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[1]
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 10:48:30
From: Brian Siegel, Furman University
<Brian.Siegel@furman.edu>
Europeans were regularly given nicknames in Northern Rhodesia.
Historian Mwelwa Musambachime told me that all whites are given
nicknames. These include, for example:
John "Changa Changa" Harrison Clark's nickname supposedly derives
from his preference for travelling by machilla (hammock).
And John E. "Chirupula" (The Flogger) Stephenson was named for his
use of a hippo-hide chikoti (whip).
I never found out what my nickname was. Brian, pronounced "Bulayani",
is awfully close to "Bulaya", a common name for Europe.
[2]
Date:
From: Gretchen Bauer, University of Delaware
<email: gbauer@udel.edu>
Ferdinand Oyono's book,_ Houseboy_ has quite a lot in the way of
African nicknames for Europeans, most notably the name for the
Commandant: the man whose wife opens her legs in ditches and cars
[p. 98, English translation of the African Writers Series (AWS)
version]. More generally, the book shows Africans knowing more
about colonizers' lives then they perhaps cared to and mocking
them at every turn. Ultimately, knowing more than he cared to
would contribute to the protagonist's tragic death.
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