It's not slavery to bear English names, some of us have British grandfathers - Kofi Kinaata

According to the Ghanaian rapper, born Martin King Arthur, some Ghanaians have such names because their grandparents are British. “Yeah but some of us the English names are our surname because our grandparents came from England," Kinaata said.

Speaking on Radio Centra, the award-winning Ghanaian musician continued that "so there’s nothing we can do about it. It’s the name given to us by our forefathers which has spiritual connotations so it’s impossible to change it".

“We came to meet these English names but as time goes on we will give local Fante names to our children but obviously we need to add the surname which is King-Arthur. Most of my family members have stopped giving their children English names but as for the surname which is King-Arthur it would continue to exist,” he added on Kastle FM.

During an interview with Amansan Krakye, Kofi Kinaata emphasized that “so I would say that it’s a source of pride to bear a local indigenous name but some of us our grandparents were from England so our name will remain as such. It doesn’t mean that having an English name connotes having a slavery mentality.”

KKD ece-auto-gen

This comes after a few weeks ago when KKD whilst speaking on Zylofon FM about why he doesn't bear an English name quizzed “Are our names so evil?"

He continued that "are they so bad that because you want to go to church, somebody has to change your name? I don’t understand it. So I insisted on using Kwasi Kyei Darwkah to make a statement that the first name is not English, the middle name is not English and the last names certainly not English".

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. Think of your ancestors who were whipped on the back and forced to accept another man’s names. Why then in freedom do I still want to fall into that trap and call myself by another man’s name," he said.

“Whatever they do elsewhere, we can do same here but we don’t have to be like them because we are we and they are they,” he added while singing Bob Marley’s song, ‘Redemption Song’.