Amandla Stenberg finally took time and spoke up against her hatred with the caption of “The Hate You Give”.
The star was called out for killing the pronunciation of her Xhosa name.
In the Tik Tok video, she stated: “Finally, I am going to speak because I noticed that many people are talking about my name and saying a lot of things like the way I pronounce my name, and I want to get in the discourse because I’ve been thinking about these things a lot too.”
Stenberg also proved that she could pronounce her name very well, but she shared why she sometimes chose to pronounce it the way she did.
A lot of people commented and said: Oh! Your parents took Amanda and slipped and ‘l’ in there.’ No girl, No, you are pronouncing it Amandla, which means power to the people in Zulu and Xhosa; and this was an understanding that I grew up with, and this had significant weight in history that it was a rallying cry that was utilised during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.”
She said that this name was given to her by her mother, and she wanted her to aspire toward embodying the concept.
However, her mother Westernised her name because she felt it would be easier for her daughter in school.
She thought people would pronounce it easily, and I would struggle less. So she kind of, like, in this diasporic way, was trying to help me assimilate.
“I don’t know; I think this raises a lot of interesting questions about diaspora and what we embody and what we claim and how we pronounce things.”
Furthermore, she explained that for her, It was 50/50 people to people to whom she pronounced her name.
I am struggling and still figuring out how to introduce myself, you know, so, South Africans, if you are willing, then let’s have a dialogue. Please, I welcome u guys and am grateful at the same time. Thank You.
However, Tik Takers welcomed her explanation and still went on to explain to her the importance of her name.