The Toponymys Of Pemba Village Names: Their Origins, Meanings And The Effect Of Modernisation

ABSTRACT

This study informs about the toponyms of Pemba village names. More specifically, it informs about the origin of the village names, meanings associated with the names and the influence of modernisation on the names. The study employed descriptive research design in which the generation and analysis of the data were done using qualitative techniques; i.e. data were collected through interviews, focus group discussion and documentary review. The researcher was informed by 46 informants who were obtained from the North and South Regions of Pemba through the snowball sampling technique. The analysis of the data obtained revealed that there are several factors considered by the people to name their villages. Some names originated from the unique objects that existed in the villages, economic activities of the people, beliefs of the people and past events in the areas. Through these factors, names such as Ngomani “a drum”, Misooni “trees”, Likokuu “a harbor” and Mwambani “in a stone”, just to mention a few were developed. Even though evolution has occurred and some of the objects and beliefs that contributed to the creations of the names have changed, the village names still remained the same and there are no signs of changing them in the near future. The people‟s resistance to change is a result of the respect they have to the ancestors who created the names and respect to their culture as opposed to globalization. Based on the data obtained through this study, it is hereby concluded that the names of the villages in Pemba Island are a result of the characteristics of the villages and they are a blue print to inform about the people‟s culture and philosophies.