Let's get to the roots of names

When my mum was moving house recently one of the musclemen doing the heavy lifting introduced himself as Gift.

- JENNIE RIDYARD

Later my sister randomly called him Mpho, then apologised profusely. He laughed: actually, that is my name in my language, he said. Gift was his second name and they both meant the same thing: Mpho Gift. Gift Gift.

Maybe my sister remembered this subconsciously from our brief Sesotho lessons in primary school back in the '80s, which were uniquely confusing because one year we'd learn Zulu every week, the next year Northern Sotho, then perhaps Xhosa, all dependent not on a sincere attempt to teach us as many African languages as possible, but instead on the linguistic skills and timetables of the available staff.