Word, Sound, Power

What's in a name? A name provides an entity with an identity. A name is what a person will answer to and consciously or subconsciously identify with. The one who provides a name to another entity or person holds a big responsibility. He/she becomes a very powerful and influential person in that person's life. Our names have a tremendous consequence on our self-confidence and self-perception. This is why in human history naming has been a very important part of indigenous and traditional cultures. Naming ceremonies are done to provide a child/person with the most accurate name for their identity (personality and destiny). It is only in our modern societies that something as important as providing an individual with what he/she will identify with for the rest of their life is done on an emotional basis of what feels/ sounds right to the parents.

Naming plays a huge role on a larger scale than on the individual level as well. In the history of the world, the process of naming has been used by dominant cultures to subjugate other cultures or perpetuate their own supremacy. For instance, today the present culture/empire of the United States rears to its society and all the societies it either implements or allies with as "modern," while referring to other cultures as primitive or savage. The effects are tremendous on the minds of the indigenous who identify with the label of savage/backward. It does a lot to brainwash the indigenous youth into abandoning the traditions of their ancestors for the "modern, progressive" culture of the industrial society. But it should be noted that he who gives up the responsibility of naming themselves must live with the name that is given to them. Another can always provide us with any name they want, but it is we who ultimately choose to surrender our own concept of self and identify with it. Let us review a little history for an example.

The term "Africa" which is now used with pride by people of the "African" Diaspora has a history that many should be made aware of. During the civilization of Kemet, the knowledge of the priests and priestesses of the Nile Valley, then called Misra or Itoure, was sought out by people from all over the world. Kemet was a worldwide civilization with its spiritual center and capital, where the Pharaoh sat in Merita (Africa), its oldest civilized continent. People from all over the world would come to be initiated into the knowledge of their ancestors and the Neteru (Gods). It was in this tradition that the people from the Greek territory had come to study with the Masters of Kemet. They came from a much different environment than the civilized, clean society of Misra. They came from a place where the people had no language, they communicated with growls and grunts. They had come from a place where cleanliness was not known as a spiritual necessity or even a necessity of good health and hygiene. They had come from a very "backward" way of life. They did not come into Itoure bearing gifts, following the tradition of others wishing to study. Their ignorance and backward ways earned them the title of Ger-kas by the people of Misra. As it would turn out, the majority of Ger-kas would not humble themselves to do the tedious and strenuous work of learning and disciplining themselves toward the enlightenment of the human greatness that had been achieved by the Kemetic cultures. Instead, the few of them who received some teachings would, out of spite of the greatness of Kemet and the process involved in achieving it, build their own utopia where they would preach hatred for the continent of Merita and the cultures of Kemet. They would later conquer the world with the values and structures they had fabricated. When they accomplished this task, in retaliation to the Kemetic people named the continent of Merita which had meant "beloved (Meri) land (tah)," Africa, which meant land of buring (afri) souls (ka).

Even today, for the descendants of Merita in the United States, names still play an influential role in the struggles for self-respect. The African population here has gone from being called slaves and niggers when they were brought to the shores of America, to negroes after the so-called emancipation to blacks, to Afro-Americans, and later to African Americans after the civil rights movement. The African population here believes that progress has been made since the times of being called niggers. But, what seems to be overlooked is that more important than what you are calling yourself is who made the terms you are choosing to identify with. Even the terms that the population has chosen for itself were among the choices provided to them by a colonizing people in their colonial language. For "Africans", the responsibility of the names they have identified with has been dictated by the Ger-kas and their descendant cultures who have shown themselves repeatedly to be uninterested in the well-being and advancement of humanity.

As a recent graduate of two initiation classes in the M'TAM School of Philosophy and Spirituality in the tradition of the knowledge of the Kemetic culture, I am very fortunate to have received a name by Master Naba Lamoussa Morodenibig. It is a name in the original human language of Medu (hieroglyphs) reconnecting me to a culture that I can call my own. A culture that has supported the growth and evolution of the individual instead of exploiting it towards the maintenance of the system. A system that is enslaving the minds of humanity.

The system that controls the names controls the person. It is time we took back the responsibility for our identity and our lives. It is time we understood to put such an important task in the hands of another is to put our lives in their hands. In the Medu language, my name, Nehez Meniooh, will translate to "the shepherd that is waking up". Let the human race wake up and understand that we have put our lives in the hands of a tradition and culture working to enslave us.

Let us wake up and accept our responsibility for our existence and the lives of our descendants. Let us reconnect through our common heritage. The knowledge of the first civilization is accessible again.