Eponymic Place Names in Zambia: A Critical Toponymies Perspective
Keywords:
Eponymic Place Names, Critical Toponymies Theory, Zambia, Social Conflict and Power Imbalance
Abstract
This study examines eponymic place names in Zambia, specifically focusing on names of international airports and national stadia. Names of these features have been selected for study because in 2011, they had been subjected to changes. The study brings out the doubled nature of this name change by the Patriotic Front regime: to commemorate Zambia’s heroes and to entrench their political stamina. To successfully bring out the double edged nature of place name change by the Patriotic Front regime, the study engages Critical Toponymies Theory, a theory which considers place names as social artefacts which are caught up in a web of social conflict, implicating them as key players in (re)producing unequal socio-political power balance, an aspect which can be viewed as a social problem. The study argues that names of key national places or features in Zambia, banal and mundane as they may appear, are implicated in formulating and perpetuating social classes and power imbalance in the country because they are agents that promote the ideologies, aspirations and worldview of the ruling elites.References
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2. Bassin, M. (2000a). Landscape and Identity in Russian and Soviet Art: An Introduction. Ecumene, 7:249-251.
3. Chabata, E. (2007). ‘The Role of Place Names in the Making of a Zimbabwean Identity.’ Nytt om Namm 46:13-17.
4. Chabata, E. (2012). ‘Feature Names and Identity in Zimbabwe.’ Oslo Studies in Language 4(2):30-45.
5. Chilala, C.F.K. (2003). ‘Marriage, Gender and Freedom in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House: A Zambian Perspective.’ Proceedings of The Relevance of A Doll’s House – Translation and Adaptation, International Ibsen Conference, Dhaka, Bangladesh, 8-14 November 2002: 101-118.
6. Chilala, C. (2006). An Analysis of Gender Issues in Zambian Literature in English. Master’s Thesis. The University of Zambia.
7. Chilala, C. (2013). ‘Through the Male Eyes: Gendered Styles in Contemporary Zambian Fiction.’ Reading Contemporary African Literature: Critical Perspectives: 91-99.
8. Chilala, C.H. (2016). ‘The Adamic Licence in Ellen Banda-Aaku’s Patchwork.’ The Postcolonial Condition of Names and Naming Practices in Southern Africa: 155-171.
9. Chilala, C. (2019). ‘Gendered Spaces in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart: Text, Context and Pretext.’ Theoretical and Applied Aspects of African Languages and Culture: 317-339.
10. Donada, T.J., and Reinoso, S.A. (2015). Toponyms as ‘Landscape Indicators.’ Onomàstica:1987-2016.
11. Gill, G. (2005). ‘Changing Symbols: The Renovation of Moscow Place Names.’ The Russian Review, 64:480-503.
12. Hagen, J. (2011). ‘Theorizing Scale in Critical Place-name Studies.’ ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 10(1), 23–27.
13. Light, D. (2014). ‘Tourism and Toponymy: Commodifying and Consuming Place Names.’ An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment, 16(1):141–156.
14. Light, D., and Young, C. (2014). ‘Toponymy as Commodities: Exploring the Economic Dimensions of Urban Place Names.’ International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, doi:10.1111/1468-2427.12153: 435-450.
15. Madden, J.D. (2017). Pushed off the Map: Toponymy and the Politics of Place in New York City. Urban Studies. ISSN 0042-098.
16. Mbenzi, A.P. (2009). The Management of Place Names in the Post-Colonial Period in Namibia. UNGEGN, Working Paper No. 67: Twenty-fifth Session Nairobi, 5–12 May.
17. Medway, D., and Warnaby, G. (2014). ‘What’s in a Name? Place Branding and Toponymic Commodification.’ Environment and Planning A, 46:153–167.
18. Myers, A.G. (2009). Naming and Placing the Other: Power and the Urban Landscape in Zanzibar, in Berg, D.L., and Vuolteenaho, J. (eds), Critical Toponymies: The Contested Politics of Place Naming. England: Ashgate Publishing Company: 85-100.
19. Ndletyana, M. (2012). ‘Changing Place Names in Post-apartheid South Africa: Accounting for the Unevenness, Social Dynamics.’ A Journal of African Studies, 38(1): 87-103.
20. Perko, D., Jordan, P., and Komac, B. (2017). Exonyms and other Geographical Names. Acta Geographica Slovenica, 57(1):99–107.
21. Post, W\.C., and Alderman. (2014). ‘Wiping New Berlin off the Map’: Political Economy and the De-Germanisation of the Toponymic Landscape in First World War USA. Area, 2014, 46.1, 83–91, doi: 10.1111/area.12075.
22. Rajic, L. (2012). ‘Toponyms and the Political and Ethnic Identity in Serbia.’ Studies in Language 4(2):185-204.
23. Rose-Redwood, R., and Alderman, D. (2011). ‘Critical Interventions in Political Toponymy.’ An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 2011, 10 (1):1-6.
24. Rose-Redwood, R., Alderman, D., and Azaryahu, M. (2010). Geographies of Toponymic Inscription: New Directions in Critical Place-name Studies. Progress in Human Geography, 34(4):453–470.
25. Wakumelo, M., Mwanza, D., and Mkandawire, B. (2016). ‘The Toponymics of Postcolonial Zambia: Street Naming Patterns in Lusaka.’ The Postcolonial Condition of Names and Naming Practices in Southern Africa: 270-287.
26. “Obituary: Zambia’s Levy Mwanawasa”. BBC News. 19 August 2008. https://diaryofafrustratedbrotha.blogspot.com/2013/07/gabon-disaster-heroes-national-stadium_10.html
27. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2013/07/11/gabon-disaster-heroes-national-stadium/
Published
2020-09-30
How to Cite
Chilala, C. and Hang’ombe, K. (2020) “Eponymic Place Names in Zambia: A Critical Toponymies Perspective”, Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 3(1), pp. 81-92. doi: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.3.1.442.
Section
Humanities