WHAT’S IN A NAME?

 Olamaboro river, not Anambra, is the correct name, contends FIDELIS ACHOBA

According to Samuel Onuha Udeala the name Anambra emanated from Anam riverine clan of Igbo people who were fishing at the mouth of Olamaboro river at the time of colonial penetration into the hinterland via the inland waterways. “Anam”, therefore, means a group of riverine people while “bra” means branch. In other words, the river branched into the river Niger. This is a complete misrepresentation of the river’s original name Olamaboro whose source is Ogo-Aji in Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State. The flow from Ogo-Aji means a valley of water body from Ankpa Local Government Area. Ogo-Aji is a phrase in Igala.

This article wants to buttress the fact that the naming of the River in question is a misrepresentation of historical fact by the colonisers who through simplistic analogy gave the river the name River Anambra instead of Olamoboro River which could have gone in line with its geographical originality as the article will prove to us as it unfolds.

Importance of place naming in socio economic relations among groups can never be overemphasized. This is because it has historical, social, economic and anthropological relevance within African milieu. William Shakespeare, in showing the usefulness of naming says: 

What is in a name? Brutus asks, what should be in that Caesar? Why should that name be sounded more than yours? Write them together: Yours is as fair a name. Sound them: it doth become the moth as well (Julius Caesar ACT 1 SCII pp141 -145). What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by another name will smell as sweet (Romeo and Juliet ACT1 SC V pp.43-44). William Shakespeare, thus, demonstrates that there is more to a name than its sounds and its usage for identification.

In Africa, names serve what Erikson calls an “ingrouper”. Borok and Tubi define names as “markers”, which distinguish persons and places. From a given name, it is possible to determine not only the ethnic groupings and linguistic affinity, but it also reveals a lot about the name bearer. African names also designate personality, status, occupation or destiny. For Africans, there is an ontological relevance of names because they portray the interconnectedness of persons to the family and community. This is because names have both temporal and spiritual meanings in Africa. This could be the false reason while the oil on the Olamaboro basin was wrongly given to Anambra State under President Goodluck Jonathan without proper historical assessment. However, this was reversed by Supreme Court under President Muhammadu Buhari. The judgment therefore was that, the oil belongs to the two states – Kogi and Anambra. This was a milestone victory for the people of Kogi state.

It should be noted that the above colonial misrepresentation is not peculiar to Olamaboro River alone. It also happened in East Africa when Nyasa Lake, the source of the longest River in the world christened the name Lake Victoria, named it after the Queen of England that gave the charters for the British colonial occupation of Africa. But, in the case of river Niger, the River that Olamaboro River feeds got its name from a Berber wood Nigerous meaning a huge body of water. The colonial masters met the name and as such could not have renamed it. Some other rivers were named after some deities such as river ogun, Ovia River and so on.

Among many African people, the identification of a person’s name with his or her status is perhaps more seriously affirmed at the various rites of passage. Scholars like Ehusani (1991), Tubi (2015) and Borok (2018) observe that an individual normally gets a new name or cognomen at various rites associated with passage of life such as traditional naming ceremony, puberty rites, chieftaincy rites, sacral rites, cultic rites, and even as in the case of the Babu-Kusu of Kenya at marriage. Thus, change of names implies a change of personality or status. To Africans, to confer a name is to confer a personality, an identity and a destiny. In Africa and among the Ebira for instance, a child is not considered a member of the community until the naming ceremony which occasion him or her to be formally brought out is done. The above reasons could explain why the issues of toponyms have become a protracted problem in Africa. 

Africans attach great importance to the names of settlements much as they do to human names. The topography of an area includes physical elements like hills, water bodies, vegetation and buildings. Archaeologists, geographers and historians have opined that landscape plays a significant role in human lives. Landscape is an expression of ideology and one of the main functions of naming a landscape is to give succinct meaning and to control. Whether written or spoken, place-naming is a means of claiming the landscape materially and symbolically and using it to achieve domination over what is named. As part of the landscape, toponyms are not simply evidences of history, but part of the ideologically driven process of visibly grounding the past into the present and framing these historical meanings as legitimate. Place-naming can be conceptualized as a form of symbolic possession of place or a means of associating places with a given people or to express an exclusive historicity of the past. Identification with these naming patterns serves as a source of social distinction for some people while bringing social marginalization to others. Thus, it has been observed that symbolic names can take many forms, but the naming of built-up environment is a powerful device for creating social distinction. There is a Pan-African consciousness of the need to change certain place names either because they are offensive, inaccurate, ambiguous, meaningless, foreign or an imposition by colonisers or the apartheid government, etc. This could be seen in the case of British naming a place Burma which was later changed by the native to Myamar and British naming a French colonial territory Ivory Coast and later changed to French called Cote d’Ivoire. Whereas, the Nyasa Lake named by Imperial Queen Victoria of England has not been re-addressed. How can Nyansa Lake that has been there before the British occupation of Kenya be given the name Lake Victoria because it is the source of the longest Lake in the world called Nile.

Majority of African people and societies apparently endorse the idea of decolonizing indigenous African toponyms “to give back to places and peoples their authentic names, which means giving back to every African race the name it uses to designate itself and the region in which it lives” (Yai, 1984, p43).

Many African nations have, therefore, embarked on changing some of the colonially-imposed toponyms in their respective countries. Nigeria should therefore do the needful.

River Olamaboro ’source is from Ogo-Aji in Ankpa area. This is one of the proofs that European documentation of our history was largely incorrect. But some credits should be given to them because without such documentation, what would we have laid our hands on for reconstruction? This sets to bridge the gap in the historiography of Olamaboro River wrongly named as river Anambra. Just like river Niger which is the third largest river in Africa after Nile and Congo. It took its source from Fouta Djallon mountain or highland in Guinea following northwards between Timbuktu and Gao in Mali and thus flows southwards towards Niger and Benin Republic respectively. From there it enters Nigeria and emptied into the Atlantic Ocean at Burutu (Ijaw town) Delta State Nigeria. The question is why is it not named Ijaw or Burutu river, because the Ijaw people of Burutu were always at the mouth of the Niger river fishing, just as the Anam were at mouth of Olamaboro river fishing when the Europeans met them and wrongly named it Anam “bra” river.  

In the case of river Niger, it got its name from the Termashak language of the Tuaregs of West and North Africa during the Trans-Saharan trade between the people of West and Northern Africa especially that of the Trans-Sahara trade route from Algeria via Mali and Niger to Kano. In Termashak, it is called Nigereouen which means big river. The word Niger River was coined.

In the case of Olamaboro, its source is from Ankpa Local Government Area close to Ojoku from there it flows towards Iga after Aloma towards Ogugu to Odolu. It thus enters some other Igala Communities such as Ega-Abada, Afa and Ojo and Ogurugu and Ojo are in Enugu State. Before Olamaboro River empties into the Niger at Onono, Adamagn area and it passes through Odeke where there is crude oil dispute now co’te d’Ivoire, among others.

Each nation should establish a national mapping agency and a Geographical Names Committee charged with, amongst other things, the responsibility of ensuring that the correct toponyms are compiled and correctly used on maps and other documents. There should be full public participation in place naming or renaming process. A bottom-top approach rather than a top-down one should be adopted in every naming or renaming process. Town-hall meetings with the local people should be held. Based on international standards, a complete national standardization of all official toponyms of each country in Africa should be carried out, to remove ambiguity and ensure clarity and consistency.

All official geographical names in each country should be carefully compiled, maintained and regularly updated in a National Geographical Place Names database or gazetteer.

Decolonizing or renaming toponyms should be done in a manner that commands popular acceptance.

Given the sensitive and emotive nature of toponyms, their use on digital or online maps and other documents should be properly regulated – only officially approved toponyms should be used.

Online maps/mapping services providers should avoid publishing disputed or unofficial toponyms. 

 Each African nation should put in place and enforce legislation that would help safeguard the standardized toponyms of their country.

Web mapping service providers should only use toponyms from official, relevant and authentic sources such as national mapping agencies.

Dr. Achoba is of the Department of History and International Studies, Federal University Lokoja