Enslaved families preserved African honorific traditions in naming elders

Evidence

Mama or Papa before an elder’s name is a term of endearment, an African tradition passed down through the generations. Many of my ancestors were fondly referred to as Papa Renty, Papa Jake, and Papa Simon. The women were called Mama Ophelia and Mama Tourie. It was not lost on me that Dr. Edmund Taylor remarked fondly of an enslaved woman, Mama Lettie, who worked as a nurse in the Taylor family medical practice. These two family histories, told from very different points of view, were the same. I was certain of that. — Tamara Lanier, From These Roots, 504

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains that ‘Mama’/‘Papa’ as elder prefixes is an African honorific tradition carried into enslaved naming practices.