Personal name and immortality among Shona people : an African philosophical inquiry

Abstract

Common knowledge indicates that naturally, human beings, the Shona people in particular, have a strong desire for immortality, prompting them to find ways to achieve this elusive dream. Previous research has shown much interest in the topic of immortality, but investing insufficient effort to achieve it. This research work investigates the interplay between personal names and death and concludes that the two have been semantically and hermeneutically misinterpreted and misunderstood and, therefore, misconceptualised in favour of a certain metaphysical thinking that portrays personal names as meaningless marks and death as an event that terminates existence. If not that, then the two have been narrowly defined, citing a plurality of meanings, a multiplicity of functions found in personal names, and death. The reason for this misdiagnosis unpacks the confrontation between two schools of thought, namely: (1) the general thought perspective and (2) the particular thought perspective. Furthermore, the research work deeply explores the transformation from personal naming to name-saking, from personal names to name-sakes, illustrating where name-saking and death meet in an unprecedented setting. To do this, the research work employs the hermeneutic and conversational methods to extract relevant information and to define a metaphysical juncture between the universalists and the particularists, depicting cultural conflict among the human race divided by two main reasons, which are: (1) geographical position, and (2) pigmentation. The two reasons are the by-product of what is commonly known as tradition; hence we focus on two opposing traditions: (1) the Western and (2) the African tradition, and the philosophical thought perspective from two geographical locations: (1) the North and (2) the South. Thusly, this research work argues that personal names, particularly when they are transformed into name-sakes, can deliver immortality directly or indirectly, and human beings desire immortality whether it is direct or indirect because anything that promises future life or timeless existence delivers hope and respect to human life.