your "mmrane" only occasionally and only some one in your village or family wanted to make you feel exceptionally special. Those of us.who wanted to weave such nick-names into our "officia" names began with hyphenation ie Tweneboa -Kodua etc.

PLEASE CONSIDER AS AN EDUCATIONAL PIECE AND NOTHING ELSE

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