“The Hate You Give” actress Amandla Stenberg took time out to respond to the heat South Africans have been giving her on social media recently.
The star was called out for butchering the pronunciation of her Xhosa name.
In the TikTok video, she said: “Okay, so I am coming on here because I’ve seen a lot of people talking about my name and how I pronounce it, and I want to get in the discourse because I’ve been thinking about these things a lot too.
Stenberg proved that she can pronounce her name the “correct” way but shared why she sometimes chose to pronounces it the way she did.
“A lot of Westerners and Europeans say: ‘Oh your parents took ‘Amanda’ and slipped and ‘l’ in there.’ No, girl, bye, no, it is ‘Amandla’ as in ‘Amandla Awethu’, which means ‘power to the people’ in Zulu and Xhosa, and this was an understanding that I grew up with, that 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 her mother named her and wanted her to aspire towards embodying the concept.
However, her mother Westernised her name because she felt that it would be easier for Stenberg and did not want her to struggle in school.
“She thought people would be able to say it more 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.”
She explained that for her, it was a 50/50 split on how she pronounced her name and to whom.
“I am still struggling, figuring out how to introduce myself you know, so, yo, South Africans, if you are willing then let’s have a dialogue please, I welcome it and I am grateful for it. Thank you.”
@amandlafr ♬ original sound - amandla stenberg
TikTokers welcomed her explanation and went on to explain the importance of her name.
“Amandla isn't just a name. Amandla has a deeper history and deeper meaning to all black South Africans. it's really important to pronounce it right,” said @Anime_girl.
Angela Masilela wrote: “You cannot take a name with such historical significance to South Africans and want to water it down to make people comfortable.”
@What do you want!!!🤨 wrote: “All I'm saying is honour your name by pronouncing it correctly. It means power & there is no power if you just water it down 4 the comfort of others.”