Democratic Republic of the Congo naming customs

Before the colonial era, people living in the Congo basin tended to have one or more names of personal, local, or ethnic significance rather than following Western-style naming conventions. This allowed considerable flexibility around the names which could be given to an infant, as the historian Isidore Ndaywel è Nziem described:

This system made available to parents, at the birth of the child, a multiplicity of word registers to name it. In this way, the name to be attributed could be a name of reincarnation (homonymy with an ancestor), of pre-destination (specific according to the position of birth) or of circumstance (in relation to the circumstances that accompanied his birth) when it was not simple snobbery (adopting an exotic word). There were also names of joke, sublimation, social position (from the old aristocratic register) or even accomplishment (acquired a posteriori as a result of the child's peculiarities). Each ethnic culture has its own registers of anthroponyms.[2]

This made names highly locally or ethnically specific.[3] Names and naming conventions in the pre-colonial period were diverse and could vary between different ethnic groups. Names could be given to persons either before, at, or after their birth.[4] Infants were rarely without a name for long, though sometimes magic-believing communities would only divulge a baby's second, different name to outsiders so as to protect their "essence" from witchcraft.[5] Some names were gender-specific, while others were gender-neutral. Some groups kept the birth name of a person throughout their life, while others such as the Kongo people changed the name of a child once they reached puberty. The Mbaka people would append a second name onto the birth name of a person at a circumcision ceremony once they were teenagers.[4] Families sometimes changed the names of their children, but Congolese would never change their own names until they had reached adulthood. They would do this if they disliked the connotations of their contemporary name, felt it brought them misfortunate, or to pay homage to life events they experienced.[6]

The spread of Christianity to the Congo basin created a major shift in naming practices. After baptism, converts would adopt a new "Christian name" (nom chrétien) as a first name (prénom) to signify their changed identity in addition to their existing "pagan name" (nom païen). Although spreading to Kongo Central in the 15th century through contact with Portuguese colonists and missionaries, the practice became widespread only under the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and Belgian colonial rule (1908–60).[3] Often, the new name would be chosen because of its connection to a particular saint and would be of European origin. By the early 20th century, it was particularly common for names to derived from saints[7] (Joseph, Patrice, Paul, Léon, Antoine, Alphonse, Dominique, Marie) or names common in Belgium[8] (Albert, Astrid, Élisabeth, Léopold, Marie-Louise, Baudouin). Several Congolese ethnic groups had conventions that allowed for children born of the same parents to assume different surnames. For example, musician Nico Kasanda took his surname from a grandfather, while his brother and fellow musician Charles Mwamba was named after an uncle.[9]

Joseph-Désiré Mobutu came to power in 1965 after a five-year period of political unrest and violence which had followed independence. He gradually created a centralised one-party state under the auspices of the ruling Popular Movement of the Revolution (Mouvement populaire de la révolution, or MPR). He became a staunch advocate of what he termed a "return to authenticity" which sought to mobilise an indigenous national identity as a means to overcome regionalism and tribalism while reconciling those claims with the exigencies of modernization. The MPR announced in October 1971 that the Congo would be renamed Zaire and that various other colonial-era place names and monuments would be removed before the end of the year. However, the decision initially included no stipulations about personal names.[8] Shortly afterwards, the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique published a critical editorial in which it suggested that the logical extreme of the new reforms would be for Mobutu to rename himself since Joseph-Désiré was clearly of European origin. Embracing this, Mobutu announced in January 1972 that he would repudiate his Christian name. Soon afterwards, he added Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Waza Banga after his existing surname as what was termed a "post-surname" (postnoms). On 15 February 1972, the MPR resolved that all Zaireans must follow his example and adopt "typically Zairean names".[11]

Mobutu's decrees were perceived as an attack on the Catholic Church which briefly resisted the reforms. Although Cardinal Joseph Malula was forced into exile as a result, there was little popular opposition.[12] In August 1972, it became a criminal offence for a priest to confer a "foreign" Christian name.[13] However, many priests did continue to violate the prohibition by naming children after saints but not officially declaring this.[1] A small number of political exiles also refused to adopt new post-surnames, as did Mobutu's wife Marie-Antoinette. Although post-surnames were often popular, it was noted that they were often unwieldy as a means of identifying an individual and were frequently long.

Mobutu was forced to agree to the liberalization of many areas of his regime's policy in the final years of his rule. In 1990, it was announced that the legal restrictions on naming would no longer apply and that people were free to use Christian names. Laurent-Désiré Kabila who, as a rebel commander had never assumed a post-surname or stopped using his first-name, replaced Mobutu in 1997 and allowed Christian names to be used in official documentation for the first time.[15]

Many people re-adopted Christian names which are now a common aspect of Congolese naming practices. However, most also chose to keep their post-surnames as well. In addition to the names of Western saints, it has been noted that an increasingly diverse range of inspirations inform modern name choices including common nouns (Budget, Verdict, Jeunesse) as well as the names of presidents or employers. Others adopt value-based adjectives (Précieux, Sublime) which are usually positive in nature. Increasingly, some have adopted names which are contractions of existing phrases such as Plamedi (from Plan merveilleux de Dieu, "God's Marvellous Plan") or Merdi (from Merci Dieu, "Thank God") or Glodi (from Gloire à Dieu, "Glory to God").[16]

• The Congo Crisis, 1960–1961: A Critical Oral History Conference (PDF), Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2004, retrieved 22 November 2020
• Young, Crawford; Turner, Thomas (1985). The Rise & Decline of the Zairian State. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 978-0-299-10113-8.
• Likala, Osumaka (2009). Naming Colonialism: History and Collective Memory in the Congo, 1870–1960. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299233631.
• Ndaywel è Nziem, Isidore (1998). "De l'authenticité à la libération: se prénommer en République démocratique du Congo" (PDF). Politique Africaine (72): 98–109. Retrieved 17 September 2020.
• Stewart, Gary (2003). Rumba on the River: A History of the Popular Music of the Two Congos. London: Verso. ISBN 9781859843680.
• Udo-Udo Jacob, Jacob (2017). Convincing Rebel Fighters to Disarm. Berlin: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-046929-5.