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Ensi News
Five schools in Bergkamen, Germany support Ensi child
Children from five primary schools: Aliso, Gerhard Hauptmann, Kettler, Overberger and Pestalozzi from Bergkamen, located in the north west of Germany, donated funds to help a lucky girl stay in education. This means that from January 2013, another deserving child will be assured of an education. This will bring to 50, the number of children and youth supported by kind benefactors through Ensi.
Ensi sent a message of appreciation for the childrens kindness through Ms. Hannelore Nierhoff of the cultural affairs department of Bergkamen. The funds were channeled through Adyeri who runs ASK, an African art and craft shop in nearby Dortmund. He is often called upon to talk about African culture in local schools. Most of the support for Ensi comes from well-wishers in Germany and The Netherlands. Our organization also gets donations from Canada, Kenya, Switzerland, Uganda and the United States of America. We are most grateful for this kind support.
Images in this issue of Ensi News feature art from ASK

Contents 2Whats in a name? 3Performance: primary 4Performance: secondary

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Zebras, monkeys and women: What's in a name? by Wandia Kagondu Seaforth

How come there are so many Wandias?" The question came from a seven year old during a meeting of my extended family. The little girl had heard the name repeated no less than six times with six different people. At her age, she would have been unlikely to notice all the duplicated names, but probably noticed the Wandia because she sat next to one. The answer to the question is a bit complicated for a seven year old. In a Kikuyu family, there is a very definite naming structure. Thus your name is pre-determined before you exit the comfort of your mothers womb. Children are named alternately after members of the father's and mother's family starting with the two sets of grandparents. Once the grandparents have been "born" which is how the Kikuyu term the reincarnations of names, siblings from both sides are named, following their order of birth. Naturally, who gets to be "born" depends on how many children a couple has and the distribution of boys and girls. The formula can get complicated - for example, my mother, who had only two siblings, both male. When she went on to produce eight offspring, six of them girls, she ran out of female names from her side of the family. The solution was to find out what would have been the names of her sisters had she had any. From my father side, there was no shortage of names because he had many brothers and sisters. I was named after my fathers eldest sister, who was named after their grand-

2 | Ensi News
mother. You can imagine that in an extended family meeting, there would be many generations of Wandias, thanks to this name-giving formula. How my great grandmother came by the name Wandia is an interesting story. It was not her grandmothers name as you would expect. The story is that she was taken from a place called Ndia during one of the numerous interethnic wars that were common about 200 years ago. During these wars, the winner always took women and cattle as part of the spoils of war. When my great grandmother was brought to our place, they named her Wandia. The "Wa" denotes "of" so the name means the woman from Ndia. It is said she was quite happy with my great grandfather. Together they had several children, and thus the name Wandia was reproduced in our family.

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Zebras, monkeys and women: What's in a name? by Wandia Kagondu Seaforth

came back. A girl in similar circumstances could be called "Gachoki or Njoki" which female versions of Muchoki. Not everybody follows this pattern, some parents deciding to just name whoever would have been in line if there had not been the intervening death. Some names are related to trades and daily activities. This is in common with many other cultures worldwide, and often reflects the traditional gender division of labour. For example, the following are names given to men. Murimitiller of land, Murithikeeper of livestock, Muturimetal smith, Muguimihunter, Muthuihoney gatherer. Similar names for women are not very many - two come to mind; Murugiguess what, it means the cook, and Mukamithe one who milks the cows. The Kikuyu names that really intrigue me are those that correspond to the names of animals. With very few exceptions, these are names given to men. NdegwaBull MbogoBuffalo NgariLeopard NduigaGiraffe NjoguElephant NgatiaLion Muruthianother name for lion NjokaSnake (generic name for snake) NjiruColobus monkey NjauCalf KagonduLamb NderiEagle MunyiRhino NgangaGuinea fowl Womens names, I can think of only three: WambuiZebra Ngimaa species of monkey Therua species of monkey I have turned over in my head many possible explanations for this distribution of names but no convincing explanation emerges. One plausible explanation is as follows: most of the animals represented in mens names denote strength and force - based on physical size or other attributes. For the women's names, Ngima and Theru are two species of rather noisy monkey with highly developed social organization. I am very sure that this highly developed social organization is attributed to women. As for Wambui, such a beautiful animal as a zebra can only give its name to women... but then giraffes, guinea fowls and colobus monkeys are also quite colorful, so why is only the zebras beauty compared to womens? One of my friends who comes from a culture that counts a large behind as one of the attributes of a beautiful woman reckons that this is why Wambui is a woman's name! Well, you can come up with your own explanation.

As you can see, Kikuyu names are generally not assigned for their meaning. However, this is not to say that they do not have meanings. The name Mumbi is a womans name, and very special. In Kikuyu mythology and spirituality, Mumbi was the first woman and wife to Gikuyu. In effect, she is the mother of all Kikuyus. The name comes from the verb kumba which means to create. Thus it is one of the attributes of God Ngai Mumbi means God the creator. It is also the name for a maker of pottery, and interestingly enough, the name for a uterus is nyungu, which is the same name for a clay pot." Cases where a name may be given for the meaning include a child born immediately after one that died. If a boy child dies and the first child born afterwards is a boy, he could be named "Kariuki or Muriuki" - literally means the one that resurrected, or "Muchoki" meaning the one that

3 | Ensi News How did Ensi children perform last term?

Last Name Kasemiire Irene Kansiime Racheal Kobusinge Monica Kayesu Scovia Kemigisa Nahiya Class Composition Crafts English Math P2 P2 70 60 82 65 P3 P3 P3 85 90 86 90 66 78 18 86 76 88 70 85 42 80 80 50 70 Phyical Religious Average Position Children Reading Science Writing Education Education mark in class in class 100 70 86 76 75 25 75 96 82 70 48 62 30 68 90 90 78 85 72 72 43 2 10 4 83 45 92

Kamukugize Maureen P 3

Results for Primary 1-3 in order of performance within each grade.

Last Name Mugume Mike Katusabe Beatice Namara Joan Linda Julian Tusiime Elizabeth Mutegeki Brian Katusiime Sarah Kobusinge Joan Nyaika Elly Kembabazi Bridget Kamukama Amuza Ndikuwa Brenda Atukunda Derrick Komuntale Christine Kisembo Stephen Katinisa Kate Omach Emmanuel Karungi Tracy Kemigisa Joy Kahunde Gloria Kamayenje Marvin Katwesiime Rose Mwijukya Patrick Tugumye Grace Agondeze Ronald Murungi Ismail Kawino Rashida

Class English Math Science Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 4 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 5 Primary 6 Primary 6 Primary 6 Primary 7 Primary 7 Primary 7 Primary 7 70 71 58 74 56 52 30 29 85 82 73 75 76 74 65 58 56 79 63 31 74 64 58 85 82 65 67 88 78 67 75 54 55 60 37 86 87 78 77 67 66 82 54 65 44 57 23 70 78 59 78 80 74 68 72 78 71 68 64 57 24 35 85 79 67 70 86 64 65 70 50 40 53 18 81 93 67 88 79 69 62

Social Average Position Children Studies mark in class in class 83 78 1 113 82 77 5 81 69 66 8 69 45 66 20 84 53 57 11 159 49 53 33 37 120 20 30 72 82 85 85 1 105 92 85 2 81 75 2 105 73 74 4 105 63 73 6 39 86 73 3 126 68 70 2 54 63 61 10 69 70 60 7 123 60 56 14 126 43 9 123 35 27 72 112 80 76 3 94 70 76 3 44 60 61 5 55 84 84 1 77 93 84 1 46 66 69 65 66

Results for Primary 4-7 in order of performance within each grade.

4 | Ensi News How did Ensi children perform last term?

Secondary School resultsterm 2 of 2012
Last Name Wamara Deborah Atugonza Evelyne Murungi Anthony Kyahura Micheal Night Grace Nkwanzi Proscovia Twesige Robert Nabwire Yvonne Kirungi Fred Ssejengo James Nyakahuma Fred Class Accounts Agriculture Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior2 Senior3 Senior4 92 77 74 60 48 59 58 44 66 78 Art Biology Chemistry 97 94 72 80 54 59 36 63 68 81 74 85 56 80 71 64 60 67 65 34 Computer Commerce English Entrepreneurship French Geography Studies 71 69 51 63 73 58 74 78 43 54 27 50 56 97 63 60 68 14 86 81 78 87 61 65 64 59 50 54 43

62 49

65 83 68 76

75

62

25 73 56

30 44

41

24 63 52

Last Name

Class

History

Home Literature Economics

Math

Physics

Religious Education 82 91 86 85 57 69 59 43 83 81 70

Swahili

Technical Drawing

Average Mark 80 78 76 66 65 63 62 45 66 56 54

Position Children in class in class

Wamara Deborah Atugonza Evelyne Murungi Anthony Kyahura Micheal Night Grace Nkwanzi Proscovia Twesige Robert Nabwire Yvonne Kirungi Fred Ssejengo James Nyakahuma Fred

Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior1 Senior2 Senior3 Senior4

81 79 76 67 75 53 63 81 44 91

79

46

70

45

87 82 93 62 60 60 43 50 81 51 23

81 79 59 67 68 63 55 40 66 43

2 7 18 8 103 7

84 84 76 402 310 290

73 52 66 86 71 81

Senior Secondary 1-4 by performance within each grade; list shown as two tables due to large number of subjects. One student, Kugonza Edith, did not attend school during the second term due to an eye illness

Last Name

Class

Art Economics Entrepreneurship 41 41 57

General Religious Geography History Paper Education 66 48 50 60 47

Average mark 55 49

Asaba Robert Senior 6 Nyamugwa Bernard Senior 6 59

50

Senior Secondary 5-6 by performance. Students who pass Senior 6 examinations are eligible to go to university.