"My parents named me Mwangi after my grandfather, James Mwangi Wanjau. I grew up in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mwangi is a very common name within my tribe, the Kikuyu. In 2016, at age 19, I moved from Kenya to western Canada to study, graduating with a degree in mathematics. I felt like an outsider. My name stood out: I often had to repeat it, and people struggled to remember it."
"During my studies, and later at the university where I worked after graduating, I began using the nickname "James" with new people and adjusting my accent to sound more Canadian. When I was younger, I decided to take James, my grandfather's name, as my baptism name as part of my public expression of faith. But in this instance, I felt inferior, and was using it as a survival mechanism to fit in."
Mwangi Wanjau was named after his grandfather and grew up in Nairobi in the Kikuyu tribe. He moved to western Canada at 19 to study mathematics and often felt like an outsider because his name stood out and people struggled to remember it. During university and later work at the university he began introducing himself as James and adjusted his accent to sound more Canadian. He had previously taken James as a baptismal name, but in Canada he used it as a survival mechanism to fit in. Introducing himself as James made social interaction easier but left him feeling he was losing himself, so he resumed using Mwangi.
Read at Business Insider
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]