Napoleon Washington : what about that name ?

NAPOLEON WASHINGTON : WHAT ABOUT THAT NAME ?

Interestingly enough, nobody ever asks "is that your real name?" when introduced to Napoleon Washington. Still, the first question is generally about why could one chose such a bizarre identity....Napoleon Washington : what about that name ?** Interestingly enough, nobody ever asks "is that your real name?" when introduced to Napoleon Washington. Still, the first question is generally about why could one chose such a bizarre identity. Carefully classified, here is the story behind it as Washington tells it. *The short answer "If you could do with a single explanantion, I'd say - with all due respect - that it was the blackest name I managed to come up with". The "attitude reminder" answer "Well, I just thought it was both funny and a bit absurd, which is a good way to remember that what I care to take seriously is the job, not myself". The historical answer "There is this book by Ernest Gaines called 'The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman', a novel actually, that relates the life of a fictional old lady in her late nineties who was born a slave in a southern plantation, and was about seven or eight when the civil war ended. It's a history book really, and a beautiful one, with a very moving and clever approach of the emancipation problem through a social angle. Somewhere in the book, Gaines describes a group of ex-slaves who decide to leave the plantation to move 'up north', without any notion of where 'north' could be. After a couple of days walking, perplexed not to arrive anywhere, the group stops and an argument arises. During the conversation, one character claims 'My new name is Abe Washington. Don't call me Buck no more'. Then another goes 'My new name is Ace Freeman', and so on until everyone has re-baptized himself. The story behind it is that being pronounced free, many realized that their new condition required for them to have 'two names', not just a first one . So to defy misery, many granted themselves grandiloquent identities such as Lincoln, Moses, King, etc. Try to imagine what heart it takes, what incredible courage and faith lays behind that. It really moves me, and I chose this name as a tribute to that story". The less historical answer "The fact is I first heard the association of 'Napoleon' and 'Washington' in a Columbo episode entitled 'The Great Santini', and I thought it was funny as hell though I did not have any use for it. Later on, when I stumbled on the Ernest Gaines novel mentionned above, I figured it would do a perfect name, with a little connexion to the historic sale of Lousiana to the US by France". *...And one last thing "Napoleon, in my name, is not spelled with a 'é'. I did not want it to be a reference to any imperial dwarf from France at all, but just to stand as a way to mention that my status had something to do with two different continents. To be quite frank, I clearly failed on that point. It's wearing me thin that this sorry Bonaparte always comes up, but I really have nobody to blame about it but myself". Website created by Artinbox Multimedia.© 2010 - Napoleon Washington - Napoleon Washington
Napoleon Washington : what about that name ?
Interestingly enough, nobody ever asks "is that your real name?" when introduced to Napoleon Washington. Still, the first question is generally about why could one chose such a bizarre identity....
NAPOLEON WASHINGTON (Official Website)
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