Introduction

This chapter highlights the nexus between names, naming and various colonialities in political, social, economical, gender and philosophical contexts in Africa. It also highlights the theories and methodological issues. Controversies surrounding the name Mlungu for White persons in post-apartheid South Africa are indicative of the politics and emotions that can be loaded into a name. Names in Africa are deployed to describe various forms of subalternity. Coloniality outlived colonisation and post-enlightenment structures and discourses such as postmodernism and postcoloniality. Globalisation and modernity are globalised forms of structuring the world into global masters and colonials. Feminist political economy frames arguments around the coloniality of gender in names, while historical trauma is engaged in the discussion of psychological effects of bad names such as ethnophaulisms and slavery- motivated naming of Africans by colonial powers. The chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.