Names, norms and forms: French and indigenous toponyms in early colonial Dakar, Senegal

Bigon, Liora

doi:10.1080/02665430802319021

Cited by 47 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Furthermore, its development was largely a story of order through displacement. Indigenous residents were first displaced from the tip of the Dakar peninsula and subsequently pushed further away to the outskirts of the city [25,26]. Pikine is a product of this displacement and is located about 10 km from central Dakar.…”

Section: Urban and Economic Development Of Pikinementioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with Floods in Pikine, Senegal: An Exploration of Household Impacts and Prevention Efforts

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

African cities are at increasing risk for disasters, including floods. Pikine, Senegal—located on the outskirts of the Dakar metropolitan region—has experienced regular floods since 2005 due to a rising water table, dense settlement, and inadequate drainage. The goal of this research was to assess household experiences of floods through in-depth qualitative interviews in one area of Pikine. A total of 44 households were interviewed on the economic and health impacts of flooding and their perceptions of flood mitigation strategies. Our research confirmed that floods create substantial economic and health burdens for families and that infrastructure projects have helped, but not solved, the flooding issues. Our research also had some unexpected findings, particularly relating to concerns over drinking water, land tenure and housing prices, and perception of government intervention.

show abstract

Section: Urban and Economic Development Of Pikinementioning

confidence: 99%

Coping with Floods in Pikine, Senegal: An Exploration of Household Impacts and Prevention Efforts

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The idea of the African was only encouraged if it supported the Eurocentric image through compliance or cooperation. In addition, the only Senegalese leaders who were commemorated were those who cooperated with the French in their colonial conquests [23]. Similar odonymic policies were introduced in the main colonial capital cities by German, French, and British colonial powers [24][25][26].…”

Section: Critical Toponymy: a Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toponymy, Pioneership, and the Politics of Ethnic Hierarchies in the Spatial Organization of British Colonial Nairobi

Wanjiru

Giraut

2020

Urban Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Toponyms, along with other urban symbols, were used as a tool of control over space in many African countries during the colonial period. This strategy was epitomized by the British, who applied it in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya from the late 1800s. This paper shows that toponymy in colonial Nairobi was an imposition of British political references, urban nomenclature, as well as the replication of a British spatial idyll on the urban landscape of Nairobi. In early colonial Nairobi, the population was mainly composed of three main groups: British, Asians, and Africans. Although the Africans formed the bulk of the population, they were the least represented, socially, economically and politically. Ironically, he British, who were the least in population held the political and economic power, and they applied it vigorously in shaping the identity of the city. The Asians were neither as powerful as the British, nor were they considered to be at the low level of the native Africans. This was the deliberate hierarchical structure that was instituted by the colonial government, where the level of urban citizenship depended on ethnic affiliation. Consequently, this structure was reflected in the toponymy and spatial organization of the newly founded city with little consideration to its pre-colonial status. Streets, buildings and other spaces such as parks were predominantly named after the British monarchy, colonial administrators, settler farmers, and businessmen, as well as prominent Asian personalities. In this paper, historical references such as maps, letter correspondences, monographs, and newspaper archives have been used as evidence to prove that toponyms in colonial Nairobi were the spatial signifiers that reflected the political, ideological and ethnic hierarchies and inequalities of the time.

show abstract

“…Drawing on the urban-planning approach developed in Morocco and other French colonies, Colonel Hubert Lyautey and his colonial cadre in Madagascar conserved the fundamental layout of the cities they encountered (Rabinow 1989: 228; Wright 1991). Important to colonial interventions, however, were physical impressions of their presence created through the use of toponyms, memorials and monuments (Carter 1988; Myers 2009; Bigon 2008). In Majunga, French planners named the streets after famous French colonial-era figures and sought to recast it according to a European design, while retaining what they perceived as the distinctive ‘Indo-Arab’ texture of the town (Catat 1895).…”

Section: Situating Place Maurièsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neglect as effacement: the multiple lives of the Jardin Ralaimongo, Mahajanga, Madagascar

Rijke-Epstein¹

2018

Africa

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

By considering the lifespan of a garden, this article investigates the myriad spatial practices of forgetting and remembering the colonial and postcolonial pasts that people apply to their urban surroundings in Mahajanga, Madagascar. In the heart of an ancient residential and commercial neighbourhood in this multi-ethnic Indian Ocean port city sits the Jardin Ralaimongo. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, I explore the trajectory of the garden to elucidate the ways in which different socio-political groups have drawn on this site to negotiate differences, frame collective memories, and stake their claims to the urban landscape. I show how, as city inhabitants have reworked the spaces of the garden, so too has the park itself – its layout, material artefacts and location within the city – constrained the possibilities of what can be remembered and silenced, and who can be bound to one another, in contemporary times. Over its hundred-year history, this site has been founded, forgotten and reincarnated as a memorial to a succession of revered leaders, thus serving as a kind of spatial register of the historical socio-political changes that have given rise to the city. This article suggests that the deterioration of colonial-era architectural forms through long-standing neglect and abandonment may be understood as an active spatial practice of effacing some dimensions of the past, while the subsequent recuperation of deserted public spaces by certain groups is an effort to position themselves as legitimate residents and express their attachment to the city.

show abstract

Names, norms and forms: French and indigenous toponyms in early colonial Dakar, Senegal

Cited by 47 publications

References 0 publications

Coping with Floods in Pikine, Senegal: An Exploration of Household Impacts and Prevention Efforts

Coping with Floods in Pikine, Senegal: An Exploration of Household Impacts and Prevention Efforts

Toponymy, Pioneership, and the Politics of Ethnic Hierarchies in the Spatial Organization of British Colonial Nairobi

Neglect as effacement: the multiple lives of the Jardin Ralaimongo, Mahajanga, Madagascar

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About