The Color of Gold

“The visit restored me and revived my feelings for the place in which I grew up…a way of measuring the distance I had come. I saw how my own people had remained in one place, while I had moved on and seen new worlds and gained new ideas.”- Rolihlahla, Tatomkhula, Dalibunga (all the same author to the quotes I have used)

Rolihlahla (birthname), Tatomkhula (nickname), Dalibunga (circumcision name) but known to most as Nelson Mandela. In A Long Walk To Freedom, Mandela recounts how he was given the English name “Nelson” on his first day of school. “This was the custom among Africans in those days and was undoubtedly due to the British bias of our education…Africans of my generation—and even today— generally have both an English and an African name. Whites were either unable or unwilling to pronounce and African name, and considered it uncivilized to have one.”

It was during my trip to England this year that a family friend, a Morehouse College graduate studying for his masters in Comparative Social Policy at Oxford University, would recommend this book to me. The irony of his HBCU/UK education merits its own book. I definitely agree that it should be read by every person alive. Thank you Quinn for reconnecting me to the art of words.

I have always been proud of my name as it defines two elements of my life, both as an African and American. Not only have I (in my choices and actions) contributed to its definition but the meaning of my name is now defining me. Allow me to explain. There never has and never will be another you. Like an artist preparing to paint a blank canvas, we create for ourselves the lives in which we want. Whether we create a masterpiece or not is based solely on the manner in which we try; determination and heart.

This trip, Teru told me the name given to me at my birth, Yordanos Berhane Tariku (mouthful). My first name(Amharic for "the color of gold") is the only part of my name I somewhat understand. As for the rest of my name, well in my trip I learned that my grandfather the only Orthodox in a strict Muslim family had four wives and 20 children. I have only begun to scratch the surface...