In the early years before Independence the then Malaya imported a lot of labour from China and India. The Chinese were brought in by Chinese tin miners while the Indians were brought in by the British to work on the rubber plantations which were being opened up by vested interests. The first group of Policemen were brought in from Punjab to help in the security of the country as there were threats to kill Englishmen.
Most Government Departments were either staffed by Ceylonese or Indians. A number of them found jobs in Government Agencies. The registration of Births and Deaths were generally administered by these imported Labour. As they were not familiar with the languages spoken by a variety of immigrants who were flooding the country the names of the immigrants were usually distorted at the registration of children. An Indian child called Kunjuni had his name as Kong Yong Nee giving the name a Chinese twist in his birth certificate. When he became an adult and worked for the Post Office, he was popularly called Mr. Kong much to the amusement of his Chinese colleagues and customers.
In the days gone by parents were given two weeks’ grace to name a child born at the Hospital. If the dateline passed and there was no name forthcoming the clerk at the Hospital would insert the fact in the Birth Certificate as “unnamed”. So, my classmate Unnamed had the misfortune of having the term “unnamed” in his Birth Certificate. At the time of registration for School the school clerk entered the name “Unnamed” in the Registry. It was in the third year of his school yearm when a curious teacher asked the student the meaning of his name. When the student gave a vacant stare the teacher told him to bring his father the following day. The father explained the mystery of his son’s name, The teacher was kind enough to correct the school records and advised the father to approach the Registration Department to make corrections in the Birth Certificate.
#memoriesofayoungman #mynameisgana
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