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ABSTRACT
This article revolves around the naming of streets in Dakar-Plateau. This was borne in mind as analysis considered the system of urban nomenclature applied in the colonial era, when the city was founded and shaped by France’s colonial administration; as well as the (re)naming process ongoing after Senegal’s independence. The approach thus applied quantitative verification methods to a thesis oft-repeated in the subject literature, that a French glossary of toponyms dominates the system by which streets in Dakar are named. Quantitative analysis here shows unequivocally that there is only a slight numerical prevalence of colonial-era names of streets over new names. Beyond that, clear evidence is offered for the idea that, in both colonial days and today, the symbolic urban landscape expressed with the aid of urbanonyms was shaped by authorities in a conscious manner, being pressed into the service of political objectives. To indicate the strength of this kind of linkage, the article engages in the detailed discussion of each change of name that certain streets have been through; the bases for this approach being reference to the historical town/city plans present in the Archives Nationales du Sénégal, as well as fieldwork carried out in the Senegalese capital.
Acknowlegements
We are very grateful to Rada Konsultacyjna ds. Studenckiego Ruchu Naukowego of the University of Warsaw for providing the funding for the above research (2/II/2018) and to the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw (BOB-661-100/18) for the financial support in preparing this article. We are also grateful to Archives Nationales du Sénégal for the permission to use and publish the archival data.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Krzysztof Górny is a geographer and doctoral student at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw. His Master’s Thesis (2016) involved the application of line diagram to analyse contemporary diversity of African states. He is currently working on a dissertation concerning colonial heritage in the urban space of West African countries and he conducted fieldwork on the topic in Cape Verde, Gambia and Senegal. He actively participates in the research projects related to urban studies, political geography and historical geography.
Ada Górna is a geographer and doctoral student at the Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies of the University of Warsaw. Her Master’s Thesis (2017) concerned the spatial distribution and typology of foreign land deals in African countries. She is currently working on a dissertation on the presence of agriculture in the spatial and functional structure of the cities of the Global South. During her academic career she took active part in various projects related to urban and development studies and conducted fieldwork in several countries, for example in Cape Verde, Senegal, Cuba and Singapore.
Notes
1 Harris, Constructing Dakar, 2.
2 Azaryahu, The Power of Commemorative Street Names, 311.
3 Bigon, Names, Norms and Forms.
4 Ibid., 497.
5 Ibid., 498.
6 Njoh, Toponimic Inscription, 1174–92.
7 Ibid., 1176.
8 Ibid., 1190; Bigon, Names, Norms and Forms, 498; d’Almeida-Topor, The Colonial Toponymic Model, 93.
9 Njoh, Planning Power, 217.
10 Beeckmans, A Toponymy of Segregation.
11 Bigon and Hart, Beneath the City’s Grid, 58.
12 Alderman, Place, Naming and the Interpretation, 195.
13 Guyot and Seethal, Identity of Place, 55.
14 Azaryahu, The Critical Turn and Beyond, 28.
15 Ibid., 28.
16 Ibid., 30.
17 Holescher and Alderman, Memory and Place, 350.
18 Rose-Redwood and Alderman, Geographies of Toponymic Inscription, 457. Azaryahu, The Power of Commemorative, 321.
19 Azaryahu, The Critical Turn and Beyond, 31.
20 d’Almeida-Topor, The Colonial Toponymic Model, 103.
21 Bigon, Garden City in the Tropics?.
22 Harris, Constructing Dakar, 6–7.
23 Bigon and Hart, Beneath the City’s Grid, 55.
24 Njoh, The Experience and Legacy, 441.
25 Grant, The Dark Side of the Grid, 223.
26 Beeckmans and Bigon, The Making of the Central Markets of Dakar and Kinshasa, 415.
27 Seck, Dakar, M'etropole, ouest-africaine, 129.
28 Njoh, Toponimic Inscription, 1178.
29 Bigon, Names, Norms and Forms, 484; Faure, Histoire de la presqu'île du Cap Vert et des origines de Dakar.
30 Ibid., 485–6.
31 Whittlesey, Dakar and the Other Cape Verde Settlements, 632.
32 Whittlesey, 632.
33 Castillo Hidalgo, “The port of Dakar,” 90.
34 Harris, Constructing Dakar, 20.
35 Bigon, Bubonic Plague, Colonial Ideologies, and Urban Planning Policies, 207–10.
36 Bigon, A History of Urban Planning and Infectious Diseases, 7.
37 Njoh, Colonial Philosophies, 587.
38 Bigon, Names, Norms and Forms, 487.
39 Genova, “Colonial Ambivalence,” 62.
40 Babou, Contesting Space, Shaping Places, 405.
41 Castillo Hidalgo, “The Port of Dakar.”
42 Harris, Constructing Dakar, 19.
43 Bigon and Njoh, Power and Social Control, 938.
44 Harris, Constructing Dakar, 21.
45 Bigon, French colonial Dakar, 84.
46 Keller, Colonial Suspects, 50.
47 Bigon and Njoh, The Toponymic Inscription, 34.
48 Njoh, Toponimic Inscription, 1182.
49 Boone, State Power and Economic Crisis in Senegal, 342.
50 Ibid., 343.
51 Wanjiru and Matsubara, Street Toponymy and the Decolonization, 1–23.
52 Larsen, Re-Placing Imperial Landscapes, 47.
53 Lagae, From “Patrimoine Partagé” to “Whose Heritage”?, 14.
54 Njoh, Toponimic Inscription, 1179.
55 Camra and Seck, Secularity and Freedom of Religion in Senegal, 860.
56 Njoh, Toponimic Inscription, 1182–3.
57 Leichtman, The Legacy of Transnational Lives, 668.