Posted on 03/23/2012 7:04:38 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
What's in a name? Centuries of conflict, bloodshed and debate over the ownership of history, if it belongs to a street or city in South Africa.
Eighteen years after the demise of white minority rule, the country continues to struggle with the renaming of public spaces that reflect the new order while acknowledging a difficult past.
Although there is no shortage of tributes to Nelson Mandela, they still sit cheek by jowl with signs bearing the names of racial apartheid architects such as Hendrik Verwoerd.
Nowhere is the debate more intense than in the administrative capital and seat of the presidency, Pretoria, which is named after Andries Pretorius, who led the Boers (Dutch settlers) to victory over the indigenous Zulu tribe in battle.
The president, Jacob Zuma, is a Zulu. Since 2000 Pretoria has fallen within the City of Tshwane metropolitan municipality, whose mayor has called for the name Tshwane to supplant it. Local officials have also said the names of many streets ought to be Africanised.
On Friday, a newspaper report suggested that about 27 street names would be changed, although Pretoria itself would survive. The paper, Beeld, said the governing African National Congress (ANC) had made the offer in "behind-the-scenes negotiations".
A draft document obtained by the paper listed streets that would be targeted – and which tell their own story of South African history – including Schoeman, Van der Walt, Andries, DF Malan, Prinsloo, General Louis Botha, Kerk, Queen Wilhelmina, Voortrekkers, Beatrix, Hendrik Verwoerd, Hans Strijdom, Vermeulen and Potgieter.
The street names Pretorius and Paul Kruger are set to be retained, Beeld reported. Opposition parties were still arguing for retention of Church and Voortrekker streets.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
Street names: huge news
Leader sings about exterminating whites : crickets
They should do like Atlanta and call all the streets “Peachtree.”
... or do like Boston and name them all Meeting House something or other.
Would solve all the problems just like Atlantas.
If the typical SA can afford one and for some reason wants to stay, fork out for a good town car called the Marauder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDoRmT0iRic&feature=related
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