Many children in Kenya traditionally inherit their father\u2019s first name as their surname, but there are an increasing number of people who are taking their mother\u2019s instead.<\/p>\n
This is particularly the case amongst the country\u2019s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu \u2013 and has become a subject of debate and in some cases ridicule for the men with female surnames.<\/p>\n
Girls and women who have their mother\u2019s names do not face the same censure \u2013 and often when they marry may opt to take their husband\u2019s first name as their surname.<\/p>\n
Some say the growing trend of men having female surnames reflects changing attitudes to women and their influence in what is a patriarchal society; others are critical of those who have been given \u2013 or in some cases opt to take \u2013 their mother\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
It used to be rare to see men in prominent positions with a female surname, but now there are even several politicians who have them \u2013 like MP John Nj\u0169g\u0169na Wanjik\u0169.<\/p>\n
Brought up by a single mother, he was first elected in 2021 and goes by the nickname \u201cKa-Wanjik\u0169\u201d, meaning child of Wanjik\u0169.<\/p>\n
Some like Wanjik\u0169 were given their female surname at birth, but others have chosen theirs to honour their mothers.<\/p>\n
One of the earlier personalities to break the norm over male surnames was Peter K\u0129gia, a Kenyan musician who chose his mother\u2019s name as his stage name.<\/p>\n
K\u0129gia wa Esther (son of Esther), now in his 60s, is known for playing benga \u2013 fast, rhythmic guitar folk music with lyrics in Kikuyu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you take your mother\u2019s name, it means you love and respect her,\u201d he told the BBC, saying he had even registered his record company as Wa Esther Productions.<\/p>\n
It now comes with a certain cachet in the music industry, with other younger male musicians following in his footsteps. Posters advertising performers with their mother\u2019s surname, such as Waithaka wa Jane and 90K Ka Msoh, are often plastered to hoardings in the capital, Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Though in these cases the formal names of these artistes remain male.<\/p>\n
Journalist Simon Macharia Wang\u0169i told the BBC he decided to deliberately choose his mother\u2019s name as his official surname.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy give somebody credit where it does not exist?\u201d he says of his father, who was absent for most of his life and about whom he has \u201conly heard rumours of his existence\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mostly raised by his grandmother, he was 12 when his mother died in 2003. He had no surname until his final year of high school, when he applied for a birth certificate.<\/p>\n
Some Kenyans still think that a child raised by a single parent \u201clacks certain morals\u201d, explains Evans Kibe Waceke, a broadcaster who bears a female surname.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople perceive you as undisciplined, especially when you are raised by a single mother,\u201d he tells the BBC.<\/p>\n
A heated debate over the pros and cons of having a female surname began two years ago when prominent motivational speaker Robert Burale said it undermined men\u2019s masculinity.<\/p>\n
This prompted TV personality Fred M\u0169it\u0129r\u0129ri to go public about the difficulties of having a female surname \u2013 and how he ended up dropping his mother\u2019s name, deciding to use his English and Kikuyu first names only.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you know how embarrassing it is for a boy to be called out, in a room full of kids, [with] a girl\u2019s name?\u201d he wrote on Facebook \u2013 talking about his low self-esteem.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom some of those experiences, I developed depression at the age of 23,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wairim\u0169 M\u0169k\u0169r\u0169, a young Kikuyu cultural expert with a large social media following, says the rise of female surnames is largely down to the fact that single-mother families have become much more common.<\/p>\n
Still, she adds, it is a cultural anomaly as even sons of unmarried women are usually given male surnames.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the event that your mother doesn\u2019t tell you who your dad is or he rejects you, your mother\u2019s eldest brother takes up that role,\u201d she tells the BBC.<\/p>\n
However, M\u0169k\u0169r\u0169 explains that there may sometimes be reluctance to do this as it gives a child the right to inherit property.<\/p>\n
M\u0169gwe wa Nj\u0169h\u0129, an official of the Kikuyu cultural group Kiama K\u0129a Ma, agrees male relatives of single mothers may deny the use of their name to avoid inheritance disputes.<\/p>\n
But he also argues that there should not be such disdain for female surnames given that, according to legend, the Kikuyu trace their lineage from the 10 daughters of the community\u2019s first couple \u2013 Gik\u0169y\u0169 and M\u0169mbi.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am M\u0169mb\u0169i by clan [derived from Wamb\u0169i, one of the daughters]. We have always aligned ourselves with women, from the very beginning,\u201d he tells the BBC.<\/p>\n
In fact, the Kikuyu are often referred to as the House of M\u0169mbi, after their mythological founding mother.<\/p>\n
Wa Esther, the veteran musician, agrees that people from other communities who criticise the use of female names by Kikuyu men do not understand \u201cour way of life\u201d.<\/p>\n
Academic George Gathigi explains that while Kikuyu men may have traditionally identified themselves through their mothers, that was always informal, with formal adoption of female names being a new phenomenon.<\/p>\n
When polygamy was more commonly practised, for example, children were identified by their mother\u2019s names in large groups to avoid confusion \u2013 as culturally too there is only a small pool of first names in each family.<\/p>\n
Late Kenyan author Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Thiong\u2019o, whose father Thiong\u2019o wa Nd\u016bc\u0169 had four wives, wrote in his memoir Dreams in a Time of War that while growing up he was generally known as Ng\u0169g\u0129 wa Wanjik\u0169 \u2013 his mother\u2019s first name.<\/p>\n
Gathigi, who lectures at the University of Nairobi and commentates on Kikuyu social issues, believes the adoption of female surnames reflects the \u201cstrength of women\u201d in modern society, particularly in situations where men have been abandoning their responsibilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cCulture changes and you now have to deal with the modern realities in division of labour,\u201d he tells the BBC, noting that women have increasingly been taking up roles that had been seen as male.<\/p>\n
He says that in such cases, when the children \u201cdon\u2019t get that advantage of being brought up by their father\u2026 the mother becomes both the mother and the father\u201d.<\/p>\n
He sees this as a \u201cbad thing that it is being normalised\u201d.<\/p>\n
Such attitudes may explain the continuing backlash \u2013 one blog has described the practice of using female surnames as \u201ca yoke around men\u2019s necks\u201d while another says it is an effort to \u201cwomanise the Kikuyu man and make him weak\u201d.<\/p>\n
While journalist Wang\u0169i acknowledges it may not always be easy to have a female surname and it brings with it a certain \u201cidentity crisis\u201d, he is proud of his decision.<\/p>\n
And he says that if you end up being successful, despite the name, \u201cpeople will see you as having beaten the odds to get to where you are\u201d.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many children in Kenya traditionally inherit their father\u2019s first name as their surname, but there are an increasing number of people who are taking their mother\u2019s instead. This is particularly the case amongst the country\u2019s largest ethnic group, the Kikuyu \u2013 and has become a subject of debate and in some cases ridicule for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}