Bridget Ndlovu-Jones' Blog

I love being in a country where people can pronounce my name. Properly. Without hesitation. ‘Ndlovu’, they’ll say confidently! In fact, embarrassingly, people pronounce it better than I do. Well, black people pronounce it properly - white people try. Bless ‘em!
In London, people would simply stare at my name and pause. Invariably, seconds later, one of two paths were chosen :
Path 1 : Try and insert vowels were there were too many consonants. For example, I once was famously called “Nod-i-lov-u” - more of a sentence than a surname.
Path 2 : Treat the ‘N’ and the ‘d’ as being silent and simply call me “Lovu”.