Hi everyone is Kaysonger. Just a reminder that you can listen to all of our

podcast ad-free on the Headspace Studio.

Hi, I'm Dora, and welcome to Radio Headspace, and to Friday. Here's to us to making it to the end of the week.

So I was reading a book the other night before bed by African shaman Malidoma Some and he says each person is born with a destiny and he or she is given a name that reflects that destiny.

Over the past year I've been learning more about my own ancestry and lineage. My mom is from Kenya and my dad is from Ghana.

They both immigrated to Canada over 30 years ago but still

have held on to certain cultural traditions and one of those things was the way

that they named their children. In Kenya there's a matronym and patronym naming system

which means that their children are named after their grandparents

as a way to honor our ancestors.

Dora means God's gift or gift from God.

My middle names, Kefura and Amma, share the details of when I was born.

Kefura means little rain and when I was born it was drizzling outside.

And Amma means Saturday for the day that I was born.

Finally my last name Kamau means silent warrior and originates from the Mao Mao tribe in Kenya.

Growing up with two immigrant parents wanting to create the best life for their children we

had to assimilate. When I was younger, however, I didn't see the value in having such a quote-unquote weird name.

I grew up in predominantly white settings.

We lived in a rural northern area of Canada for a good chunk of my life and my friends

had names like Emily Rose, Jessica Marie, Ashley, Lindsay, you know, normal names. For me I always felt like I stood out no matter how much my

parents told me to fit in whether it was my name my hair or my skin. So when I was around eight, my family moved to Van der Hoof, which is a small country

town in northern British Columbia. And on the first day of school the teacher had

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