Renaming SA’s cities is about regaining status

‘The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there.”

The opening lines of LP Hartley’s 1953 novel, The Go-Between, are something all of us who live here in Africa, in the post-colonial age, would do well to consider.

This week, there was outrage in some quarters about the announcement by Sports, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa that the Eastern Cape’s biggest city, Port Elizabeth, would be renamed Gqeberha.

The city’s airport will be renamed Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport, while Uitenhage will now be known as Kariega.

Gqeberha is the isiXhosa name for the Walmer area of the city, while Stuurman led a rebellion in the early 1800s against the settlers and was sent to New South Wales, Australia, in 1823.

He was still in exile when he died in Sydney seven years later.

There have been plenty of jokes doing the rounds (from white people mainly) about how difficult it is going to be to pronounce Gqeberha.

But, just as seriously, questions have been asked about why the country is going to the expense of changing names while there are many other priorities for state spending.

On the first point – South Africa belongs to all of us and not being prepared to at least respect others by trying to pronounce names correctly is selfish.

And it begs similar treatment in return.

Secondly, there will never be a “good” time for changing our country’s landscape to reflect current realities.

Moving away from the names of the past should not be seen as retribution but as an important way of reinforcing the dignity of many of our people – those whose dignity was stripped from them by colonialism and apartheid.

If we want the new country of the future to succeed, then all of us have to do things differently.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.