clever by name, clever by nature

When you name a child in Zimbabwe, meaning is all.

Lovemore, Trymore, Blessing, Beauty: it's not hard to see the thinking behind those names. Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono (who got pelted at a funeral in Chitekwe Village last weekend) has children called Passion, Praise and Pride. A man we employed once as a painter was named Last, presumably by an exhausted mother as a warning to her husband. A softly-spoken female activist at a local AIDS project goes by the name Silence.

Often, parents give a child a name they hope they'll grow into. Sometimes it works: the president of the Zimbabwe National Students' Union is called Clever. His deputy (ZINASU VP) goes by the first name Brilliant. (Clever -- who's been arrested several times -- and Brilliant are currently lobbying the authorities to stop Zimbabwean universities charging in forex.)

Then there are the names you can only guess at the tortured thinking behind. A few years back, there was a state journalist called Jealousy. (Did he have an unfaithful parent?) Another writer was called Killer. (Did his mother die when he was born?)

I see on one of the Western embassy mailing lists that they're sending press releases to someone called Murder