Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

(invol untary) reci pients of so-called western civiliza..tion . The children who were not
alread y subjected to this practice before attending the missi on schoo ls had their
African names replaced at registr.Uion. The chan ging of the children 's names and
forbiddin g them to speak: their tribal or vernacular languages were an integral part of
the colonization process which anempted to alienate the Africans from their culture.
Rotimi's preference for the use of his African name , Ora. instead of Emmanuel
or Gladstone. suggests the breaking away from the colonial practice of adopting the
master's names. A number of African writers rejected their Christian names , to revert
to their African ones. For example, Chinua Achebc dropped his first name , Albert ,4
and the anti-colonialist East African writer . James Ngugi, changed his name to the
more comprehensive Ngugi wa Thiong 'o .S
Nigeria was under British rule wben Rotimi was born and he lived the tint
twenty-two yean of his life under such rule before the coun try gained independence in
1960. His father was Yoruba and his mother was an Ijo from Bendel State:. His father
waseducated under the British system; so he spoke both English and his moth er­
tongue Yoruba, but did not speakhis wife's language Ijo . Not having an opportunity
for extensive formal education, Rotimi's mother spoke the common lingua franca .
Nigerian Pidgin English. Growing up in an ethnically heterog eneous famil y. Rotimi
had the optio n of speaking Yoruba or English with his father, and responding to his
mother in Ijo or Pidgin. His ethnically diverse family background clear ly sharpened
his sensitivity towards the problems of tribalism and the language barriers that
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