What's in a name? Reinventing Luo naming system in Kenya's ethnopolitical landscape.

This paper examines an emergent naming subculture gaining popularity among ethnic Luo in the urban areas of Mombasa and Nairobi. The paper posits that the naming pattern is embedded in the development of Kenya's ethnopolitical landscape which has placed ethnic Luo at an economically, socially and politically disadvantaged position. Though popular in linguistic and anthropological circles, the field of anthroponymy has received little attention from Africanist historians. This dearth is especially curious since naming systems still bear significant meaning to large segments of the continent's populations. Names are pointers to identities; identities that have been used world over to create binaries of 'us' and 'them'. Every so often, identities have been determinants of individuals' primary existence. Because of its centrality in existentiality, societies constantly consolidate, manipulate and restructure identities in order to fit in, dominate or survive. This evaluation of the development and changes of Luo naming system is therefore an attempt at understanding identities reimagined to adapt to a society's history, systems and structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]