A new identity, please...

I feel a little identity-less here in Mmopane. Walking down the street, most of the younger children I pass call me 'lekgoa'. 'Dumela, lekgoa' or 'Hello, white person' is the standard greeting. Its not just on the street - I don't think more than three or four people at church remember my name, I am simply known as 'lekgoa' or 'white person'. Even my friends (whom I call by name) seem to prefer calling me 'lekgoa' rather than 'Alysa'.

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A few weeks ago I made it my mission to be known by name. Every time a child greeted me as 'lekgoa' I would try to tell them my name wasn't 'lekgoa' but rather 'Alysa'. It didn't work. The kids just giggled like I was telling a joke and ran away. I asked my Setswana teacher how to communicate that my name wasn't 'lekgoa' but rather 'Alysa'. She explained that people probably just couldn't remember my name. Initially all Setswana names just sounded like a bunch of random letters thrown together - it should have occured to me that they would have the same trouble with my uncommon English name. She suggested that I ask someone for a Setswana name to help people remember it.

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I have been working on this all week. My first attempt was with a friend named Neo. I explained (in Setswana) that I wanted a Setswana name so that I would not be called 'lekgoa' anymore. She laughed and told me I already am Motswana but didn't seem to get the clue that I was asking HER for a name. My second attempt was with some ladies from church. There is a Women's Guild (of five very old women) that meets Thursday afternoons to visit the sick and bereaved in the community. We walk from house to house, stopping for almost 40 minutes at each to sing, pray, read Scripture, and visit with them. This week as we walked to the first house I practiced saying their first and last names (most of which I already knew) and then pointed at myself and said 'but my name is Alysa Bell'. As they all giggled and practiced my English name, I told them that I really wanted a Setswana name. Again they didn't seem to understand that I wanted THEM to give me one. My third attempt came Thursday evening. Our neighbor was away at a meeting so he brought us his house keys so that we could let his daughter in their house. When she arrived home I suggested she stay at our house while she worked on her homework. As we sat around our table working on spelling I told her that I was looking for a Setswana name and asked if she would pick one out for me (it is so much easier to be direct in English). She said that she would think about it and returned to her homework. Needless to say I was a little disappointed - I thought that was her way of politely saying she didn't know.

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BUT, tonight when I returned from town she came running over to my door with a big grin on her face. She informed me that she had discussed my name with her parents and they all agreed I could not handle a long or complicated Setswana name. They all decided on Mpo ('gift' in Setswana) because it was short (but it still made me feel good too).

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It's not every day that a person gets to redefine themselves - even if it does just start with a name.