This year marks 12 years since I landed at Adelaide Airport on a cold July evening, armed with essential spices and a suitcase filled with my favourite clothes and photo albums. It also marks 12 years since I’ve been teaching people how to pronounce my names, and convincing them that yes, I’m the same person in my I.D. photo, the only difference is I am now wearing braids.
At first, it was slightly bewildering when people could not, would not, pronounce my names correctly or failed to recognise me when I changed my hair. Twelve years on, it has gotten pretty old, pretty fast.
Supermodel Adut Akech is the most recent victim of this cultural complacency on a public scale. After a recent interview, WHO magazine published a feature article about Akech with a beautiful full page spread of a picture of…not Akech. The picture was of another model, Flavia Lazarus. Akech was understandably unimpressed and shared her thoughts on her Instagram page. I’m not sure how many checks the feature underwent before it was published and in my view, that should have been the point at which that mistake was corrected. A simple Google image search of Akech would have assuaged any confusion as to whether the pictured model was in fact the same one interviewed.
A lot of Africans in Australia resort to abbreviating their names just to avoid the hassle of having to conduct a name pronunciation course with every encounter
This kind of disregard is lazy, old, exhausting and the epitome of disrespect. A lot of Africans in Australia resort to abbreviating their names just to avoid the hassle of having to conduct a name pronunciation course with every encounter. This is notwithstanding the fact that most African names are phonetic so really, what you see is what you get. Not only is my first name English, it is spelled using the same English alphabet we all learned in kindergarten so please believe me when I say we are not trying to deceive you with optical illusions.
I was recently on a Tribunal telephone conference and as the Tribunal member was taking appearances, he began to stutter when it got round to me in that way that has become all too familiar to me. I can tell when someone is having a mental panic upon the sight of my names. “Can I confirm, for the Applicant, Miss…I can’t pronounce your name?”
I wish I could say it’s the first time, or even one of a handful of times, that this has happened, but it’s not. I cannot tell you how many times I have been referred to by the male prefix Mr, by people who have not met me and assume either given my profession or some other criteria, I must be a man. That being said, as renowned prize-winning author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said after being introduced at a talk as Chimichanga, what matters most for me is the intention.
I acknowledge the intent isn’t always malicious, I’d like to challenge Anglo-Australians to try harder
Adichie relevantly states, “Think of people as people, not as abstractions who have to conform to bloodless logic but as people – fragile, imperfect with prides that can be wounded and hearts that can be touched. Literature is my religion. I have learned from literature that we humans are flawed, all of us are flawed, but even while we are flawed, we are capable of enduring goodness, we do not need first to be perfect before we can do what is right and just.”
Whilst I acknowledge the intent isn’t always malicious, I’d like to challenge Anglo-Australians to try harder. Next time you encounter a foreign name and are unsure about how to pronounce it, ask the owner of the name. Try and learn the name because I can surely tell you that I have encountered some Anglo-Australian names that gave me a headache, but I try to make the effort to pronounce the name correctly.
To African-Australians who continually experience this issue, refuse to change or abbreviate your name for the convenience of anyone else. Teach people how to pronounce the fullness of all your names and whenever they encounter you, they are likely to remember exactly who you are.
Dorcas Mbugua is an employment and industrial lawyer based in Melbourne.
