Name change for a little East African boy (East Africa, now Uganda)

Alf, a famous professor in his field at UCL, taught English in the 1960s in what was then East Africa.  

Suddenly being faced with some 40 African children in one class, he came up with a clever way of learning how to place which name with which face. 

You see, it wasn’t just that they all looked alike to him (initially anyway).  There was also the problem of their names.  Apparently, at that time (maybe still to this day), African babies would be named after the first thing the mother saw the moment the baby was born, so a baby could be named “Cowpat Under The Tree” or something equally unappetising.

Alf’s clever solution was to draw up a chart of where which child sat, and told them not to change seats until he got the hang of their identities. 

One day, Alf called out this particular boy’s name.  No answer.  Alf tried again.  No answer.  Alf looked at the chart, and yes, he’d called out the right name for that child in the corner, and he did tell them not to change seats.  So he tried again; still no answer. 

Alf said to the child, “Is your name not Cowpat Under The Tree?”  The child said, “It was yesterday, but not today.”  Alf: “What do you mean ‘Not today’?”  The boy said, “I don’t like my name, so I’ve changed it.”  

OK, Alf thought, fair enough.  “What’s your new name?”  

The boy had gone and chosen the name of a very famous white man, and adopted it in full:  Adolf Hitler.