Comments on: Stuff African People Like: Job Titles

By: Mwangi and Coach Caroline Discuss Culture Shock and the Psychology of African Immigrants - The Displaced African

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:05:43 +0000

[...] Getting caught up in fancy titles and ideas instead of falling in love with the process and [...]

By: My 4 Hour Work Week Journey: Interrupting Interruptions » The Displaced African

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 03:03:45 +0000

[...] I work with virtual assistants, freelance coders and writers and am also a freelance writer and blog consultant (aaah, what do you know, I DO have jobs with fancy titles). [...]

By: Stuff African People Like: Employment » The Displaced African

Stuff African People Like: Employment » The Displaced African — Thu, 29 May 2008 18:04:38 +0000

[...] try something as crazy as entrepreneurship. The key to this one is quite simple: Marvel at whatever job title the African may present to you and always keep in mind the story of someone who started some really [...]

By: Stuff African People Like: Meat » The Displaced African

Stuff African People Like: Meat » The Displaced African — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:33:46 +0000

[...] a regular basis and you are the King Mswati of your constituency. You should know by now how much Africans love to keep with the Jones. And never forget dowry was paid in cows, not [...]

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:44:12 +0000

@Kelly: At first I couldn’t imagine. My name is as common as John or Peter in Kenya and here we are thousands of Ks away and I have to teach tutorials on Mwangi pronunciation….gotta love immigration.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:42:35 +0000

Munki! thats fresh! My name is easy if you’re bantu, I tried using it in high school, people would be like, ngatwire, gaturi etc
Can’t wait for todays post.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:03:36 +0000

@Kelly: It’s just a standard in African circles period, from Lagos to Nairobi, as far as I can gather. Your name means “who takes care of cows?!”, wait for today’s post, it should make you feel better about your name. Btw, your name is incredibly easy to pronounce so I don’t even see the problem.
You should see an Aussie try to say the name “Mwangi”….Monkay, Monkeey, Munki, Mongay….it’s a beautiful thing to watch.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:06:16 +0000

@Mwangi, I hear you on the titles thing. I always wonder why people feel the need to add their qualifications after their name. (Kelly so and so, CPA, CFA, MBA etc etc ) and to make matters worse, they even state the universities and honours etc. Is it a standard especially in the academic circles?

Now, my Meru name means someone who takes care of cows! (Gatwiri)..lol…I find it really hard to see the depth in it, but I’ll keep searching. I think I will embark on a campaign to teach guys how to pronounce it, but in the meantime, I can use my surname which is a bit common around here.

By: Mwangi

Mwangi — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:27:47 +0000

@R: That is one of the things that has always baffled me about some of our obsessions as African people, we seem more obsessed with the tool – the career, the job, the office, the new computer – and the labels surrounding it -job titles, PHD, MBA etc etc than we do about the substance e.g. very few people actually know what exactly they want to do with all that money or what they will do once they reach that holy grail that is retirement that they work so hard towards.

By: R

Thu, 22 May 2008 15:25:26 +0000

hit the nail on the head with this one . Been there, done that.

When I was younger, I was very enticed by promotions that translated to new titles rather than actual change in the pocket. Now, not so much. Now, show me the money.