“What Is Your Empaako?” Naming and Becoming a Munyoro in Western Uganda
Raphaela von Weichs
Chapter
First Online: 16 May 2019
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Abstract
This chapter deals with naming as an act of incorporation and accommodation of a person into society and in particular with spirit praise names as names of affection for a person.Raphaela von Weichs has examined how Bunyoro people in Uganda facilitated the integration of strangers by bestowing empaako ‘spirit’ names on them until this practice succumbed to colonial and missionary interventions. Clan members gave such spirit ‘praise names’ to their children to let them share in the auspicious qualities of the clan ancestors. To bestow such a ‘praise name’ on a stranger likewise entailed attributing a Bunyoro ancestral identity in its cosmological, social and emotional dimensions. Traditionally, a naming ceremony was required as a welcoming ritual for the spirit and for the person to be incorporated into the clan. Whereas under the impact of colonization, Christianization and urbanization many Banyoro have disregarded the naming ceremony, the names of affection are still in use. In this chapter von Weichs relates how, lacking a clan spirit herself but being asked time and again for her empaako name, she adopted the praise name of a spirit whose social attributes particularly appealed to her. To identify herself as such without relinquishing her Christian name enabled her to smoothly navigate between the complex and conflicting political and religious interest groups making up contemporary Bunyoro society. This naming practice enabled her to get integrated as a stranger into the local society.