[VIDEO] Clear my name: Actress dragged for ‘Western’ Xhosa naam
POWER TO THE PEOPLE: Actress Amandla Stenberg
Actress Amandla Stenberg responded to the heat Mzansi has been giving her on social media recently.
The Hate You Give star was called out for butchering the pronunciation of her Xhosa naam.
She went on TikTok, saying: “Okay, so I am coming on here because I’ve seen a lot of people talking about my name and how I pronounce it, and I want to get in the discourse because I’ve been thinking about these things a lot too.”
@misanarrates #stitch with @Soph mispronunciation of African names is lazy at this point. And yes, even Amandla and their parents are guilty of this laziness #amandlastenberg ♬ original sound - Misa Narrates
Stenberg proved that she can pronounce her name the reg way but she sometimes chose to pronounce it differently.
“A lot of Westerners and Europeans say: ‘Oh your parents took ‘Amanda’ and slipped and ‘l’ in there.’
“No, girl, bye, no, it is ‘Amandla’ as in ‘Amandla Awethu’, which means ‘power to the people’ in Zulu and Xhosa, and this was an understanding that I grew up with, that this had significant weight in history… that it was a rallying cry that was utilised during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”
She said her mother named her and wanted her to aspire towards the concept.
But, her mother Westernised her name because she felt it would be easier for Stenberg and did not want her to sukkel in school.
“She thought people would be able to say it more easily and I would struggle less.
“So she kind of like, in this diasporic, way was trying to help me assimilate.
“I don’t know; I think this raises a lot of interesting questions about diaspora and what we embody and what we claim and how we pronounce things.”
She said it was a 50/50 split on how she pronounced her name and to whom.
“I am still struggling, figuring out how to introduce myself you know, so, yo, South Africans, if you are willing then let’s have a dialogue please, I welcome it and I am grateful for it. Thank you.”