Dialectical Anthropology 26: 193–233, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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The Survival of Names of African Origin in Martinique After Emancipation GUILLAUME DURAND Trinité, Martinique, French West Indies
Names, etymologically and genealogically, are of great interest to everybody but particularly to scholars of the slave trade in the West Indies. During bondage, names clearly defined what socio-ethnical group a person belonged to: whites (upper and low class), free colored or slaves. And the numerous laws, bills, decrees, orders and acts instituted by the colonial authority in Martinique from the antebellum era right up to the eve of emancipation in 1848, ensured, with varying degrees of effectiveness, that free colored people could not use a name belonging to a white. In this paper, I examine the ethnic origins and linguistic meanings of the African names chosen by former slaves in Martinique following emancipation. This research provides some insight into the expressions of African culture that survived slavery. The field covered does not include the “Free Workers” from the Congo of the years 1857–1862 (the so-called “Konga Niggas”).
What names for the “new citizens”? As one studies the names given to the newly freed of 1848, one finds that the most ludicrous or injurious nicknames are placed side by side with anagrams or word puzzles and “normal” names, but what makes Martinique special is the fact that these names were imposed on two thirds of its population when it was a duty to register 73,000 “new citizens” on voting lists. This emergency situation was to create the West Indian (and Reunion) exception called “The individuality Record,” which has since been ignored in the “routine” of the French “Births-Marriages-Deaths” Civil Status registry (people in charge of these archives are still sometimes confusing things even today). The number of registering books first required to accomplish this task is known by a letter from Victor Schoelcher to François-Auguste Perrinon, commissioner of the Republic in charge of the Abolition Act’s application. Many other registers would have to be created, as the registering of the new citizens, planned to be achieved in two months, in fact took from one to ten years to be completed in some parishes. Also, these records were to be duplicated, as
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were all certificates of births, deaths etc, under the French administration, but this was seldom done, due to the feverish situation around these events. It is thus crucial to take great care of these registers, which are unique witnesses of a historical moment. We have been able to work on 45,000 of those Individuality Records which represent 19 out of the 24 parishes of that time and 61% of the Martinican population attributed with names, as freedom was granted. We found that 11% of these names, of the 30% still in use today as family names among Martinique’s people, had an African origin. Moreover, what is very surprising is the fact that 43% of Martinican African names were given to Creoles, that is to say slaves born in Martinique, which brings into focus the problems of the namegiving’s context, the 1848 Civil Status commissioners’ overbearing attitude and also the acculturation and creolization process of the African turned West Indian. Other names of African origin were to be found before 1848 in Emancipation Acts, inventories of estates, as well as slaveships’ logs, enabling us to build a data base of more than 2,200 names of African origin. Results of this research are included in the present paper, with translations from corresponding African languages, thanks to the copious African anthroponymic documentation consulted and under the control of reliable African speakers, whose mother tongues are those of the main populations concerned by the Atlantic slave trade. As naming in Africa always bears a symbolic significance, this paper deals also with this subject, as it makes it easier to understand the African translations in the following tables, as well as to define the different African ethnic groups (see list and maps below). Investigating the socio-historical context is likewise essential to explain and evaluate these linguistic survivals.
Emancipation in ante and postbellum eras: Why keep one’s African name? Despite what has been recently written, African names in Martinique have not disappeared or been “lost”, and are relevant not only in postbellum African emigration. Evidence of their survival can be found in contemporary authors from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.1 One finds many examples of Africans from Louisiana to Trinidad, from Jamaica to Haiti, using their original names. The extent of African transmission evident in Creole language, magical and religious observances, social and family organization (see the “Susu” example2 ), cultural expressions such as music, dancing, tale-telling, proverbs, cooking, hairstyling should henceforth include family names. If we do not know much about slaves’ lives due to the lack of archives on the subject, we do know that they received a “Christian” name, even if
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they were not all baptized, or a nickname. The kind of names given had to be consistent with the master’s linguistic frame of reference, so we do not find a lot of African names in estates’ inventories (4 to 15%). Perhaps the permission to officially keep an African name was granted to slaves with “responsibility.” One can guess that “slavehouse to slavehouse calls” would use to a greater extent the original African names. This has been demonstrated by recent works on the subject of slave societies, and can be pointed out by accurate reading of some contemporary chronicles.3 How can a man forget his name? The situation of the slave can be expressed in the following words: “I find myself uprooted in another country, in contact with people of my land and sometimes not. The whiteman (“backra”) urges me all the time to give up my African culture and I can see that those who “creolize” are better treated, so I’m being torn between two choices at every moment of my everyday life: 1) Little by little giving up both for me and for my children my African heritage and “features” (i.e. giving up language customs and practices, or “whitening” the race, creolizing and becoming another cultural, hence social, being); 2) I refuse this acculturation and I manage to keep in my heart my “negroness” (i.e. maintaining what can be maintained of my African heritage, including the survival of family names.) Between these extreme positions, one would of course find a lot of intermediary attitudes. The bulk of slaves, considering that they would never see their country again and that they could not re-create the same social and cultural life conditions that they had known, maybe also feeling rejected by an Africa which had sold them, decided, when forced, either to keep the name given them or to take up a new name for a new life, as did a lot of white settlers coming to the New World, willing, for diverses reasons, to “forget” their European past. As a sign of integration into Creole society some took a Creole name, others kept their African name. Even if not born in Africa, they wished to keep a part of their African heritage. When they chose names resembling white ones, not taking into account that these names were mostly attributed and not always chosen, it was for socio-economical, but also for sentimental reasons: the main part of emancipations were for the master’s children and mistresses or concubines, and very frequently the name thus given was a word puzzle (or anagram) of the master’s name or of someone who had done some good to the slave himself or to someone of his family (sometimes the godfather’s or godmother’s name too).4 It’s more a family affair in this case than a matter of ideological or racial claiming. All this provides a clue to why there are fewer African names among the freed in the antebellum era, compared with the Individuality acts.
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Our hypothesis is that the Civil Status commissioners, urged to get through with their task, would accept any suggestion as an idea for a name, and this is where the real African names, stated by the new citizen himself, had a chance to successfully and officially re-emerge. To take the example of Mrs LABRANCE-DEBROSE’s grandmother: the slave named Londo (her first name) M’Pollo N’Delle (her surname), apparently from Gabon or Congo, was named Louisia, when she arrived in the town of Trinité in Martinique in 1835. She could as well have been granted the name Lafine or Labelle like so many others, as her master, looking at her thin complexion said: “This one is too pretty and thin, she won’t be able to do the field work, we will keep her in the house!” But in 1848, she took the name Louisia LONDO (her West Indian first name + her African first name) and she clearly testified about her genuine African name to her children and grandchildren. She died in 1938, in Trinité, Martinique, aged 130.5 Among characteristic African names kept by freed slaves during the antebellum era we found: Rose YANGO, daughter of Jean Alphonse, alias Yango; Charles MOUTELMA, son of Marie ELIMA,6 Cirile ZÉBO, Aristide GONDO, Sylvain BÉLO, Joseph ALY, Antoine AUSSITÉ, Marie Reine BONY, Regis KIMBA, Gabriel YASSA, Celeste ABAYA, Caroline IO, Eugenie Alexandrine Zelie MAHMOUD, Scholastique DONGOLA, Etienne ABILA.7 Only 3 of these were born in Africa. More complex choices can be found in the following examples, from the Emancipation Acts of la Trinité (1843; 1844; 1845; 1847): Abou FABUOT, slave of sieur Sebastien CAFFIÉ, is freed with sieur Figaro GIROFA (who takes as a last name an anagram of his first name); Argentine, negress aged 46, takes the name Marie AGENTY (anagram of her slave’s first name, which she gives up); when Laurencine, “African negress aged 29”, takes the name Laurencine AFFRA (African name), and Edouard “African Negro aged 19” takes the name of Edouard CALABAR (ethnonym: name of a harbour and an area of Nigeria). To show the reader what an Individuality Act looks like, the following is the first enigmatic page of le Marin register, 1849, illustrating three Africanborn men, approximately of the same age; one is granted a “French” name, one an African name, the third an anagram of his first name. No. 638: Dimba Pierre The citizen Pierre, born in Africa, aged fifty two, son of unknown mother, residing in Marin: registered previously under slave registration’s number 418 presented himself before us and received the surnames and first names of Dimba Pierre Le Marin, 1849 January the 11th The Mayor Valcourt Duquesnay
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No. 639: Baral Alexis: The citizen Alexis, born in Africa, aged fifty, son of unknown mother, residing in Marin: registered previously under slave registration’s number 422 presented himself before us and received the surnames and first names of Baral Alexis Le Marin, 1849 January the 11th The Mayor Valcourt Duquesnay No. 640: Tienna Etienne The citizen Etienne, born in Africa, aged forty five, son of unknown mother, residing in Marin: registered previously under slave registration’s number [blank] presented himself before us and received the surnames and first names of Tienna Etienne Le Marin, 1849 January the 12th The Mayor Valcourt Duquesnay
The slave trade in Martinique: From legal trade to smuggling and outlawing To understand the diversity of languages found when studying Martinican African names, one has to take account of the important role of inter-islands unauthorized slave trade and smuggling even during the slave trade’s “Golden Age” of the XVIIIth century when France had a – theoretical – monopoly on every trade made with her colonies, even the human flesh trade. The small islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe were actually very often the laissépour-compte of all commercial business coming from France, for the benefit of the richest colony of St-Domingue. So, the planters would be used to depend upon Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Portuguese, and even English (when it comes to business, forget about politics . . .) ships for their vital supplies. It is not such a surprise that “habit becoming a second nature,” when the slave trade was forbidden (in the ministers’ cabinet, not always in the field), the traffic went on with ships of these nations (except for English ones), or under their flags and with false ship’s identity papers, as these countries were allowed to trade after 1815 by their former ally, England, between their colonies or south of the equator. Thus, the first half of the nineteenth century, until the 1840s, saw the trade in human beings continue with Martinique. The two islands of St-Thomas (once Danish, now American), and St-Martin (Dutch) played an essential role at that time as transit turn-tables, and archives
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from these islands or their mother countries would be most interesting for the understanding of the slave trade to Martinique and Guadeloupe, even if things were necessarily hidden. Anyway, it is evident that slaves came from every European business establishment in Africa and not only from French ones.8
African ethnic groups affected by the slave trade (Ethnonyms used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are in italics) SENEGAL and MALI: Calvaire, Wolof (Jolof), Serere, Peul (=Fulbe= Poule, Poulard), Toucouleur, Bambara, Sarakolle, Moor . . . SENEGAL (Casamance), GAMBIA: Diola (Feloupe) GUINEA BISSAU (Pongo river): Bissago, Papel, Balante, Nalou GUINEA (Nuñez river): Mandingue (Malinke), Sosso, Kissi, Dialonke, Landouma, Nalou SIERRA LEONE (Gallinas river): Bouriqui: Temne, Sherbro, Bullom, Baga, Mende, Loko, Kono LIBERIA: Miserable: De, Krou, Canga, Vaï IVORY COAST and BURKINA FASO: Cap Lahou, Adow (Quaqua), Baoule, Añyi, Dida, Bete, Attie, Dioula, Mossi, Bobo The areas mentioned above, penetrated by Islam to a more or lesser extent, favor names of Arabic origin. GHANA: Quaqua, Fanti/Ashanti, Akron, Akwapim, Akwamu (Koromantyn, Assiante), Lobi, Dagomba, Denkyira, La TOGO: Tchiamba (Chamba or Quiamba), Guin (Mina), Ewe, GanAdangbe, Kabye, Bassa BENIN: Aja-Fon (Arada), Guin (Mina), Xweda (Popo, Coueda), Maxi (Maï), Ouatchi, Yoruba (Nago), Goun, Bariba, Guedevi, Xwela NIGERIA: Ibo, Aro, Ijo, Ibibio (Añang, Efik, Oron, Eket) (Calabar), Yoruba (Nago), Yako and Ekoï (Moko), Egbado (Otta), Haoussa, Nupe (Taqua), Munshi CAMEROON: Bamileke (Moko), Bassa GABON: Moundongue, Fang/Mpongwe (Pahouin), Nzabi, Punu, Sekyani, Mitsogo, Benga, Eviya, Eshira, Apindji CABINDA: Vili CONGO: Congo: Lari, Vili, Mboma, Nsoundi, Luba, Teke, Lunda, Makwa, Mbeti, Mboshi, Bembe, Kamba . . . ANGOLA: Mbundu, Vili, Jaga . . . MOZAMBIQUE (2 boats reaching Martinique in 1784 and 1785): Makonde (Maquois), Moussawa, Inhambane (Yambanois).
Figure 1. West Africa map, geographic dispatching of ethnic groups concerned by the slave trade.
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Figure 2. Central and South Eastern Africa map, geographic dispatching of ethnic groups concerned by the slave trade.
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Naming in African societies “AFAMEFUNA”: “May my name never be lost” (Ibo name) In Africa, a name indicates its owner socially, historically, geographically and according to religious affiliation. It refers to man in relationship with the outside world, other men and God. It is linked with a family’s history: where and whom you come from and who are your relatives and allies. The African naming system may be described according to the following categories: • first names linked with the day of birth9 • first names linked with the rank in brotherliness • family names which show the belonging to a clan and to its legendary history • nicknames (becoming usual names or surnames too), linked with parents’ wishes (to have a child or, on the contrary to “stop” the process, wishes for the child’s life, what he or she is expected to bring to his/her parents . . .) • nicknames (becoming usual names or surnames), linked with pregnancy’s or birth’s circumstances • nicknames (becoming usual names or surnames) for twins or a child following twins • nicknames (becoming usual names or surnames) to exorcize (to avoid children’s mortality) • nicknames (becoming usual names or surnames), in the form of proverbs (to indicate life’s direction) One will find many such examples in the following name tables. The point here is that the name is filled with symbolic and cultural value. The following chart lists names of African origin, belonging to former slaves of Martinique. We were not able to find a translation for each name, especially the ones from Nigeria. Every contribution from readers will be welcomed and appreciated for the sake of better knowing family names in the Caribbean. Family name given
Signification
Language(s) and/or localization concerned
ABALA
Agbala=“burden of life” (usual name)
FON, EWE, GUIN (Benin, Togo)
ABANI
“shoulder blade” (usual name) or: mispronunciation of Abali: male first name from Habal (=Abel)
FANG (Gabon) ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABANO(S)
Agban˜o=name used in Togo meaning “bearing promises”
EWE (Togo)
ABAQUA
Agbaza=“human body” (name used in Benin)
FON (Benin)
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ABATI, ABATUSSI
Name from Ouidah region (means “bed column”)
FON (Benin)
ABAYA
Abbaye=male and female first name Mbaya=usual name
TOUCOULEUR (Senegal) Congo
ABDALLAH
Male first name meaning “worshipper of God” (name of prophet Mahomet’s father)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABDAS
Abda=first name used in Senegal
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABDEL
Male first name
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABDELKADER
Male first name meaning “worshipper of the Omnipotent” (could also have been given in relationship with French colonization of Algeria)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABDEVECK
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABEBE
abebe=“hamac’s tent” Habibi=“beloved” (male first name)
FON (Benin) ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABEL(L)A, ABEYLA
Agbe=“life”+l˜a =“flesh”
FON (Benin)
´ ABELIN
Agbe=“life” + l`ın=“thinking, being far”
FON (Benin)
ABELLI
“Agbe li”=“life exists, or life continues”
EWE
ABENON
Agben˜o=“source of life” (litt.: “agbe n˜o”=“mother” of life, the fact of being alive, of being well living)
EWE and FON (Togo, Benin)
´ ABERAE
“Agbe wa e” =“a trick of life”
˜ (Togo, Benin) FON, EWE, GA
ABI
“father” agbi=“scar”
ARABIC (Muslim Africa) FON (Benin)
ABIA
“what is being received”
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin)
ABIATHAR
“Agbe a ta”=“because of life” or: name of Arabic origin
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin) ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABILA
Abla=first name for a girl born on a Tuesday Bila=usual name
EWE and FON (Togo, Benin) Burkina Faso
ABIONA
Abiola=surname (name of a former Nigerian political individual)
YORUBA, IBO (Nigeria)
ABLANA
Ablawa=first name for a girl born on a Tuesday
EWE and FON (Togo, Benin)
ABOLIN
agbo=“breath, respiration” + lin=“to think, being far”
FON (Benin)
ABON
Agbo=“ram” (usual name)
FON, EWE, GUIN (Togo, Benin)
ABOULIKAN, ABRACAN ABOULICAM
Abou=first name
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ABRADY, ABERDY
“A bad− adji”=“badness still continues” Ablavi=first name for a girl born on a Tuesday
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin) GUIN (Togo, Benin, Ghana)
ABROSI
“Abr˜o si”=“girl of the Abron” (name of an ethnic group slain by the Ashanti during XVIIIth century)
Ghana
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ABUFERA
Ancient name
YORUBA (Nigeria)
ACALME
Akahmen=name of Calabar (Akam, which means “black”, is a very ancient word, which comes from hieroglyphic Egyptian {km}, and gave the name Cham)
Nigeria Benin, Togo
ACANDA
Akanda=name for a son of a “president” of “Ndjemb´e” (female secret society)
MPONGWE (Gabon)
ACAO
Koao, Kwao=first name for a boy born on a Thursday Kouaoun=first name for a boy born on a Sunday Kao=usual name
˜ EWE (Ivory Coast, Togo) ANI,
ACASSE (fem.)
“A ka se”=“revealed by oracle”
FON
ACCALIN
akpa=“wish” + lin=“think” or: akpa=‘carapace” + l˜a=“flesh”= “protected [of witchcraft] by a carapace” aklin=“the valliant”
FON (Benin) ˜ FON, EWE, GA(Togo, Benin)
ACCOUNOTTE
“akuek˜on˜ot`o”(“bearer of wealth”)
FON (Benin)
ACHA
Surname
CHAMBA (Togo)
ACHAUD
Atch`o=“beauty”
˜ YORUBA FON, EWE, GA, (Togo, Benin, Nigeria) FON (Benin)
Achou=“giant rat” (an animal name is often used during childhood and later on given away)
BAOULE (Ivory Coast) KABYE (Togo)
ACHMET (Creole)
Ahmed=“glorified” (male first name, first ARABIC (Muslim Africa) name of Mahomet) ˜ Or: Atcheme=“in the power” FON, EWE, GA(Togo, Benin)
ACLA
Ethnonym and toponym: name of the city, capital city of Ghana, and of the ethnic group Accra.10 Proverb related to this name: “akla ma si zo” = “the cooking pan cannot be afraid of the fire”
˜ (Ghana, Togo, EWE, FON, GA Benin)
ACOSSE
Akossou or Agossou=first name for a boy who came feet first at his birth
FON (Benin)
ACOU Variante: ACCOUT
Akou=first name for a boy born on a Wednesday Akowu=name, coming from the proverb “ji ma do do ako wu”: “one cannot count on one’s own clan”: you are always betrayed by the ones who know you better
˜ OUATCHI (Togo) EWE, GA, FON (Benin, Togo)
ACRON, AGRON
Ethnonym: Akron=neighbours of the Fanti, living by the sea
Ghana
ADA
Usual name
Cameroon
ADABON
“Ad˜a gb`o”=“near Dan” (divinity: see explanation: name Guduff) or: “the wrath (of Dan) is back”
EWE, FON, MINA (GUIN) (Togo, Benin, Ghana)
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ADAD
Haddad=male first name ¯ de=surname ¯ Ada
ARABIC (Muslim Africa) ˜ (Ghana, Togo) GA
ADELBO
Ade (“hunter”) + gb`o (“is back”)
FON, EWE, GUIN (Togo, Benin)
ADERNO
Aden˜o=“the hunger” (surname) adon˜o=“greedy” (“mother” of the hole)
Benin, Togo FON (Benin)
ADGET
Adje=“salt” (usual name)
˜ EWE, OUATCHI (Togo) GA,
´ ADIA, ADEA
Ethnonym: Aja-Fon=language and ethnic group Ady¨ua=first name for a girl born on a Tuesday Aja=term of respect for someone older first name for a girl born on a Monday
Benin, Togo BAOULE (Ivory Coast) ASHANTI (Ghana)
ADIALE
Adjale=royal family name see also Dial
EWE (Togo)
ADIARA
Adjara or Adjala=usual name Diarra=widely spread surname name of clan Diawara, which “tana” (“totem”, fetish animal) is the lion (“wara”) Ha¨ıdara=Malinke name
FON, EWE (Togo, Benin)
EWE (Togo)
Guinea
AFFERON ´ E´ AFREG AGOLO
Agonglo=surname coming from the proverb: “sodje de bo agon glo” = “the lightning strikes the palmtree but cannot reach the pineapple” Aglo ou Glo=mystical power, healer (same meaning in Ha¨ıtian Creole11
FON (Benin)
ago=“backwards”, giving Akossou or Agossou=first name for a boy who came feet first at his birth ago=“attention! Give way!” (=“tototo: here I come!”) (means “present” in Ha¨ıtian Creole)12
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo)
AGOUMAN
Agwam˜a=A˜ni name agoumou: remedy (powder) agoman: herb used to wash the eyes in Martinique13
Ivory Coast YORUBA (Nigeria, Benin)
AGOUYA (Romain, dit
Agouha=Ibo name found twice on the
IBO (Nigeria)
AGOT, AGAUD
˜ (Togo, Benin) FON, EWE, GA
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo)
AGOUYA, of Ibo nation, slaveship L’Amelie’s log in 1822 in a list slave of l’Anse a` l’Ane’s of Blacks seized, all of Ibo nation14 estate in 1750) AGUI
Usual name or: apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of Aguiny˜a (Ibo name) or of Aguidi (Fon name)
AJA (Togo, Benin) Nigeria Benin
AGUITO
Surname
FON (Benin)
AIMERO
Ame (“the being”) + djro (“longed for”) = the stranger
EWE and GUIN (Togo, Benin)
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE AJACO
Aja (name of the ethnic group) + ko FON (Benin) (“solely”) or: “the robbery” + li (“exists”) FON (Benin)
AJOU, AJOUP
Ajou=surname
FON (Benin)
AKOQUINE (first name=IBEAU Pierre, born in Africa)
Ibo name
IBO (Nigeria)
ALA
“branch” La=ethnic group, south of Ghana and Togo)
FON (Benin) (Ghana,
ALAB
Araba or Alaba=first name for a child born on a Wednesday (Arabic “arba’i”)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
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ALASIBA ou ATALIBA Asiba=first name for a girl born on a Sunday
FON (Benin)
ALCHE´
alotche=“my hand” or: ali tche=“my way”
FON, EWE, FON (Togo)
ALCIAS
mispronunciation of Alche=“ali tchi a”=“this way”
OUATCHI, EWE, FON (Togo)
ALCIDAMAR
Sid Amar=male first name (“Mister” Amar)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ALCIMADURE
ARABIC
ALDERDK
ARABIC
ALDON
al˜o d˜o=“help”
˜ FON (Togo, Benin) EWE, GA,
ALESMA
Alamissa=first name for a child born on a Thursday (Arabic “el khamis”)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ALGLO
Alaglo, Aloglo=surnames – see also Agolo
EWE (Togo)
ALIBO, ALIGO
aligbo=“the great road” (“born on”) or: “Ali protects us”
˜ (Togo, Benin) FON, EWE, GA
ALIKER
“Ali Khe¨ır”=“Ali the Good One” (name used among the Touareg) Aniker=name of a Touareg tribe also a name in Northern Ouganda
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ALINO Variante: ALINORD
Ali˜no=“road of happiness” or: Alin˜o=“mother” of the road: witch placing herself, or a thing, on a road near crossroads in the purpose of controlling it
˜ (Togo, Benin) FON, EWE, GA
ALOCOUA
Current name, from the proverb: “al˜o ku a”=“accept death when it comes” (name after several children died in low age) given “ayokwa”=“welcome”, the coastal inhabitants between Cap Lahou and Issini used to greet European ships passing before them this way. This part of Ivory Coast was name. “Quaqua’s Coast” and “Good People’s Coast” after that custom, which did not at all exempt slave-traders to “help themselves” among this population
Togo, Benin, Ghana
Niger, Mali Ouganda
Ivory Coast
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GUILLAUME DURAND Alugba=female first name=“Fa ’s (oracle system) calabash carrier” igba=“calabash” in Yoruba
FON and YORUBA (Benin and Nigeria)
AMBOT Ambo=nzima surname (Akan group) (first name=NO NAME) also name of a Bantu ethnic group (the Bassa), located near mount Cameroon and of a slave-trade harbour located by the harbour of Rufisque, in front of Goree Island
Ghana Cameroon
AMESSAN
Surname meaning: “one who has mixed” Messan=first name of the third boy born consecutively in the family see also Meyssain
FON, EWE, GUIN (Benin Togo)
ANELKA
Usual name – see also Nelka and Nika
EFIK (Nigeria)
Akpan˜o=“promises bearer” or “protected” (from spells) or “who has a wound” (see also Abano)
FON (Benin)
AURAGO
wirago=male iguana (name given to a boy whose mother, being pregnant, frightened an iguana, that was later seized by somebody else; this woman wouldn’t be allowed to hurt any living being during her pregnancy, she must hence “reincarnate” the dead iguana’s soul into her son)
MOSSI (Burkina Faso)
BACALY, BOCALY
Comes from first names Bakari, Aboubacar, Boubacar, names frequently given to slaves, coming from the name of Abou Bakr (first Caliph name, fatherin-law of Mahomet, meaning “father of the virgin”, speaking of A¨ıcha, Mahomet’s first wife)
ARABIC and Muslim West Africa (Senegal, Mali. . .)
BACOUL
bakulu=“olders, more experienced”. In Ha¨ıtian Creole, bakoulou stands for a Don Juan, a wily person15
CILUBA, KIKONGO (Congo)
BAGUIO Variantes: BANDIOT, BANGUIO(T)
badjo=“only child” (same meaning in Ha¨ıtian Creole)16 “ba”=“mother” + “dio”=“unique reason”
PEUL (of Benin)
BANGUE, BONGUE
Mbengue=name of Congolese origin, found as far as Senegal Bangui=surname in Congo and name of a river (Oubangui) and of Centrafrican republic’s capital city Biangue=“for you”
Congo, Senegal
Senegal
ANTOLON APANON
APPIN
BACIARA
MALINKE (Guinea, Mali . . .)
MAKWA (Congo)
LARI (Congo)
BATASSA ´ ELO, ´ ´ BEH BELO(T)
Gbejlo=name meaning “life is a righteous FON (Benin) way”
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE Gbexl˜o=“vengeance of life” Mbelo=“way of being”
207
˜ (Ghana, Togo) EWE, GA LARI (Congo)
´ BEL ´ E, ´ ABEL ´ E´ “gbe le”=“life exists, life will come” BEILLE, (etymology of the Martinican “Bele” drum and song music style, which is danced on a rhythm of “letting the good times roll” like Blues or Rock’n Roll)
˜ (Ghana, Togo) EWE, GA
BELISSAN
Beniss˜a=G¯a-Adangbe name or: “gbe” + “Lissa”=“life of Lissa” (divinity, which name is Orisha in Yoruba, personified in the chameleon)
Ghana, Togo GUIN, YORUBA (Benin, Nigeria)
BELONIE (born in Africa), BELLONE (born in Africa)
Gbel`onu=“in the hands of life” (name used in Benin) “gbe lo ne”=“life allows it” or: “gbe l˜o he”=“the bird who is alive will always have feathers” Bullom=name of a coastal ethnic group
FON (Benin)
BILAY
Bilal=first name very frequently used in West Africa (for the Mandingues it’s the name of the prayer-caller but for the Moors, it’s rather a slave name) “wellay billay”=“sweared in the name of God”: Arabic expression used in whole Muslim Africa
¯ (Ghana, Togo, FON, EWE, GA (Benin) MENDE (Sierra Leone) TOUCOULEUR (Senegal)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
BINGUE
Ibingue=name for a twin Bigue=female first name Gabingue=important slave trade harbour Mbengue=surname of Congolese origin but found in other African areas Biangue=“for you”
PUNU (Gabon) TOUCOULEUR (Senegal) Cabinda Senegal, Congo LARI (Congo)
BLETIER (born in Africa)
“bilen” (pronounce “bl`e”)=“red” + “tch`e” BAMBARA (Mali) or “k`e”=“man”=“the white man” (“red”) has given the well known Creole word “beke”
BMALKE
Mbake=surname of Congolese origin but found in other African areas balimake=“brother”
BOCK
See below
BOCO (first name= ZABULON ZOMBI), BOCAU
Name for a boy born with the umbilical cord around the neck bok`o=sorcerer, soothsayer (“Bo” user: see below the name Bossa) Agboko=surname in Benin Boko=name in Congo
FON
BODAX
“bo dja ye”=“be more cunning”
FON
BODEAU
Bodjo=Xweda name Mbondo=“little tree” Mbondo=“testing poison”17
BOLACO
“gb`ola ko”=“even the goat will laugh at it” (that is to say: “you will be everyone’s goat”)
Togo EVIYA (Gabon) MITSONGO (Gabon), LINGALA (Congo) ˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
Senegal, Congo BAMBARA (Mali)
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo.
Congo
208 BOLEY
GUILLAUME DURAND Bolle=male first name Bole=surname Bole=Ibo name
WOLOF (Senegal) MBETI (Congo, Gabon) Nigeria
Female first name in Senegal “hand”
PEUL, TOUCOULEUR, BAMBARA, MALINKE, DIOULA (Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast) MPONGWE (Gabon)
BOLIVANA BOLO(T)
Mbolo=“old man” and greeting word (“good morning”), both used as names BOLY
Famous name in Ivory Coast (brothers Boli, soccer players) female first name of Peul origin, usual in Mali and Senegal, meaning “antispell” (first name of the third girl born in the family)
Ivory Coast Mali, Senegal
BOMBO
Mbombo=“nyam” (usual name) “nose” (usual name)
APINDJI (Gabon) LARI (Congo)
BOMBOTE
Mbote=“goodness, hello” (usual name)
LARI (Congo)
´ BONEQU E´
“b`one”=“misfortunate, loss” + “k`e”= “man”
BAMBARA (Mali)
BONGOU
Family name
Congo
BONI, BONY, BONNY
Bonny=Niger delta harbour, widely used for slave trade family name in the north of Benin as in Ivory Coast and first name in Senegal
Nigeria
BONTEZ
Gbotey=surname
Togo
BORANO
Bodano=“boda” seller (steamed corn)
Togo
` BOREME
Bourama=male first name (from Ibrahim=Abraham)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
BOSSA (name of a slave in L’Anse a` l’Ane estate in 1744: Nicolas BAUSSA, of Arada nation)
“born all the same” (born under the “Bo” FON (Benin) protection, born thanks to the “Bo”: the “Bo” is a magico-religious custom, in the shape of an incantation, used to make an offense, to take vengeance or to defend oneself) – very common name in Togo
CACOU (also found as “Quoycou” in Macouba parish in 1747 for a first name)
Kwakou, Kakou or Kokou = first name currently used in whole Akan area for a boy born on a Wednesday or a Thursday see also Kakou or: Nkakou=surname
BAOULE (Ivory Coast) FANTI, ASHANTI (Ghana) ˜ GUIN, FON (Togo, EWE, ANI, Ghana, Benin, Ivory Coast) Congo
Mispronunciation of Sekou=widely used first name
Mandingue area
CASSIBI CECUS ´ CEFLER ´ CELI
Female first name
TOUCOULEUR (Senegal)
´ CELOT
Selo=male first name
TOUCOULEUR (Senegal)
CENDRA
“Se djra”=“if destiny wishes it”
˜ EWE, GA
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE ´ CERA
“a sera”=“he (or she) has arrived”
BAMBARA (Mali)
´ CERALIER
“Se wa li”=“Destiny shows the way”
˜ EWE, GA
CERAN
Sen˜a, Sewa=current names
Togo
CERGAN
Sewa g˜a=“Big Sewa”
Togo
´ CERILO
Sedilo=name
FON, EWE
CET
Seth=first name from Ancient Egyptian
Senegal
´ CETURAN
209
“Se tu a˜ ”=“Destiny doesn’t know”
FON
´ CEVA
toponym
Togo
CEYLO, CEYEO
Se l`o=“Destiny’s hand” could answer to the civil status commissioner’s question “what’s your name?”: “c’est Yao” (“it’s Yao”=first name for a boy born on a Thursday or a Friday)
EWE, XWEDA (Togo, Benin)
GUIN FANTI, ASHANTI, BAOULE
CHANNE (first name=Fanchine OBA, her son is called ASSOT Lamour)
Ntchana=“orphan”
LARI (Congo)
CHANVOR
Shanvo=“Shan’s pagn” (=Shango, vodou (divinity) of thunder)
YORUBA (Nigeria)
CHICHY
A great number of Ibo names use as prefixes CHI- or CHU- (“ancestor, personnal god”), as the Ibo believe in reincarnation
Nigeria
CHIGON
apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of the female name Chingongeva, from the proverb “chilinga ongeva chi njimbisa kwalondo”=“exile would make me throw myself in the floods” (to get back home)
MBUNDU (Angola)
CHINA
“thing”=word used to build numerous female names18
MBUNDU (Angola)
CHINAGO(R)
Mispronunciation of Chingawove, from the proverb “the things you do at home you don’t do it elsewhere”
MBUNDU (Angola)
CHATAM (first name=Fabien GOAR)
CHIQUETE
Tsikata=current name
Ghana, Togo
CHOULY
Soule=current name in Nigeria
Nigeria
CHUMLA
chuma=“small”
AKWAMU (Ghana)
CICE´
Cisse=surname, of Sarakolle origin very current in West Africa, “tana” (fetish animal)=the crocodile
Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone . . . (Mandingue area)
CISO
apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of Cissoko=surname, of Sarakolle origin, widely spread in West Africa, means “horse driller”, as the legend tells of a
Mandingue area
210
GUILLAUME DURAND knight that stinged his ownmount with his spear, as he was too much in a hurry to fight19
CODASE´ COFFI, COFFY variants: COFFIN, COFFRY, COFFROY
Koffi=first name used in whole Akan area, for a boy born on a Friday or on a Saturday
CO¨IDAT
Ke¨ıta=very current name in Mali (royal family) this name would come from the expression “ke ta” (“take the heritage”) or “ea keta” (“it’s done”) “tana” (fetish animal)=the lion, the baboon, the hippopotamus, and all spotted or striped deers Ko¨ıda=Senegal town (in Casamance)
Mali
COGUIO variants: COLIO(T) CO¨IDO, (first name= Charles COCOIL)
Kodjo=first name used in whole Akan area, for a boy born on a Monday Kodio=first name for a boy born on a Tuesday
FON, EWE, GUIN (Benin, Togo, Ghana) FANTI, ASHANTI (Ghana)
COIMOISY (first name=Simon CO¨ITA)
For the surname, see Co¨ıdat
COIQUE
Kwaku (see Cacou)
COISY (first name=Marie-Joseph) (Creole)
Kwasi or Kouassi=first name for a boy born on a Monday or on a Sunday (the weekdays-first names may become family names, indifferently for male or female persons) Akisi=first name for a girl born on a Monday
˜ FON, EWE GUIN, ANI, BAOULE, FANTI, ASHANTI
Senegal
BAOULE (Ivory Coast) FANTI/ASHANTI (Ghana) ˜ (Togo, Benin, GUIN, EWE, ANI Ghana, Ivory Coast) BAOULE (Ivory Coast)
COL
apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of Coliot or Coly?
COLET
Kole=“snail” (name given to a quiet child)
MENDE (Sierra Leone)
COLICOTRONI
K`ony`ok`or`owulunin=girl who helps the bride in her housework (for other Bambara word composed with “nin” (“little”) at the end)
BAMBARA (Mali)
COLIME´
“koli me”=“around the neck”
˜ EWE, GA
COLMAN
Mispronunciation of Koml˜a=first name for a boy born on a Tuesday
FON, EWE, GUIN
COLO
[Formed with the first name Colombe but also without it] ˜ Kolo=vagina (pejorative term) EWE, GA Kolo=cauri (seashell used as money) BAMBARA (Mali) Nkolo=“evening” (usual name) MPONGWE (Gabon)
COLOMBE´
“kolo me”=“in the vagina” (name given to insult somebody)
˜ EWE, GA
COLOTA
“kolo ta”=“because of the vagina” (in jamaican slang today, you find the
˜ EWE, GA
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE word “clot” at the same place, still in a pejorative sense) or: “the part of the one who is tired”
BAMBARA (Mali)
COLOTRAP
See above
COLY
Koli=first usual name (Fakoli is the name of a famous ancestor of clan Kourouma (Malinke)) Koli, Akoli=usual names see Ocoly too
PEUL Guinea
Mispronunciation of Koml¯a=first name for a boy born on a Tuesday Koma or Kouma, Malinke surnames, “san˜akoun” (“relatives to joke with” of clan Kourouma) Nkoma=“sign”
FON, EWE, GUIN
COMA
COMBAT, COMBAS
211
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
Guinea
LINGALA (Congo)
See Coubat
´ ´ COMBEZI, COMBELY Kongbesi=“female adept of “Ko” (usual name)
˜ EWE, GA
COMINA
Kwamina=first name for a boy born on a Wednesday
FANTI, ASHANTI (Ghana)
COMPILE
“kon kpli”=“several hills gathered”
˜ EWE, GA
CONAGON
“ko nyog˜o”=“let us speak together” or “common thing” or kunnyog˜o”=week
BAMBARA (Mali)
CONDA
Akonda=first name
LA, FANTI (Togo, Ghana)
´ CONTE´ CONDE,
Mandingue family name (cf. Konate in Mali) “tana”=the ca¨ıman, the iguana or the leppard
West Africa (Sierra Leone, Guinea, Mali . . .)
CONEAU
Nkono=surname K`on`o=“bird”
Congo BAMBARA (Mali)
COSSOU, KOUSSOU “termite or termitary” (usual name in FON (Benin) COUSSOU, COUCHOU Benin: the termitary bears a sacred meaning) Koussou=“being apathic, indifferent” Akossou or Agossou=first name for a boy who came feet first during his birth Nkusu=red-tailed grey parrot (usual VILI, NZABI (Gabon), LARI name) Congo) COUBAT, COMBAT
Coumba=usual female first name in Senegal first name of the second girl born in the family first name of the third son born in the family Kouba=“wrong step” Akouba=first name for a girl born on a Thursday Akomba=first name for a girl born on a Wednesday
Senegal PEUL, KONO (Sierra Leone) KONO LARI (Congo) FANTI/ASHANTI (Ghana) ˜ (Ivory Coast) ANI
DALIBONY, DALIGONY ´ DEJATIER
Djiate=Malinke family name, same as Diakite
Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali
212 ´ E´ DEL
GUILLAUME DURAND Ndele=name of Mrs Helen Aimee Gabon, Congo LABRANCHE-DEBROSE’s, grandmother (see above chapter about emancipation) The entire name calls to mind the word “Mpolo”, Congolese family name (means “fat” in Mpongwe) and “Ndelo”, gabonese family name (Benga and Sekyani ethnic groups) meaning “one who has lost an occasion”. “Londo” was her first name (Tshilondo=“fish” in Lari)
DELITE DIA
Djia=very current surname
PEUL
DIAL variante: DIALOS
Diallo=family name, widely spread in Senegal, of Peul origin: surname of one of the four first families of Peul people
Senegal and PEUL
DIGAGNE
Mispronunciation of Diagne (current surname in Senegal)
Senegal
DIGAYE
digaale=“being in touch with someone” diigal=“to go to the bottom and stay” (in the sense of a sexual intercourse literally “a good blow”) jigen=“woman” Dinguiraye=name for someone born on a feast day and name of a town and area
WOLOF (Senegal) " "
Dikko=first name of the first child (son or daughter) born in the family Adigo, Adjigo=current names
PEUL
DIGO
DIMBA, DIRBA
" SONGHA¨I (Niger, Mali), BOBO (Burkina Faso) Guinea
Togo
Demba=first name of the third son born in the family family name in Congo and Senegal
PEUL
dyam=“hard, solid”, “peace”, “slave, traitor” Thiam=surname Dyam=name used in the shoemarkers’ caste Djeme=Ba¨ınouk surname
WOLOF (Senegal)
Dossi, Doxwe=younger of twins, “do si” means “the hole [made by the twins] is bound”
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo)
DOVI
Name for a child born after twins (litt.: “child of the hole”, see above Dolcy)
GUIN, EWE, FON
DRAME ou DRAME´ Variante: BRAME
Family name widely spread in Mali, blacksmiths’ caste (masters of telluric
MANDINGUE, BAMBARA (Mali, Senegal, Guinea)
NYARI (south of Congo)
DIRAIN (first name=BITI) DJAM, EDJAM
DOLCY, DOLXY
WOLOF MANDINGUE DIOLA (Guinea Bissau), Senegal (Casamance)
DOMAN DOMBEAU (first name=Aly)
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE knowledge, witch doctors and initiation leaders), this name calls back for their ancestors’ loving of pure-bred horses EALLAN EGOUY
Eguimohouin=Ibo or Yoruba name Egoue=Peul name
Nigeria Senegal
EGUZON
“the god Egu walks” (usual name)
˜ YORUBA, EWE, GA
ELANA
Elane=“pride, wicked-minded” (good reason to be sold) usual name in Cameroon or: “e la na”=“God will do allright”
FANG (Gabon) Cameroon ˜ EWE, GA
ELODE´
Used to define the solution of a riddle (speaking about enigms that are told during funeral’s vigil in West Indies as in Africa, called in Creole “titim”, in fon “xolomi lomi” (“small words”) and in akan “titisem” (“tale of forever”))
Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast
ESONGUI
songui=“shame” Esongue=“new moon” (usual name)
LINGALA (Congo) MPONGWE (Gabon)
ESSAKO
Family name
MAKWA (Congo)
ETILE´
tile=“sun, day” (“I ni tile”=“good morning” (“you and the sun”) or: “e tsi le”=“there is money” or: “n’ti le”=“the body exists” (name in relationship with children mortality)
BAMBARA (Mali) ˜ EWE, GA
´ FEGUR E´ FENANE FOTINA GABAYE GAULTEAU (first name=ALY) GHIOULE variante: GHIOULD
ethnonym: Dioula=people, traditionally traders belonging to Mandingue’s group
Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso
GOMA
Ngoma=“drum”: family name from Congo, used in Cameroon (the Cameroon singer Oliver Ngoma), but in Senegal too (Ngom) Also, usual name from a climbing plant (Hybophrynium Braunianum)
LARI Cameroon, Congo, Senegal
GOMARA (first name=TAMBO)
Tabgo=Ibo first name meaning “it’s too early” (for the child to come)
IBO (Nigeria)
GONDO
ngondo=“young woman” nz˜o gondo=“sorcerer” (Basse-Gondeau is today the name of an area of le Lamentin’s parish in Martinique)
LINGALA Congo
GUBATIER
Diabate=surname in whole Mandingue area, griots’ caste
Mali, Guinea . . .
FANG (Gabon)
213
214 GUDUFF
GUILLAUME DURAND ethnonym: Guedevi=ethnic group, they Benin were victims of the Aja-Fon “trek”, which brought the latter from the Tado hills in Togo to Allada and Abomey areas in early XVIIth century, they killed Guedevis’ chief Dan with a spear, establishing thus their kingdom “in the middle of Dan’s belly” (“D˜a xo me”, giving the word “Dahomey”). The Guedevi were massively sold as slaves by their winners.
GYARONA HALONGUY ou XALONGUY ´ HEJOAKA
“e j`o aka”=“he came out black” (“aka”= GUIN (Benin, Togo, Ghana) “coal”) cf. circumstances of birth (the verb “j`o”, meaning to come, to arrive, to be born, is frequently used to form names”20 )
HORICOITE HOURACA HOURALA
ISNOLE´ JACONE variants: JACON, IACON JIAYE
Ndiaye=very current family name in Senegal or: “dji a ye”=“be careful”
LEBOU (Senegal, Cap Vert) ˜ (Togo, Benin) EWE, GA
JOANIL JOASFI JOMINIL JOUBIGO KINOLA (first name=LEKAIN)
“ki nom la?” (=“what’s your name” in Creole) or African name?
KOSNY LABOUDOU
Abudu ou Abdou=usual male first name
YORUBA (Nigeria)
LACATA
Ajakata=“thunder”, god of Lightning for the Xweda In Haitian Creole: thunder’s noise21
FON (Benin) south of Benin
LAHOU, CAPLAHOU
name of an harbour and a cape, located on the Ivory Coast, named after the French sailor’s name Jacques Lahou, it became the name of the African ethnic group taken here to slavery
Ivory Coast
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE LAJERIB
215
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
LAROD LAXARE LAYAR LINDAU, LINDEAU
Lindo=“saw in dream” (surname used in Jamaica today)
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
LUDOP (first name= Daine)
The name calls to mind the surname Diop, and the first name the names Dieng nd Diagne (the three of them very widely spread in Senegal)
SERERE (Senegal)
MADALAN
Mispronunciation of Almadane=first name given to a child born at the end of the fasting month (“Ramadan”)
SONGHA¨I (Niger, Mali)
MADI
Male first name (coming from Amadi)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
MADIAN
“ma dj˜a”=“not tall” M˜adi˜a=name for a war chief
BAMBARA (Mali) PEUL
MADON, MANDON
“n ma d˜o”=“I don’t know” (possible answer to a European) Mado=usual name
BAMBARA (Mali)
MAGNA
Female first name “what one is unaware of”
TOUCOULEUR EWE, GUIN
MAGNON
“e ma n˜ o˜ ne”=“it is not rightful” Man˜o=name of an ethnic group
EWE, FON, GUIN Liberia
MAGRI
Magari=“a nice slice” Ma¨ıgari=usual name
BAMBARA Cameroon
MAHMOUD
Male first name widely spread (=Mohammed)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
MA¨I
Usual name in Central Africa, as in Gabon (diminutive of “ndego amana”= “a genuine friendship never ends”) means also “water”; or: ethnonym: Mahhi (Aja-Fon group)
Centrafrican Republic MPONGWE (Gabon) LINGALA (Congo) middle Benin
Mayembe=family name
Congo
MA¨IEBE
MOBA (Togo, Burkina Faso)
MA¨IELE´
mayele=“brain-power”
LINGALA (Congo)
MAKAN
Very old name, can be translated as “man’s voice” (“mogo” or “moho” or “maa”=“somebody, a person” + “k˜a”= “voice”) Makan Soundiata Ke¨ıta=Mali empire founder’s name
Mali, Guinea, Senegal
MALANBB
Malembe=“slowly, slowness” (usual name)
LINGALA, LARI (Congo)
MALO (first name= CACAU), variante: MALEAU, also used as a first name
“shame, dishonour” It was also the most famous Louisiana Maroons chief’s name in 1784: Juan Mal´o (accent on the last syllable, as in Bambara, in Spanish documents, for whom his name meant “bad”)22
BAMBARA (Mali)
216
GUILLAUME DURAND
MARANDE, MARANDE´ MAREGUI MAVOUNGO
Mavungu=family name meaning “may we never speak about it again” Mavangou=in Ha¨ıtian Creole, sacred bottle containing a magic drink23 In fon=“ma van go”=“don’t throw away the bottle” family name used (as Mavounzy) in several countries of bantu-speaking areas
VILI (Gabon, Congo, Cabinda)
MBASSE´
“carrier”, also name from the phrase: “Gbe ma se”=“nothing can obliterate life” – see also Basse
FON (Benin)
MENDEY
Mende=Mandingue Mendy=surname
Mandingue area LEBOU (Senegal, Guinea Bissau)
´ EHOUL ´ MEN
“me” (“the character”) + “ne” (“here comes”) + “hun” (“hence”)
FON (Benin)
MENGA
“Ame g˜a”=“the big man” (usual name) “blood” (usual name) Mengan=“evil spells” (usual name)
EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana) LARI (Congo) FANG (Gabon)
MENUALEC (first name=TIXA)
“me no we le ke”=“that’s the way one should act”
FON
MERGEA
“me w dja”=“the character that we are dealing of is coming”
FON
MESTALY
“me ta li”=“the character’s head exists” (=“happiness will come”) – see also Metalin
FON, EWE (Togo, Benin)
´ METALIN
“me” (“the character”) + “ta” (“head”) + “lin” (“to think”)=“the [head of the] person of whom we are thinking about” [compare with use of “tet” (“head”) in Ha¨ıtian Creole]
FON (Benin)
´ METHON
Name from the proverb “me t˜o wo yo na”=“upon children you can rely”
FON (Benin)
MEXIA
“me zia”=“useful person”
EWE
MEYSSAIN
Messan=first name for the third son born in the family. The prefix {mes-} comes from Ancient Egyptian, where it means “born of”
FON, EWE, GUIN (Benin, Togo
MEZEM
“a person has arrived to my place”
EWE
MI
“me” “we”
FON (Benin) EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana)
MIALEBAMA
“the traps are set” (name given to cross witchcraft’s action)
LARI (Congo)
FON (Benin) Congo, Gabon
MERANI ´ EGONNE ´ MER
MEYZINDI
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE
217
MIALOU
“diverted way”
LARI
MIAN
“grown up, mature” (usual name in Ivory Coast) ni˜am˜a=“brother” In Bambara, in Dioula, in Malinke, one says that a “mian mian” child is always in his mother’s legs. In Ha¨ıtian Creole, miyan miyan=“beloved being”24
FON, EWE, GUIN ˜ (Ivory Coast) ANI BAOULE (Ivory Coast) BAMBARA, DIOULA, MALINKE (Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast)
MIANI
“to me, my share”
LARI
MIATH
“mia ti”=“because of you” anagram of Thiam (very current family name in Senegal) or: apherese (shortening of a word’s beginning) of Ourmiath (variant of Ourmiah, see that name)
EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana) Senegal
MIBI
pejorative term to name the Peul Miambi=“bad”
BAMBARA LARI
MICAPO
“mi ka kp`o”=“make a consultation”
EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana)
MICHI
Mitchi or Mitchikpe=usual names
Togo
MICHO
“stand up”
EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana)
MICKARD
myika=“star”
LARI (Congo)
ethnonym: language and ethnic group of south Ghana and Benin; one of the main people deported in slavery to the New World. Minas, or Minnes, is the name given to them by the Portuguese (the genuine name is Guin) because they were located in an area rich in gold mines, the name “Gold Coast” for Ghana came from there
Ghana, Togo, Benin
´ MINGRELIE
“me gue re li”=“there’s a lot of people”
EWE
MINGUE´
“me gue”=“I fell down” or: “min gwe”=“he who is white”
EWE, GUIN, FON (Benin, Togo DIOULA (Burkina Faso)
MONOTUKA
ethnonym
Congo
The word “Moor” coming from the Phoenician “mahurim”, was a general name used in Europe from the Middle Age up to XVIIth century (and even after) to name a black African. It gave the name Mauritania, now a country between Senegal and Marocco. They were often slave-hunters and traders, and people from Sub-saharan Africa would call them “Nar” (“stealer,
Senegal, Mauritania, Mali
MICOBOLEM MIELKA MIER MIGARE´ MINA variants: EMINA, ELMINA, BELLEMINA, VELMYNA
MONPHILE´ MORE, MORE´
218
GUILLAUME DURAND thief”), or “Reds”, from the colour of their skin, long before other men with clearer skins would be called by this word: “bilen” (pronounce “bl`e”)=“red” and “k`e”= “man”, to give the well known: “beke” (its anglophone counterpart: “backra” comes from another etymology: “mbakara” from Ibibio=“to rule”).
MORICHOR (first name=SULIMA) MOUNDONG variatnes: MOUNDON, MOULONGUE(T), DONGUE, DOGUE´
NAGO, NAGAU
ethnonym: Mondongue=in the West Indies an ethnic group with fierce reputation, marroonish and man-eating Mondongue=usual name in Cameroon (mundang=Cameroon and Tchad language) Mandongo=pejorative term in Congo to name some inland people with maneating reputation Mundangue, Mundungue=name given only to men In Haitian Creole=“irascible, maneater”25 Mandingue=nation and linguistic group from West Africa (Mali, Guinea . . .)
Gabon, Congo, Cameroon
ethnonym: people located in Benin and Nigeria (zone of origin: Oyo and Ife), named by the Haoussa “Yoruba” and “Loucoumi” (“l˜akunmi”=“camel”, maybe because their bondage situation made them load carriers?), the latter term survived in Cuba
YORUBA (Nigeria, Benin)
Cameroon
Congo
PUNU (Gabon, Congo)
MANDINKA (Mali, Guinea)
NASOL NATOLO NEGOUAI
Gabon Distortion of Ngaye or Ndiaye (names used in Senegal) or: nga¨ı=“I, me” Ngoua=usual name
Senegal LINGALA (Congo) Gabon
´ NEJALO NELVIOR NGUELA
NORESCA variantes: NORISKAL, NORESKAL OBESCAN OBLICOQ (born in Africa)
Ngelah=“dog” (child born after others died very young, given a name which will exorcise bad spells, the gods would not care for an out-cast) or: toponym: Benguela=slave trading harbour
MENDE (Sierra Leone)
Angola
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE OCOLE, OCOLY variante: OCCOLIER
Okoli=Ibo name “okoli”=“you have grown up”
Nigeria LINGALA (Congo)
Orngue=female first name
TOUCOULEUR (Senegal)
ODIABAS OLIEGON OMEVA ONASSY ONINGUE´ OPOULON OPSONNE, OPSON, OBSONNE
African name or name of English origin (“Thompson, or Robson”)?
ORE´ (used as a first name) ORFA ORLE´ ORMALLE OUBAGIA
Huegbadja=usual name but also name of a famous king who reigned from 1645 to 1685 and who gave birth to the Dahomey kingdom This name comes from the proverb: “hue gb’aja ma I aja” (“the fish that came out of the trap won’t go into the trap again”)
AJA-FON (Benin)
OUENSANGA
wen=“God” + sanga=“the stranger”
MOSSI (Burkina Faso)
OUGODIN ou ONGODIN
Egoudin=Ibo name
Nigeria
OZANI OZORA PADRA PALARA PATALIN (first name=ALY) PELGO ´ E´ PERI PERNA RABATHALY RAMBO RAMY RANGON RAQUIL RIGAH RIMBA ROGALY ROGOL
219
220
GUILLAUME DURAND
ROSDENGOR SAMBA, SEMBA
“elephant” (usual name) first name of the second son born in the family Samba=Congolese name
MALINKE of Senegal PEUL Congo
SAVILIA ´ SELICOU
mispronunciation of Se¨ıkou (from Arabic ARABIC (Muslim Africa) “Cheikh”=“chief”)
´ SELIGON
“Se li go”=“Destiny stands in the way”
EWE, OUATCHI (Togo)
SEM(M)A
“to bless, to protect”=name given to a child to protect him from spells “se ma sa”=“do not sell” from the proverb: “Destiny doesn’t betray” usual name, used to show a certain strength in front of enemies
LARI (Congo) FON (Benin)
SEMKY SENEGAL
as an ethnonym, one of the main places of French slave trade business
Senegal
´ ´ SEQU EDAN
“the begetter hopes no more”
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin)
SERA, SELA
See Cera
´ SERIFEU
Serifou=Cherifou=Cherif=male first name, Malinke surname (=“chief”)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa) Guinea
´ SERIN E´
Serigne=male first name
TOUCOULEUR (Senegal)
SERLIFE
“Se vi”=Destiny’s child”
FON (Benin)
SIAGRE
Siakiri=usual name (name of a famous ancestor of clan Konde)
MALINKE
SIANE
Ziane=male first name Sane=surname used in Senegal (name of a Diola clan)
ARABIC Senegal (Casamance area)
SIAR, SIARA
Siare=“to pay tribute”
WOLOF (Senegal)
SIBALE
“Si gba le”=“water still exists” or: Tchibiali=“the elected” (name)
EWE, GUIN (Togo) LARI (Congo)
SIBON
apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of Tchibongi (“thief”)
LARI (Congo)
SICHEM
“the business is profitable to me”
˜ EWE, FON, GA
SIGNY
“water buffalo”
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
SIGO(N)
Surname
MALINKE (Guinea)
SLIDE´
apherese (shortening of a word’s beginning) of Cassilde
SHUNOS (first name=Justin JOCKO)
SILLOCK SILOE´
“Si lo we”=“Si (divinity of the water, comes from Isis) loves them”
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin)
SIMASOTCHI
“I will put it out with water”
˜ EWE, FON, GA
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE
221
SOLBOTH TABLETY TABOURLI TA¨IMA ´ TENAGA
Tenga=“earth” (usual name: lying-in done MOSSI (Burkina Faso) on the ground) Tennoaga=“earth’s chicken” (usual name)
´ TENOB
Teneba or Djeneba=female first name
Mali, Senegal, Guinea
TERNOT, TIERNAN
Tierno=usual name
PEUL
T’FLA CHEBBA (name given to a little girl freed when aged a few days)
chebba=“little”
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
THECHI
See Telcide
´ TEROC
´ (this freed THEMLEE Surname or: was said “born in Spain”) deformation of Temne=see below
Ivory Coast Sierra Leone
THEMNE (Creole) variante: THIMANIN
ethnonym: Temne=one of the main ethnic Sierra Leone groups of Sierra Leone
THIBO (first name= Laurencin GUIOUBIS)
Usual name
OUATCHI (Togo)
THINAN ou THIMAN
Tchinan=usual name
˜ (Tog, Ghana) EWE, GA
THOUBO
“tou” (“gun”) + “b˜o” (“is in great numbers”)
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
THOUMAN
Toumana=Mandingue name and name of an area
Senegal
TIAMBA (Eugene CHAILLOT, dit)
His surname is an ethnonym, defining the Thiamba ethnic group (pronounced also as “Chamba” or “Quiamba”)
CHAMBA (middle north of Togo)
TIBA, TISBA
Tshiba=“cover, lid”
LARI
TICAN
Tchika or sika=“gold”
˜ OUATCHI EWE, GA,
¨ TICOET
˜ (Togo, Ghana) Tchikoe=cauris serving as trading money EWE, GA
THURAR (first name=ALY)
TIBOL TICAL
TICTAE¨ TIJADE
Tidjiane=male first name spread in whole ARABIC (Cameroon, Nigeria, Africa, a muslim brotherhood’s name Senegal, Ivory Coast . . .)
TIL
Mispronunciation of Tim (“sister”, usual first name)
SARAKOLLE (Mali)
TILIMANT
Mispronunciation of “tche nyum˜a” (“good man”) or: Tilema=hot season
BAMBARA BAMBARA
222 TIMBOU
GUILLAUME DURAND Timbou=“capital city” of Fouta Djalon (mountainous area, one of Peuls’ fiefs) Timbo=ethnic group of Sierra Leone
Guinea
TINDE´
Atindegla=“strong tree” (usual name)
FON (Benin)
TINNO
atindo=“root”
FON (Benin)
TINOSI
atindosi=same as above for female
FON (Benin)
TIOL
apocope (shortening of a word’s end) of Tioldi or Tiolli=first names
TOUCOULEUR
TOBOT, TOBOYO
Tokpo=“less expensive waterwell” (usual FON (Benin) name)
TODOSE
“the river forbid it”
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin)
TOGAT
t`oga=father uncle, elder of the father
EWE
TOGIRA, TOGIRAN
“water brought him”
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
Sierra Leone
TOING TOLLA
Nitolla=usual name
BASSA (Cameroon)
TOLLE´
mispronunciation of Toure, surname of Sarakolle origin, very common in entire Mandingue area, griots of the Ke¨ıtas; “tana”=the boa
Senegal, Mali . . .
TOMBA TOUCAN TOUMOU TOUSSI
Tossi=first name for a girl born with great FON (Benin) loss of water by her mother during parturition (litt.: “born in a source”). dedicated to the sea divinity, incarnated in Toxosu, the duck. This person must not eat duck
TOUYA (first name= Edmond GUIOUT) TREL TRIDAS TRINCALE TUBA TUFLE TUPSAUSSE TYRBAN UCHE´ UCHOU UDOL ULCO ULLET ULTÊT
“ears” (name given to a child born with big ears)
MOSSI (Burkina Faso)
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE UVALET VACONSIN
“va k`o sin”=“issued from hidden sand” handicapped name given for example when a child was born before this child was killed and concealed, or there was a dead-born child before this one, who “replaces” this dead child
FON (Benin)
VADE´
Vaddel=male first name and surname
TOUCOULEUR
Female first name
TOUCOULEUR
VADIO VALSI VAMBLAQUE VANDE´ VANITOU VASSO
MBUNDU “come take” (from the sentence: “ku ne vasso”=“may Death come to take him”)
EWE, FON, GUIN (Togo, Benin, Ghana)
VAVARET VELMINA
See Mina
´ VEQUI
Velki=male first name
TOUCOULEUR
Name
XWELA (Benin)
VINAGE´
“vi” + “nage” (“thin woman”)=“child of a thin woman”
FON (Benin)
VINIONICE
“vi n˜ o˜ nusa”=consult the “Fa” to have a child in good health
FON (Benin)
VIOLO
“mind the children”
XWELA (Benin, Togo)
VITELGO
Name
XWEDA (Benin, Togo)
VITOLA
Name
XWEDA (Benin, Togo)
´ VERIGO(N) VERLY VETCHAL VILNOKA VILNORA VILONE´
VIRALO VISOTE
VOMA
“breathe, take a rest” (usual name)
NZABI (Gabon)
VOUNZY, VOULZY, VOUDZY, VONDIT, VOUNDI, VOUTI
apherese of Mavounzy (shortening of a word’s beginning) Vondila=name for a woman who has lost a child
Congo MBUNDU (Angola)
WABAM
Mispronunciation of Ouemba (Congolese name)
WANATHAM
Wane Thiam=name and first name
WOLOF (Senegal)
WASSAT
Ouassa=“he who stands for himself” Wesay=name of Calabar
PEUL Nigeria
223
224 WOMBA
GUILLAUME DURAND Ouemba, or Wemba=usual name
VILI (Congo, Cabinda)
Awuyinoma=“don’t tell it to anybody” (usual name)
MPONGWE (Gabon)
YANGO
“their, them” Yongo=name of Calabar
LINGALA (Congo) Nigeria
YANGODO
“strainer” (usual name)
LARI
YANY
Surname
NALOU (Guinea, Guinea Bissau: Nu˜nez river)
YASSA
“straw” (indicates the place where the child was born)
KASSONKE (Mali) ˜ FON, EWE, GA
WOUDERRONE WOUINO YABARDEL YANGAL
YAUBOT
“white, clear complexion”
YAUCA
See Yoka
YAYA
Very current male first name (=John) also first name for the first twin (female) and usual Kabye name (=“alert”)
´ E´ YEG
Yedji or Ayedji=“carefulness”
EWE, FON (Togo, Benin)
YENNE
“here he comes”
FON
YERO
First name for the fourth son born in the family
PEUL
YMAM (fem.)
Imane=female first name
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
YO(T)
“you” LINGALA (Congo) “greedy” (immortal mythologic character FON (Benin) never satisfied)
YOKA
“listen!” (word used as surname)
LINGALA, MAKWA, MBOSHI (Congo)
YOLDY
Yoldi, Yonni=female first names
TOUCOULEUR
YOMAN, YOUMAN
Nyum˜a=“good, handsome” Yam˜a=“I got used to suffering”
BAMBARA ˜ EWE, GA
YONGAY
Yongue=male first name
TOUCOULEUR
YOTAL, YOTTAR (first name=Marie YAYA)
“y`o ta”=“on the y`o”(lump of earth on graves)
EWE, FON, KABYE (Togo, Benin)
Nzale=“buffalo” Zalm=“nothing” (name used)
LINGALA MOSSI
ARABIC (Muslim Africa) FON (Benin) KABYE (Togo)
YOUAN YOUL ZA(A)L ZABA
“knowledge”
LARI
ZABULO
Zabolo=“devil” (French word)
LINGALA
ZACALY
Zagali-name from the expression “ewere zagali”=“a fat meat”
MPONGWE (Gabon)
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE ZA¨IRE variante: ZARE
name of a river: the Nza¨ıdi, called Za¨ıre by Europeans (nowadays river Congo)
Congo
ZAMBA
“elephant” “forest” usual name in Cameroon and central Africa In Creole, tales’ famous character (komp`e Zamba the Elephant)
KIKONGO, MBUNDU, LINGALA (Congo)
ZAMBAUD, ZABO
Zambo=first name or usual name in Benin “z˜a”=“the night” + “bo”=“is coming”
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo, Ghana)
ZAMBRE, ZAMBRE´
“war” (child born during a war)
MOSSI (Burkina Faso)
ZAMBRI
Nzambi=“God”
MBUNDU (Angola)
ZAMIA
female first name
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ZAMINE ZAMPA
“twilight” (“z˜a kpa”=“near the night”)
FON (Benin)
ZAMTI
“night tree”
FON, EWE, GUIN
ZAOR
Zao=usual name
Congo
´ ZARELA ZARIB
ARABIC
ZAROLE´ ZARY ZAVIRI
“z˜a vi ri”=“thing unclear done during the night”
˜ FON, EWE, GA
ZEBEDOU
Zoubida=female first name used in islamic countries – see also Zobda
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
´ ES ` ZEB
Zebe=toponym
South of Togo
ZEBO
nzembo=“song” Zerbo=surname (name of the historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo)
LINGALA (Congo) Burkina Faso
ZELEAU
Zelo=“sand”
LINGALA (Congo)
´ ELA ´ ZEL
kozela=“to wait”, + [-el]=to wait for somebody
LINGALA (Congo)
ZELKA
Zelika=female first name (from Arabic Zule¨ıkha)
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
´ ZEBIAN
´ ZELOC ZEMIR
ARABIC
´ ZENOKAN ´ ZENON
“keep away from them”
FON, EWE, GUIN
ZERAME
mispronunciation of Zaremba (usual name)
Congo
ZIAMA
“herb of love”
˜ FON, EWE, GA
225
226
GUILLAUME DURAND
ZIANZI
“always in love”
˜ FON, EWE, GA
ZILOR
“hand of zin” (twin name)
FON, EWE
ZINCER
Zinxwe=name given to a girl twin
FON (Benin)
ZINDEL
toponym: Zinder: important city
PEUL (Niger)
ZINGAR
Zing˜a=“big twin”
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo)
ZINGO
Mispronuncation of Zinga
ZIMICARD
ZIRAL ZIZI
“famed” family name in Congo (the Congolese singer Fidele Zizi)
EWE Congo
ZOBDA
Zoubida=female first name – see also Zebedou
ARABIC (Muslim Africa)
ZOBEL
“zo ble”=“the fire circled him” or “nonprotected fire”
FON, EWE (Benin, Togo)
ZOCLY
family name in Abomey
FON (Benin)
ZOGRON
˜ Zoglo=“together in the fire” (usual name) FON, EWE, GA
ZOGUE´
Zogbe=name from the proverb “agbo ma je zo gbe”=“the buffalo does not lacks horns” or: “zo gue be”=“powerful fire” Nzogue=“noise” (name for a twin=“the restless”)
FON (Benin, Togo)
Remedy against burnings
FON (Benin)
ZONCA
Remedy against illness
˜ (Togo, Ghana) EWE, GA
ZOUBICOU
“zo bi kun”=“all fires are dead” (means: “every abuse is dead”)
FON (Benin)
ZOZILON
“zo zin l`o”=“the fire at last came to growth”
FON (Benin)
ZUBEAU
“zu b˜o”=“there’s a lot of abuse”
EWE, GUIN (Togo, Ghana)
ZUMA
Arzuma=first name for a boy born on a Friday (“al djoma”=“Friday” in Arabic)
MOSSI (Burkina Faso)
ZIZIRI ZOAR
FANG (Gabon)
ZO¨ILA ZOLURE´ ZOMAN
ZOUGONNY
227
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE
We were also able to find the same names as those in Martinique in other countries of the Caribbean. Here are some samples.26
Countries where these names were found
Names
Found in Martinique as:
=African names
Saint-Thomas Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Thomas Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Guadeloupe Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisana Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua Guadeloupe Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) United States Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana Guadeloupe Saint-Thomas Louisiana Louisiana Guandeloupe Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Trinidad Louisiana Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Surinam Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana United States Louisiana Guadeloupe
ABA LAMAR AC(C)OU ACOUTON ACQUARO ADOU AGAO AGOIMAN ALIABA ALMANSOR ALOUBA ALY AMADIT AMBO AMBO ANGO ANGOUMA ANNIKA ANOBI APIA AZA BACA BAYOC BE´ TEY BITTA BOCARY, BOUCARY BOGUIO BOLO BOSSA BOUANGUE BOULANGUIER BOUQUÉ BOURÉ BOUSSOU BRAHIMA CAFFOU CAFOU CALINDA CATTAUX CERY CHIGO COACHY CODIO COFFI COFFY COLOS COMBA COMBA
LABAMAR ACOU ACOU(T), ACOUTIA ACAO ADOU AGARO, AGO, AGOAL AGOUMAN ALOCOUA ALMANZOU ALOCOUA ALY MADI AMBOT AMBOT ANGLO, ANDIO ANGLOMA ANELKA, NIKA ANOBY APAT, APPA AZA BACALY BAYOT BE´ TEL BINADA BACALY, BOCALY BAGUIO, BANGUIO BOLO BOSSA BANGUE BOULARDÉ BOUQUÉ BOURÉ BOUSSOU BOREME CAFIOU CAFIOU CALINDA CATO CÉLI, SELI CHIGON COISY COGUIO COFFI COFFI COLO COMBAT, COMBAS COMBAT, COMBAS
LABANA AKOWU AKWATIA KOAO ADOU AKOUALA AGOIMÄ ALUGBA ALMANSOUR ALUGBA ALI AMADI AMBO AMBO ANAGO NGOMA ANELKA, ANNIKA ANOBI AKPA AZA BAKARI BAGAYOKO GBÈTÉLI BINTA BAKARI, BOUBACAR BADJO BOLO, MBOLO BOSSA MBENGUE BOULADÉ BOUKÉ BOULÉ BUSU BRAHIMA not found accurately not found accurately not found accurately KAYOTÒ SÉLI CHINGONGEVA KWASI KODJO KOFFI KOFFI NKOLO COUMBA COUMBA
228
GUILLAUME DURAND Countries where these names were found
Names
Found in Martinique as:
=African names
Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) South Carolina Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua United States Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua Guadeloupe Louisiana Guadeloupe Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana Trinidad Guadeloupe Guadeloupe Louisiana Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana Louisiana Louisiana Guadeloupe Louisiana Trinidad Saint-Domingue (Haïti) South Carolina Trinidad Louisana Guadeloupe Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Saint-Thomas Louisiana Guadeloupe Louisiana Saint-Thomas Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua Saint-Thomas United States Saint-Domingue (Haïti) United States Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua Jamaïca, Barbados, Antigua
COMBA GUY COMIAN COOMBAH COUACOU COZO CUBBA CUDJOE CUFFEY CUFFIE DIAGNY DIMBA DIOC DIOCOU DOFFY FALGURE FATIMA FATTERMA FONTA TORRE FOURBA GALA GAUZA GOGUIO GOMA GOMAN GOULOU GOUYAT GUELA GUINAUK HALOUBE HOLOCOCO JAIIH LAMINE MA VAUNGE MALICK MALO MANDOU MANGA MATTA MINGUAIRY MONIMIA NOMAQUE OCCO OCOLE OSAY PAJOU PINDA QUACCO QUACIE QUACO QUACOU QUASHE QUASHIE QUAW
GUMBAGUÉ COLMAN COMBAT CACOU, QUOYCOU COGUIO COMBAT COGUIO COFFI COFFI DIGAGNE DIMBA DIOCOS, JOCK DIOCOS, JOCK DOVI FAGOUR, FUGALÉ FATIME FATIME FONTA, TOLLÉ FOURGA GALAS GAUS COGUIO GOMA AGOUMAN GOULOUBOIS GOUAI, GUAYER NGUELA GUINO ALOCOUA HOMOCOLO DIA LAMINE MAVOUNGO MALIQUE MALO MANDOU MANGANIT MATA MINGRÉLIE MOUNIAMA NANNAQUE OCCO, HOCCO OCOLE OSSÉ PADOU PENDA CACAU COISY CACOU CACOU COISY, QUOYSSI COISY ACAO
COUMBA GUEYE KOMLÁ, KOOMLÃ COUMBA KWAKOU KODJO COUMBA, AKOMBA KODJO KOFFI KOFFI DIAGNE DEMBA NJOCK NJOCK DOVI FANGOU, FUGALÉ FATIMA FATIMA FANTA TOURÉ FOUWOGÃ GALA not found accurately KODJO NGOMA AGOIMÃ GULU GUYA, GUEYE NGELAH GUINOU ALUGBA NDEMBOKOLO DJIA LAMINE MAVOUNGU MALIK MALO MANDOU MANGANE FATOUMATA not found accurately MOUNIAMA NANÉKÉ OKO OKOLI OSEï MPANDU PENDA KWAKOU KWASI KWAKOU KWAKOU KWASI KWASI KWAOUN, KOAO
229
NAMES OF AFRICAN ORIGIN IN MARTINIQUE Countries where these names were found
Names
Found in Martinique as:
=African names
United States Louisiana Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Surinam Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Louisiana Saint-Domingue (Haïti) Guadeloupe Saint-Domingue (Haïti)
QUOMINY SAGUOIN SAMBA SAMBA SIGO SIMILÉ SOLIMAN TAMERA THISIMAN TIMBA TOMBA TOULA YAYA
COMINA SAGIN SEMBA SEMBA SIGO SIMÉLA SOLIME, SULLYMAN TAMOURA TILIMANT TIBA TOMBA TOULA YAYA
KWAMINA not found accurately SAMBA SAMBA SIGO ISMAïL SOULEYMANE TAMOURA TCHÈ NYUMÄ TSHIBA not found accurately TOULA YAYA
Sources: J. Fallope, Esclaves et citoyens (Société d’Histoire de la Guadeloupe, 1992), 620– 621. J. and D. Goddet-Langlois, Dictionnaire des familles guadeloupéennes de 1635 à 1700 (Fort-de-France: Exbrayat, 1991), 25–26. J. Fouchard, Les Marrons de la liberté (Port-auPrince: Deschamps, 1988), 231–232. G. Debien and J. Houdaille, “Les origines africaines des esclaves des Antilles Françaises,” in Notes d’histoire coloniale (130), extract from Caribbean studies, 1970. G. Debien, “Les esclaves Marrons à St-Domingue en 1764,” in Notes d’Histoire coloniale (124), extract from N.J. Owen, Jamaican historical review (VI-1-2). G. Debien, “Un colon niortais à St-Domingue: Jean Barré de St Venant 1737–1810,” in Annales des Antilles (19). “Petition of Mandingo ex-slaves for return to their own country, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 11th January 1838,” London, Public Record Office, in Caribbean Historical and Genealogical Journal (1–IV, January 1996), 415. D.W. Knight and L. De Toussard Prime, St Thomas 1803 – Crossroads of the Diaspora (the 1803 proceedings and register of the free colored), (St Thomas: Little Nordside Press, 1999). J.G. Stedman, Capitaine au Surinam, une Campagne de 5 ans contre les esclaves révoltés 1722–1777 (London, 1794, rééd. S. Messinger, Paris, 1989). M. Mullin, Africa in America-Slave acculturation and resistance in the American South and the British Caribbean 1736–1831 (University of Illinois Press, 1992). G.M. Hall, Africans in colonial Louisiana (Bâton Rouge and London: Louisiana state University Press, 1992), 408–412. N.N. Puckett “Names of American Negro slaves” in American Anthropologist (50) (Washington, 1948), 571–572.
Conclusion We have been able to sort out proportions of ethnic origins for most names we have been studying, which gives the following results: Senegal (Wolof, Peul . . .) + Mandingue area: (taking in Arabic and “hinterland” names)
31% (614 origins)
West Akan area (“Gold Coast”): (Ghana, Ivory Coast: Fanti/Ashanti, Cap Lahou, Baoule . . .)
4%
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East Akan area (Togo, Benin: Mina,: Aja-Fon/Arada, Yoruba . . .)
46% 50% (987 origins)
Ibo-Calabar area (Nigeria):
2.5% (50 origins)
Bantu area (Gabon, Congo, Cabinda,: Angola): Mozambique, Madagascar):
17% 0.5% 0.2% 18% (326 origins)
The above percentages show some difference from what we know of proportions of ethnic provenance of slaves in Martinique in the eighteenth century,26 but one has to be very careful because of the slight difference in the provenance of slaves between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the importance of unauthorized trading between the Caribbean islands. These numbers conclude that there was a much greater survival rate of African names among Mandingue, Peul and Bambara West Indians (31% of names for 10% of slaves from this zone). One finds generally for these populations deported to the New World a greater impression of cultural consciousness, as in the survival of Arabic names, marking Islamic religions practice of which the history in the antebellum West Indies is still to be written. Taking into account Islamic penetration in West Africa from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, and the relatively young age of deported slaves, the fact remains that, in Muslim religion giving a name is a founding act of willing submission (etymological sense of the word “Islam”), leading to a potential for great resistance to acculturation.27 It is also clear that the numeric importance of a people is not always a clue to the importance of its heritage.28 It is important to note that these numbers only give an indication of the linguistic survival rate, regardless of the number of names given. In other words, there could have been ten more times “Coffi” than “Fatime” but each one represents here only one item in the counting process. What also emerges is that there was much more illegal slave trade than we know on the coast from Senegal to Liberia.29 Scholarly studies tend to frequently extend what applies to San-Domingo to the whole of the French West Indies. It seems that this position may have to be looked at again in order to refine it for Guadeloupe and Martinique. The Ewe/Fon’s leading position in San-Domingo, especially on cultural matters (i.e. Voodoo religion), cannot be as easily applied to other French islands. Our statistics may have at least described the problem, even if they actually point out a remarkable survival rate for family names of Akan origin, compared to the decreasing importance of slaves imported from this area during the nineteenth century. We have demonstrated the remarkable survival of African
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names among the Martinican population, even if a reliable source has not yet been found for a great number of names, and some names may suggest more than one origin. Nevertheless, by comparing these names with those found in other parts of the Caribbean, a field of study remains to be investigated and could lead to genealogical findings for families in the diaspora, and a more precise mapping of the ethnic origins of the population of the West Indies.
Notes 1 “At that time, Negroes from towns would gather themselves by nations to dance in
public feasts. A flag would indicate that such band was Caplaous such was Ibos . . . In religious processions, slaves would parade by ethnic groups and under their proper banner”. Délibération du conseil privé de la Martinique, décembre 1829, mentioned by: C. Celma, “Les sociétés d’esclaves aux Antilles: histoire comparative,” in M. Dorigny, ed., Esclavage, résistances et abolitions (Actes du 123ème congrès des sociétés historiques et scientifiques, Fort-de-France-Schoelcher, 6–10 avril 1998) (Paris: Editions du C.T.H.S., 1999), 81. 2 It is a mutual benefit society of Yoruba origin, (Nigeria, Benin, where it is called “esusu”) which was in use during bondage years and is still in use today throughout Africa, as well as in the Caribbean, where it bears different names: “Sousou” (a linguistic encounter with the French “soy”, which means “coin”) in Martinique, Guadeloupe, St-Lucia and Trinidad. In Barbados, “Meeting turn”, in Surinam “Boxi money”, in Jamaïca and in Antigua “Partners”. Each member must contribute, under the control of a leader (called “banker” in Trinidad), to be permitted to take at his turn the amount of money collected, in relationship with the achievement of a project (frequently linking with funeral’s undertaking). It is easy to understand that this kind of community help had the favor of slaves, with good reasons to beware of a banking and saving system ruled by whites. See Edward S. Maynard, “The Translocation of a West African Banking System: The Yoruba ESUSU Rotating Credit Association in the Anglophon Caribbean,” Dialectical Anthropology (21–1) (1996), 99–107. See also C. Celma, ibid., 85–88. 3 “Il ne se passe guère de Festes et de Dimanches, que plusieurs Nègres d’une mesme terre, ou de celles qui leur soit voisines, ne s’assemblent pour se recréer; et pour lors ils dansent à la mode de leur pays,” J.B. Du Tertre, Histoire générale des Antilles habitées par les Français 1667–1671 (Paris: 1671, rééd. Editions Horizons Caraïbes, 1973), II–491. See also C. Celma, ibid., 77–90. 4 Examples: Dr. Estripeaut, who would become mayor of le Lorrain in 1848, asked in 1847 for the emancipation of a little girl aged 2, who was granted the name Espeautri. Mr Boileau, policeman, asked the emancipation of Léontine, mulatto aged 2 who was granted the name Léauboi Léontine (le Lorrain’s emancipation acts, Parish Archives, 1847). 5 H.A. Labranche-Debrose, Je vous la raconterai M’Pollo N’Déllé Londo, esclave africaine née en Guinée (souvenirs d’enfance) (Desormeaux, 1996) [and direct testimony from the author]. 6 Anses d’Arlet’s Civil Status register (Births), 1844. 7 Emancipation acts of: le Carbet 1841–1843, Case-Pilote 1841, 1946, le Lamentin 1843, le Marin 1848, le Robert 1841, Trois-Ilets 1843, 1845. 8 “Noirs de Madagascar pour porter à la Martinique, doivent partir en droiture de Madagascar”, 1734. Réunion island’s public record office, C◦ 64. From a letter conserved in the
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Reunion island’s public record office, we have the proof of trading involving 7 ships between Madagascar and Martinique. 9 The subject of day-names in the Akan area, found amongst Maroons of Jamaica and Surinam’s Boschnegers, as well as in the United States, has been studied by: D. De Camp, “African day-names in Jamaica,” in Language (43–1) (Baltimore, 1967), 139. C. Suriam, The Maroons of Jamaica: A Paradoxical Example of Slave resistance in the Caribbean, English Master memoir, (Schoelcher, Martinique: University of Antilles-Guyane, 1997). M. Mullin, Africa in America-Slave acculturation and resistance in the American South and the British Caribbean 1736–1831 (University of Illinois press, 1992). R. Price, “Saramaka onomastics: An Afro-American naming system,” in Ethnology (11) (Pittsburgh, 1972), 341–367. N.N. Puckett (review of, by M.D.W. Jeffreys), “Names of American Negro Slaves,” in American Anthropologist (50) (Washington, 1948), 571–573. A. Metenier, Le Black American English étude lexicologique et sémantique (Paris: l’Harmattan, 1998). Connexions with their use in Africa can be found in: G. Effimba, Manuel Baoulé (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1959), “Au sujet des patronymies Baoulé, Ge et Ewe” in Notes africaines (54) (Dakar, 1952), 47. G. JohnsonKuazi, “Sur la patronymie Ge ou Guin (Mina) et Ewe du Bas-Togo,” in Notes africaines (47), (1950, Dakar), 97. G. Jahoda, “A note on Ashanti names and their relationship to personality,” in British Journal of Psychology (45) (London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1954), 193. 10 The name of the famous fritter comes from there. 11 See P. Anglade, Inventaire étymologique des termes créoles des Caraïbes d’origine africaine (Paris: l’Harmattan, 1998), 42. 12 Ibid., 41. 13 Ibid., 42. 14 See F. Thésée, Les Ibos de l’Amélie-destinée d’une cargaison de traite clandestine à la Martinique (1822–1838) (Paris: Editions Caribéennes, 1986), 136–137. 15 P. Anglade, ibid., 62. 16 Ibid., 61. 17 Name of the Strychnos Icaja, a plant used to prepare a drink or kind of “God’s judgment” serving to determine whether someone is a sorcerer or not: if he (or she) dies after drinking it. It is a custom found throughout the Bantu region. Giving this name “personifies” the poison’s power into the child, as a guarantee against sorcerers. 18 For example: Chinawendela, from the proverb “ochina wa endela tcha ku nyehã onduko” (“the thing that you went for took your name”, that is to say: when you are among strangers, you have to build yourself a name); other names: Chinakwalilé, Chinakavali, Chinakulingi, Chinakupopi . . . (see E.L. Ennis “Women’s names among the Ovimbundu of Angola,” in African Studies (4–1) (Witwatersrand, 1945), 1–8. 19 Girard, L’or du Bambouk, une dynamique de civilisation ouest africaine (Genève: Georg Editeur, 1992), 325. 20 B. Segurola, Dictionnaire Fon-Français (Cotonou: Centre Catéchétique de Porto-Novo, 1963), I–273. 21 P. Anglade, ibid., 134. 22 See G. M. Hall, Africans in colonial Louisiana (Bâton Rouge and London: Louisiana State University Press, 1992). 23 P. Anglade, ibid., 150. 24 Ibid., 156. 25 Ibid., 158. 26 10% for Mandingue area (including Peul and Senegal), 60% for Akan (13% for Ghana/Ivory Coast and 47% for Togo/Benin), 2% for Ibo/Calabar area (Nigeria) and 28% for Bantu area (that’s 22% for Gabon/Congo and 6% for Angola).
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27 See Caribbean Historical and Genealogical Journal (I–IV, January 1996), 414–415,
which gives an essential piece from London’s public record office, State papers, Colonial C.O. 295/12: Petition of Mandingo ex-slaves for return to their own country, forwarded through Lt.Governor Hill, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 11t h January, 1838, where some freed ask to return to Africa, signing in Arabic letters their original African names and their European colonial names too. See also Gwendolyn Hall’s African in Colonial Louisiana, ibid., 30–31 and 42. Also Father Labat’s doubts that Muslim slaves coming from “Cap Vert” to the West Indies can be made to abjure their faith (J.B. Labat, Voyage aux Isles, 1720, rééd. Paris: Phébus, 1993), 225. 28 See Mervyn Alleyne, Syntaxe historique créole (Paris: Karthala, 1996), 18–22. See also G. Huttar, “Identifying Africanisms in New World Languages: How Specific Can We Get?” in S. Mufwene, ed., Africanisms in Afro-American language Varieties (London and Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1993), 57. 29 See C. Becker, “Les effets démographiques de la traite des esclaves en Sénégambie: esquisse d’une histoire des peuplements du XVIIème à la fin du XIXéme siècles,” in S. Daget, ed., De la traite à l’esclavage (2: 71–110) and “Note sur les chiffres de la traite atlantique française au XVIIIème siècle,” in Cahiers d’Etudes africaines (104: XXVI–4) (Paris: Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, 1986), 633–679. See also P. Baker, “Assessing the African Contribution to French-Based Creoles,” in S. Mufwene, ibid., 124.
