I Changed My Name Because It’s A White Man’s Name – Actress Amandla Ebeye

Nollywood actress, Amandla Ebeye has revealed why she changed her first name “Amanda” which means ‘loveable’ in Latin.

During an interview with Saturday Beats, the actress revealed that her father is from Delta State, while her mum is a Yoruba woman, stressing that she has no business bearing a white man’s name which was given to her for colonial reasons.

The actress said she wanted a name closer to her African roots so she opted for Amandla which means ‘power’ in Xhosa and Zulu (South African tribes).

She said, “I’ll attribute it (change of name) to knowledge of self. Amanda is a Latin name that means ‘loveable’. Obviously, I am not Latin; my dad is from Agbor in Delta State, while my mum is a Yoruba woman. I truly had no business bearing Amanda, but for colonial reasons. There is no reason for me to bear a white man’s name. How many of them bear our names?

“I  badly wanted to change to something close to my birth name, so it would be easy for people to adapt. Then, I found Amandla, which is a Xhosa and Zulu (South African tribes) name, meaning ‘power’. It was a popular chant used during Nelson Mandela’s fight against apartheid.”

The actress also stated that the name change would not affect her past productions.

Speaking on how married life is treating her, Ebeye said, “Marriage is good. We have been sailing the boat for close to two years, and I am loving it completely.”

On her new projects, she said, “For about a year, we had been in the process of editing the new series I just released, titled, ‘30s, Single and Bored’.”

Ebeye also maintained that relocating abroad had not affected her career. She said, “I have not relocated completely. But being away for longer periods has helped me to make better choices of not being in every movie.

“I love acting passionately, but I love being a mum and wife too. Being out of Nigeria has given me the freedom to choose the things I want to be a part of.”

KanyiDaily recalls that Hauwa Indimi-Yar’Adua, the daughter of Maiduguri oil mogul, Mohammed Indimi, had also defended her decision to name her son “Noah” instead of “Nuh”.