Reclaiming Identity — Names, Language & Memory
Our names and tongues were taken. What does it mean to reclaim them today?
A people cut off from their name and language is a people cut off from themselves. Many of us carry the surnames of those who enslaved our ancestors, and speak the tongue of the colonizer as our mother tongue. Reclamation looks different for everyone — learning Yoruba, Twi, Swahili or Kreyòl; taking an ancestral name; researching our family lines. There is no single right way. Share your journey: have you reclaimed a name, a language, a story? What did it awaken in you?
2 Voices in the Circle
Took an Igbo name after a DNA test pointed home. My mother cried — thought I was rejecting her. I told her I was reaching further back to honor us all. She calls me Adaeze now. Reconciliation is possible.
Learning Haitian Kreyòl to talk to my grandfather in his heart language before he passes. Every word feels like recovering stolen property. Highly recommend starting even if you're clumsy — the elders lit up.