Feature Names and Identity in Zimbabwe

Abstract

This paper is about feature names in Zimbabwe. It focuses on the role played by place names in defining Zimbabwe, both as a physical entity and as a community of speakers with a remarkable history and a sense of nationhood. The paper thus focuses on two types of place names, that is, those that refer to the natural landscape, such as mountains and rivers, as well as those that refer to man-made features such as roads and streets, hospitals and schools. Regarding names that are bestowed onto the features of the natural landscape, we will look at how some place names vividly describe the outstanding features or characteristics of particular geographical features, that is, the extent to which the names are used as tools in describing the features; the way the eye meets the landscape. We will also look at how some names of physical features are coined in response to the landscape's 'behaviour' or in relation to the link the landscape has with historical event(s). The paper will also look at how the bestowal of commemorative names on Zimbabwean features has been used in concretising the Zimbabwean people's link with the country's history, that is, how Zimbabweans have tried to define themselves as a people through naming some of their popular places after names of the country's heroes and heroines, both living and dead.

Towards a postmissionary review of mission station names in the Church of Christ in Zimbabwe

“…Those institutions' colonialist names have been difficult to change after independence (Magudu, Muguti & Mutami 2014). Renaming distinctly reconstructs important vectors of identifying a place (Chabata 2007(Chabata , 2012 This study suggests that renaming Dadaya should engage geosemiotics (complementing geography, semiotics and pragmatics) and to fully engage locals in order to fully capture their thoughts (Makondo 2010;Scollon & Scollon 2003).…”

“…Former place names continued to impose 'spatial symbols of colonialism, racial appropriation, segregation and apartheid' (Guyot & Seethal 2007:86). They erased and reconstructed indigenous thought patterns (Chabata 2007(Chabata , 2012Magudu et al 2014). Dadaya was a well-thought name that strategically decapitated African mnemonic stability (Zerubavel 1997:85).…”

The ancestors, violence and democracy in Zimbabwe

“…Crucially and in honour of the dead, Mugabe instructed the change of street names from colonial names to ancestral names. Across the country, familiar names of national ancestors such as Chamunika, Kaguvi, Chitepo and Tongogara all meant to instil that the natural is permeated by the sacred (Chabata 2012).…”

‘Is Mugabe Also Among the National Deities and Kings?’: Place Renaming and the Appropriation of African Chieftainship Ideals and Spirituality in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

“…This study acknowledges that research, though scant, that directly or indirectly focuses on place (re)naming in Zimbabwe during the period of political transition from colonialism to independence exists. The running thread in this body of research is that the new government, under Mugabe, instituted a place-renaming exercise to supplant colonial identities and create a national identity for the new nation (Chabata, 2007(Chabata, , 2012Mamvura, 2020a;Mangena, 2018;Mashiri and Chabata, 2010;Mushati, 2013;Pfukwa, 2012Pfukwa, , 2018. The grand objectives of the place-renaming process were decolonisation and construction of a new identity for the new nation.…”