Tortured Culture

When names were given
They were golds drawn from oven
Prepared by paternal inner parlance
Tendered to religious heads to pronounce

Taiwo, Chidinma, Aliyu and others
Answered to them all without stress
Adeleke, Chukwuka, Abdul-Gafar
Were the style of writing; even from afar

Today's writing of names have fallen
To erosion of knowledge called foreign
Some, choked theirs with walls of nicks
Now, Hardeykunley, Chydymmer, etal filled space

Shall we be ignorant till our names fade?
Then, we are forgetful of names been sacred

Years ago, we were named names, "named in full" by our parents. Today, we have renamed ourselves with twisted nomenclature. The power of a name is so strong we are blind to it, check Jesus Christ. The fear in a name can cause panic, check Samson and Abacha

This is the lamentation of order, the extinction of real African names. Nicknames and pseudo names are the latest fad. Our real names have either been cooked, fried or grilled such that there's no semblance. To the likes of Don Jazzy, Wizkid, D'banj etc, how many of us know their real names?

World reknown leaders, actors and eminent personalities are known by their names, not nicknames- Jesus Christ, Barack Obama, Mohammed Ali, Lionel Messi, Obafemi Awolowo, Nelson Mandela, the list is endless. Horlolardey, Horluwaphemmy may give us a niche but our real names give us the identity.

Its safe to have nicknames like us but not at the detriment of the real names. We may be Awesome EmmyG and Jamesconco but, WE ARE: ODUNTAN EMMANUEL AKINWUNMI and JAMES ADEMUYIWA IREDELE, respectively.

In all, we are ignorantly dropping and pouring our quota in the flood that is eroding our culture in our presence.