My people, have you ever pronounced or stumbled over ZBIGNIEW BRZEZINSKI?

Did you send a letter, (texts and emails didn't exist in his heydays) asking him to simplify or change his name? Of course you didn't.

During my days of adult education at Stanford, a younger American, (most of them were, considering that I had spent time in Biafra, attended Unilag, served in the NYSC, worked at Coca-Cola, gotten married with a daughter Ng to boot), met me in an elevator in the Mitchell Building of the Department of Applied Earth Sciences. He struck up a conversation with me and when I had introduced myself as Oduche Azih, he immediately demanded that I should save him from his misery. "Don't you have a simple name like Peter?" he proposed. I had deadpanned, "No."

Of course that was a lie which I have never regretted to this day. . Seven days after I was born, my parents named me Oduche, short for Odinuche.

Most African names have an exact meaning and often translate into a full sentence or a phrase. Mine meant "he who is/has always been on my mind." Years later I was to find particular satisfaction and attachment to the name because of the character Oduche in Chinua Achebe's ARROW OF GOD.

For completeness I add that when I was a month old, a priest showed up at our local church and baptized me Denis. For those who have followed my story so far, it is clear that my first name in is thus Oduche, whereas Denis can only be my second or middle name. Hence it would have been most unfair for a white young man who gave me his (first) name as say Bill to be given my second name in return. He had to deal with Oduche, period.

It is noteworthy that about two decades down the road, one of my daughters, whom I never briefed on the above narrative, did almost the same thing to a fellow student. Among Ndigbo, and perhaps others, it is said that "the offspring of a snake is bound to be long." .
I rest my bag. https://youtu.be/JTPC73SdRkA