What is your name?
My name is Mpho
A Sesotho name meaning gift
Gift because my family destined me
To be first generation
To break away from generational curses
First to graduate college
Mmmpho like something delicious
Like mama knew
I would land on a poetry stage and
These lips would whisper
Sweet little every-things
And this body would sway
To nothing but the music in my head
My name is Zarqui
Not zackerey
Not zazu
Zarqui like car key but when you say it wrong its like opening up the door to a station wagon when you own a Bentley
Like the 14 Z-names in my family isn't the only tradition that we have but just a bumbling mistake on your tongue you can't even bother to correct
My homeroom teacher all year called me zar ky
Auto correct calls me Marquis
It calls me Memphis
But i guess it’s better than
How do you spell it?
I’m sorry what?
Nicole (Mpho) , umpho (Mpho) , impho (Mpho)
And when you read my name its like
Zar Q (Zarqui)
Zar qui (Zarqui)
Za car ri (Zarqui)
Our names are caught up in our identity
How you say them grounds us
Or breaks our ground
When you butcher someone’s name you butcher their identity
The core of their being
You displace them
Tell them your tongue
Cannot afford to give them a belonging
Your mispronunciation
Loudly says this is not your home
Your I’ll just call you
Is another way of saying
This place will never be home for you
Your name is the first gift you are given on this earth
One of the few things that are free
An adornment engraved on your humanity
Butchering it is cutting away at my sanity
Like how dare I have a name that starts where the alphabet ends
How dare I make you take a second look at the letters that make up my uniqueness
How dare my family try to carve our own paths thru the field of last names given to us by slave masters
Our names are caught up in our identity
How you say them grounds us or breaks our ground
Do you have another name
Like the one I just gave you
Isn’t good enough
Like you will have regular milk
Instead of chocolate milk
Four letters
Mpho
But you are here
Pretending like the water
I just gave you is bland
And you would rather
Have something else
Mercedes has 3 Es all pronounce differently
No problem with that
People read Q u i n o a
Quinoa
But for some reason the qui in my name is Qui
I went by my middle name in middle school trying to find middle ground to a crowd trying to throw my truth into a little pile
Learning someones name is the most basic step to showing them you care about them on a human level
And so we yield
Have your land
Forgive my ancestors
They did not know any better
Call me Z
Call me Makana
Like I’m apologizing for my grandfather thoughtlessness when he chose
To name me Mpho - after his late sister
Like I’m sorry (I’m sorry) he couldn’t whitewash
My name
For the ease of your tongue
We’re sorry (We’re sorry)
Like it is us
Who are at fault for presenting you
With names so tongue twisting
Our names are caught up in our identity
How you say them grounds us
Or breaks our ground
Written and preformed by:
Mpho and Zarqui
