How are you doing? "BANI"

Since I was a child, I’ve always wondered how my family got this unique last name, Bani. My great great grandfather was originally from Mali but somehow ended up in Sudan. Since then, many rumors about his mysterious name change from Abu-baker to Bani were circulating around my family. First, my father told me a story about the Bani River in Mali and how we originated from a small Fulani village near there. When Abu-baker came from Mali with his family to Sudan, they all adopted the last name Bani to stay connected to their place of origin.

Then, a few years later, my uncle told me a different story of our last name. He said that during the early 1900s, Abu-baker settled in Sudan after a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia. He knew only a few words in Arabic but there were two phrases that he mixed up “What’s your name?” and “How are you?” Whenever someone would ask “What’s your name?” he would reply “Bani”. The word bani means healthy in Arabic. Over time, people started calling him by that name and for over a century it’s been officially our last name.

My older brother, on the other hand, told me a similar story about Abu-baker’s name change. On his way back from the pilgrimage, Abu-baker got a chronic illness and had to settle in Sudan. People in the village nicknamed him Bani to contradict the fact that he was chronically ill. Till today the name change remains a mystery, but I’ll surely pass these stories down to the future Bani generation.