Rachel Dolezal changes her name to West African moniker
Rachel Dolezal — the white NAACP leader who pretended to be black for years — has reportedly changed her name to a West African moniker meaning “gift of God.”
The 39-year-old will now be called Nkechi Amare Diallo, according to the Daily Mail.
Legal documents obtained by the British outlet show that she legally changed her name in a Washington state court back in October.
Nkechi, which is short for Nkechinyere, originates from the Igbo language of Nigeria and translates to “what God has given” or “gift of God,” the Mail reports.
Diallo, or “bold,” is ultimately of Fula origin. The Muslim ethnic group is said to have roots in the Middle East and West Africa.
Dolezal — the former president of the NAACP’s Spokane chapter and a one-time professor of Africana studies at Eastern Washington University — reportedly has fallen on hard times since being exposed by her parents as white in June 2015.
Speaking to The Guardian last week, the disgraced civil rights advocate described how she had been unable to find a job or pay her rent in recent months.
After her name change, she attempted to use her new identity to try to garner some positive attention, the Mail reports.
Dolezal started a Change.org petition in October, requesting that the TEDx organization post a controversial speech she apparently gave in April 2016 at the University of Idaho.
The petition was listed under the name Nkechi Diallo — and didn’t mention her birth name.
While Dolezal only managed to get 30 of the 100 required signatures, TED decided to post the video anyway.
“Refusing to post it would unduly limit an important conversation about identity, and the social underpinning of race — and would be counter to TED’s guiding philosophy of radical openness,” the organization said.
Dolezal, who once sued the historically black Howard University for racial discrimination, is slated to release a memoir next month, titled “In Full Color,” which will outline her life.
She told The Guardian last week that despite what people say, she still believes she’s not white.
“I do think a more complex label would be helpful, but we don’t really have that vocabulary,” Dolezal explained. “I feel like the idea of being trans-black would be much more accurate than ‘I’m white.’ Because, you know, I’m not white … Calling myself black feels more accurate than saying I’m white.”
A little bit about the Fula people:
Slavery and caste system[edit]
Fula society features the caste divisions typical of the West African region.[48][49] The fairly rigid caste system of the Fula people has medieval roots,[48] was well established by the 15th-century, and it has survived into modern age.[8] The four major castes, states Martin Kich, in their order of status are "nobility, traders, tradesmen (such as blacksmith) and descendants of slaves".[8] According to the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Fulani people have held on to "a strict caste system".[50]
There are the Fulani proper, also referred to as the Fulɓe, including the Pullo (also called the Rimɓe (singular)) and the Dimo, meaning "noble". There is the artisan caste,[49] including blacksmiths, potters, griots,[51] genealogists, woodworkers, and dressmakers. They belong to castes but are free people. Then there are those castes of captive, slave or serf ancestry: the Maccuɗo, Rimmayɓe, Dimaajo, and less often Ɓaleeɓe, the Fulani equivalent of the Tuareg Ikelan known as Bouzou (Buzu)/Bella in the Hausa and Songhay languages respectively.[52][53][54] The Fulani rulers and merchants were, like many other ethnic groups of Africa, also involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, sourcing the enslaved people through raids and from captives they took by waging war.[13][35][55]
The Fulani castes are endogamous in nature, meaning individuals marry only within their caste. This caste system, however, wasn't as elaborate in places like northern Nigeria, Eastern Niger or Cameroon. According to some estimates, by the late 19th century, slaves constituted about 50% of the population of the Fulɓe-ruled Adamawa Emirate, where they were referred to as jeyaɓe (singular jeyado). Though very high, these figures are representative of many other emirates of the Sokoto Caliphate, of which Adamawa formed a part.[56] The castes-based social stratification among the Fula people was widespread and seen across the Sahel, such as Burkina Faso,[57] Niger,[58] Senegal,[59] Guinea,[49] Mali,[58][60] Nigeria,[26] Sudan,[61] and others.[62]
And, the Igbo people:
Recent history (1970 to present)
The Nigerian–Biafran War left Igboland devastated. Fighting had completely destroyed many hospitals, schools, and homes. In addition to the loss of their savings, many Igbo people faced discrimination from other ethnic groups and from the new non-Igbo federal government.[107] Some Igbo subgroups, such as the Ikwerre, started disassociating themselves from the larger Igbo population after the war.[108] In the post-war era, people of eastern Nigeria changed the names of both people and places to non-Igbo-sounding words. For instance, the town of Igbuzo was anglicized to Ibusa.[109] Due to discrimination, many Igbo had trouble finding employment, and during the early 1970s, the Igbo became one of the poorest ethnic groups in Nigeria.[107][110][111]
Igboland was gradually rebuilt by its citizens and some contribution from the Nigerian government over a period of twenty years and the economy prospered again due to the rise of the petroleum industry in the adjacent Niger Delta region. This led to the establishment of new factories in southern Nigeria. Many Igbo people eventually took government positions,[112]although many were engaged in private business.[113] Since the early 21st century, there has been a wave of Nigerian Igbo immigration to other African countries, Europe, and the Americas.[114]
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