Names and naming: Bulawayo names as expressions of racism and patriarchy
BEFORE we deal with naming in a more pedestrian and mundane way, let us look at naming as a societal expression. Through names, society and its critical cultural elements, is expressed. Political players are identified. Gender issues are bared. The most critical values are identified. Names become the sites of critical analysis and interpretation of a myriad of aspects within a given community. What individuals and groups disapprove is found in names. We point this out as we are about to begin giving meanings behind names, particularly those that relate to streets and major Government buildings and how, to some extent this has become a contested field.
A look at the names of schools and roads in Bulawayo will reveal the practice of racism. The whites in the colonial period lived in the low-density eastern suburbs that are leafy and adequately lit with street lights. The densely populated western suburbs for the blacks are provided with tower lights instead. These were not provided for the comfort and convenience of blacks, but it was a way of monitoring them at night when they engaged in riotous activities and the police required to arrest them. Provision and quality of recreational facilities equally bore racial discrimination.
However, for the purposes of this article our intention is to bring out how naming was handled in the two areas allotted to different racial groups. Just a cursory look at the names of schools is expressive of the racial bias. Gifford, Milton, Evelyn, Hamilton, Montrose, Henry Low the list is endless. All these are names from the white community and their heroes and heroines. Hardly do we find names from the Ndebele world. Khumalo stands out as an exception.
Even in terms of the names of suburbs we have Hillside, Eloana, Fourwinds, North End, Suburbs, Barham Green, Newton West are names drawn from the world of the white people. Here and there is half-hearted inclusion of Ndebele names such as Famona, Matsheumhlope. There is Ingutsheni Psychiatric Hospital and Queens Park which refers to the Ndebele Queen Lozikeyi Dlodlo. What becomes clear is that whites immortalised their world and their experiences in that world. They would not and did not seek to feature the world and experiences not their own.
Only a few days ago we read in Chronicle about the immortalisation of the names of men who constituted the Allan Wilson Party dispatched to capture the fleeing Ndebele King. All 34 of them were killed. Streets were named after them and a monument on Malindandzimu Hill was erected. The Ndebele fighters who fell during the Battle of Pupu on 4 December 1893 were not treated in the same manner. Even to this day the names of Ndebele fighters who fell in that battle and the names of the regiments to which they belonged are hardly known. In schools that sort of historical information is not taught.
At the same time, within the white community, there are fewer names of women. Again, this is a reflection of the gender issue within that community. There was some pecking order within and between the races. The white man was right at the top, followed by the white woman. The black man came third below the white woman and the black woman was at the bottom of the gender pecking ladder.
Now turning to the western suburbs the patriarchal nature of Ndebele society is expressed in the names of roads, schools and other facilities. Men went to war while women did not. Military exploits were attended with laudatory praises and regard for physical valour, dedication and prowess. Performance poetry reflected the gender bias which bore patriarchal leanings. A township, do note, it was never referred to as a suburb, bore numerous street names which have since been vandalised by people with little, or no regard for memorialisation. There were names such as Mhabahaba Mkhwananzi, Mbiko Masuku, Mtshane Khumalo, Manondwane Tshabalala, among several other names of heroes. All were names of Ndebele war heroes who invariably were men. A gaze at the kaleidoscope of street names in the western townships was like going down memory lane to the Ndebele past, a past whose gender considerations were biased against women. Men ruled the roost.
The same is true of names of schools: JW Mthimkhulu, Mafakela, Matshayisikhova, Luveve, Lotshe, Helemu, Sigombe inter alia, are names of men. Indeed, there was inclusion of names of white men principally native commissioners who used to lord it over blacks. One name captures that idea; uMatshayisikhova, the native commissioner who stormed the village known by the same name in eSigodini. There were no names of white women. We should note that the top officials within the African Administration side of the Bulawayo City Council was led by whites, notably Dr Frederick Hugh Ashton and his Deputy, Mr Garget.
They chose names on the advice of members of the African Townships Advisory Boards. What we may not take away from those men is that they knew Ndebele history. What is unfortunate today is that there are no readily available narratives on the names of the streets. Women on the other hand had their names gracing beer gardens in the townships: MaMkhwananzi, MaKhumalo, MaDlodlo, Masina, Sidudla and others. Perhaps that was done in good faith by men who knew that beer brewing was a gender-based commercial enterprise. There were women who owned stands in Makokoba and rented out accommodation they built on the stands. The women were Ndebele with most, if not all of them, having been residents of the area from before the destruction and colonisation of the Ndebele State.
Names of regiments were another turf that was a favourite hunting ground for names to give to schools and townships. Godlwayo, Inyanda, Intunta, Ingwegwe, Mabhukudwane, Inkanyezi, Emakhandeni were some of the regimental names that got memorialised through the naming of schools in the western suburbs. Once again, there does not seem to be some source of information on the names. I remember at one time when Cain Ginyilitshe Ndabazekhaya Mathema asking me to provide that information by putting together a book. Time permitting, I may do just that.
Regimental commanders and chiefs also had their memories immortalised through naming: Lotshe, Mtshane, Mkhithika Thebe, Manondwane, Magwegwe, Sigombe, Sobukhazi, and others. The sum total of all this is that if the historical background to these names was furnished, it would focus the spotlight on Ndebele history. In the absence of a consolidated list in a medium accessible to the generality of the people, there is not much to be derived when each school excavates the meaning of its name. The information is not only fragmented but inaccessible.
The two kings also have had their names made to endure through various forms of memorialisation: Mzilikazi Township, Mzilikazi Art Centre, Mzilikazi Craft Industries, Lobengula Township, Lobengula Primary School, Lobengula Hall, Mzilikazi High School and Mzilikazi Primary School. If the history of names in Bulawayo were to be furnished, researched and written down, that would provide an open window into the tapestry of the history of a people whose state and nation were destroyed on the prompting of imperially inclined Cecil John Rhodes, all in the name of lustful quest for the mineral wealth in the bowels of the earth.