Cape Town-based graphic designer and illustrator Thandiwe Tshabalala designed a series of illustrated GIFs that celebrate the beautiful and unique names in her mother tongue: Xhosa.
According to Tshabalala Xhosa parents used to give their children English names, under the apartheid rule, so that white people wouldn't struggle to pronounce their African names.
Most people born during the times of apartheid were given names like: Knowledge, Margaret, Mavis (which has negative connotations), Innocentia, Innocent, Jeffrey, Gloria – let me just stop there. However when black folks got their ‘freedom’ back they went back to giving their children African or South African names, she explains.
Her illustrated GIFs run through the ABC in Xhosa names and also show the meaning of each of the names.
