The Origin

was named,
Damani Nkosi,
Because I was tired of the conventional names
given black children.
No more European nonsense.
So I looked up,
in a friend of mines,
«African Naming Book»
Yoruba people
And I found one name that meant,
«Thoughtful»
because I wanted a son who was going to be thoughtful,
So I picked the name «Damani»
but not only did I want him to be thoughtful,
there was more
(laughter)
Naw,
He had to be a leader,
So I found the word «Nkosi»
which means ruler, chief,
So thoughtful ruler is what I named my son,
Damani Nkosi Washington, that’s my man