"A Rose by Any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet" W.Shakespeare

In Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare says, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" This takes on a whole new meaning in Africa. Here, some things are just totally different and beyond our understanding. One of them is names. We have to be very careful when we get baptismal and ordination paperwork that the name for the person is the same on all forms and that the people involved have used the same name every time. They have many names and they can go by any of them. They don't always put them in the same order and they don't necessarily have any name in common with their family members. The relationships are also confusing. The following is an experience that Brent had and recorded in his journal. It illustrates this well.

"In my interview with Elder Jacques Kapele, he told me that on our last visit I had given him a letter from his family in Likasi and that it had informed him that his sister had died. I was horrified that I had been the bearer of such terrible news and didn’t even know it until two weeks later. In my efforts to console him, I asked some questions about his sister, including how old she was. He said she was 73. Then I was confused. How could this be? In further probing, I learned that she was actually his aunt, not his sister. In African society, names and family relationships are not very important. They use any one of a number of names they have been given and it’s not always the same name or in the same order. They also call everyone in their extended family, and good friends, their “brother” and their “sister” so you never really know the exact relationship."

I talked to a man at church one day who told me that one of our elders was his "brother." They looked nothing alike, so I pursued the conversation. He said they didn't look alike because they didn't have the same mother and father. Then I was really confused. It turned out that they were cousins.

They also call their wives their "sister."

I asked Monga about it one day when I was totally confused by this whole name situation. He explained that they are all brothers and sisters. I asked how they determined what the relationships really are. He looked at me like I was a little slow and said, "Does it matter? We are all brothers and sisters." Quite an interesting little part of African culture. Many people also don't know their birthdays. They may know the year, but no more. There are few written records here. Even now, marriages, births, deaths, etc. are often not recorded. It's hard for the people to adjust to the idea that the Lord's church is a record keeping church and records are important. And oh, does it ever make Family History work a challenge!