Time to rename Victoria Falls!

WELCOME to Africa, where all residential suburbs are named in dead European heroes’ names and British Boroughs and nobody sees nothing wrong with that. Thames-Upon Avon has a little sister called Avondale, north of Harare. No problem.

Try to rename Avondale to Mutiusinazita and long knives will come your way. Shall we then rename Sheffield Nhimbe or Mthwakazi? Sounds laughable, huh? Well, the history of a people is shaped by the way they name their country and their important institutions and landmarks. Lobengula’s son has his legacy preserved at Nkulumane. Where shall you put yours if you have any? Your grandfather’s or ancestor’s name which you take pride in as your surname is his legacy.

JF Kennedy International Airport endears the great statesman’s leadership exploits in the American memory. So is Ford’s in his brand of automobiles which have outlived him. Stadia, Airports and important man made infrastructure have been named after men and women who made positive differences in the lives of their generations, some beyond. To this end, we have Beitbridge, Beit Hall, Stoddart Hall, Mai Misodzi Hall, Joshua Nkomo International Airport and Morris Depot. Need I continue the listing? Do you have the whole month?

A people’s political, economic and social history cannot be taken for granted. Cecil John Rhodes’ political history is plastered all over Zimbabwe. Rhodes Avenue, Newlands. Rhodene, Masvingo. Rhodesville Avenue, Greendale. Rhodesdale, Mvuma. Cecil Hotel, Gweru. Cecil John Rhodes Primary School, Gweru. Cecil Rhodes Drive, Newlands. The Surveyor General can provide more literature on this paragraph. My duty is not to survey the whole country. Mine is to open debate on this matter.

Lectures and seminars can be organised in defence of the ubiquitous English names spread across the country, some of them corrupted to a point of losing their meaning. The other day I took my elderly aunt to task to tell me what Damme Good really meant, regards the nearby bridge named as such. She told me that it meant exactly that.

It only took her son to confide in me that it was a corruption of “Do me Good”. I laughed out my lungs and remembered of a story I read twenty years ago of a commercial farmer named Mandigumbura by the outlying village which having studied his uncontrollable temper and combined it his name, the only name he could get from their forked tongue was none other than Mandigumbura. His real name was Montgomery.

It will take Africa centuries to reclaim its identity if no proactive designs are not wielded in pursuit of real independence. The history of Africa must be told by its own sons their own way. It must cease to become the celebration of colonial conquest. History ought to be re-written.

I have a bone to chew with African Professors of African history. Professor Ngwabi Bhebhe and friends, are you there? Their professorships are European Professorships of African History. We demand African professorships of African history. Nothing less; nothing more.

Therefore when confronted with an opportunity, let us promote our own. Gone should be the days English names are given to new suburbs in an independent former British colony. It is undeniable that history cannot be erased, but when confronted with the opportunity to shape the future, seize it in haste. It is wiser to give Swahili names instead, that is our own indigenous language, spoken fairly widely in Africa.

Africa’s continuance with colonial establishments continues to further divide and disunite it. It is this lack of unity which neo-colonialism puts the divisive wedge to decimate Africa into scores of tribes. If Africa is made up of many tribes, so must be France! What is it which creates tribes? Whatever it is that creates tribes in Africa is also there in Europe. What can certainly be sure is that tribalism is created by this apartheid design which continues to fragment African communities into small sub-sects. And once the African buys into this design, tribalism entrenches itself.

The majority Africans will rather be happy with a JF Kennedy airport in Johannesburg than a Jacob Zuma named one in the same vicinity. Africa has to rise above its inferiority complex. It has to jump start its own self esteem to sustainable levels. To achieve this, a uniting language is paramount.

Neighbouring African villages do not have to go to Paris to borrow a language in order to understand each other. The SADC, COMESA, ECOWAS and AU dreams can never be fully realised so long its populations continue to rely on non native languages.

True, there are scores of languages in the African sub-continent, so was Europe in the medieval ages. While maintaining individual cultures and identities, there still is a begging need to find a common African language that unites Africa as a people.

Until and unless Africa unites and develops sufficient pride in itself, the Victoria Falls remains David Livingstone’s discovery. It’s about time such names as Chief Siachamwaika Falls are put forward. So far we have shown signs of putting our designs towards preserving our own history using the iconic names amongst us. Welcome to Robert Mugabe International Airport. The pride of Zimbabwe.

Chigumbu Warikandwa