Naming Africans: On the Epistemic Value of Names

Naming Africans: On the Epistemic Value of Names
ISBN-10
3031134753
ISBN-13
9783031134753
Category
Social Science
Pages
231
Language
English
Published
2023-06-08
Publisher
Springer Nature
Authors
Oyèrónké Oyěwùmi, Hewan Girma

Description

Focusing on the epistemic value of African names, this edited collection is based on the premise that personal names constitute valuable sources of historical and ethnographic information and help to unveil endogenous forms of knowledge. The chapters assembled here document and analyze personal names and naming practices in a slew of African societies on the geographically vast and ethnically diverse continent, including contributions on the naming practices in Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda. The contributors to this anthology are scholars from different African language communities who investigate names and naming practices diachronically. Taken together, their work offers a comparative focus that juxtaposes different African cultures and reveals the historical and epistemic significance of given names.

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