Cataloguing Africana: the case for the integration of onomastics into training programs

The article discusses the difficulty of cataloging African names using library cataloging systems devised in the West. The principles of onomastics, the study of proper names, are applied to personal and geographic names from Africa, showing problems with trying to organize them according the AACR2 ("Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules," Second Edition) guidelines. The diversity of African names and naming systems, stemming from the large number of African languages, is discussed, as is the issue of name changes. Some solutions for Africana catalogers are also suggested.