Atheist Society in Kenya (AIK) President Harrison Mumia has officially dropped his English name saying that he wants to reclaim a pure African identity.
In a statement, Mumia said that his official name will now be Nyende Mumia Nyende and it will reflect on his birth certificate, passport and all other identification documents.
“As the great Bob Marley once said, we must emancipate ourselves from mental slavery and none but ourselves can free our minds,” he said.
The 43-year-old in a statement said that he was given the name by his God-fearing mother and father but he was not ready to be identified by the name Harrison again.
He said that the name Nyende was given to him in honor of his late uncle who hails from Butere and the other name Mumia was his father’s surname.
In his arguments, Mumia said that it was unfortunate that white missionaries convinced Africans that African names were not good in Christianity.
“It is really sad when I see Kenyans calling themselves John, Mary, Magdalene and James. Likewise, Muslims in Africa have been convinced that Arab names are good names not African ones,” he said.
According to him it is high time Kenyans be proud of their ethnic, indigenous Kenyan names.
“The Ministry of culture should encourage Kenyan parents to use indigenous Kenyan names for their children,” he said.
For over three years AIK has been at logger heads with the Kenyan Government fighting to be officially recognised in the country.
In their argument, AIK says that the Kenyan constitution has the freedom of religion and that they had a right to be recognised.
Two months ago, in his last statement to the media, Seth Mahiga who served as the Secretary of the group resigned after finding Jesus.
