FM
Photo: Dr. Laurence HarrisWHAT’S IN A NAME
Psusennes — a Greek translation for an Egyptian name
(Hor- Pasebakhaenniut II [Egyptian hr-p3-sb3-hᕐı-
Nurisha — is Swahili for shine light upon
Bey — an old African empirical name from a time before Columbus
· ̆ ̆ᕐ ᕐDance names
The name ‘David’ doesn’t make me feel
good, so I changed it. Too much history, and
it reminds me of the lack of understanding
of my culture. It’s more a spiritual thing for
me. It was my dad who named me, which
I only found out from him last year. I also
found a name that I was calling myself for
the last 30 years (David Paul Montgomery
Giles — in this case the Montgomery was
my father’s name) was actually a name he
changed his name to legally after he turned
18 years old. Before, it was Washington. The
origin of the name Psusennes is a reference
to the pharaoh king in Egypt that king David
in the Bible was modelled after. Of course,
everyone in the Bible was black and none
of the names existed, or even Latin for that
matter, during the times of the Egyptians. I, of
course, am going further into family history
and will find out about more of my family
tree that’s covered up under city records
and unknown history. To add to that, most
African American last names are from the
slave plantation owner’s property they were
born on. The birth certificates would only list
the first name and the year. To hold on to
anything English to me is to disconnect from
my ancestors (great, great grandparents and
so on). Also, to that degree, there were a lot
of slaves not recorded in the earlier times,
so for me this is the best way to get closer to
the source.^To find out more about Davis Giles, aka
Psusennes Nurisha Bay, aka bboy Vybe visit:
painsolutionsnyc.weebly.com/