Politics and the legacy of street renaming in postcolonial Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT

The announcement by the government of Zimbabwe on 21 November 2019 that a good number of streets were to be renamed motivated this study. We argue that the postcolonial urban landscape in Zimbabwe is increasingly becoming a space of contestation regarding renaming streets. Street renaming in Zimbabwe emphasizes the struggle against coloniality and a search for resilience and purpose among those in power. The leaders seek to use the renaming process to show their contribution to the national struggle and patriotism by honouring some fallen heroes and heroines. However, in a country characterised by hyperinflation, corruption, and fuel and cash shortages, such an emphasis has been deemed (by many ordinary citizens) a cover-up for failure to address glaring challenges. The narrative contributes to the literature on place names as ‘spaces of contestation,’ as street names are used to embody a particular narrative related to the postcolonial government’s history. The renaming provides another ‘soft layer’ of the urban landscape, which is about heritage and less of history.

KEYWORDS:

• Landscape
• governance
• power
• elitism
• space of contestation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding statement

No funding was used to support this research.

Notes

1 The ruling party that has been in power in Zimbabwe since the country gained its independence from colonial government in 1980.

2 The liberation struggle against the colonial Rhodesian government was fought against the nationalist forces that include Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA) forces. The ZANLA army was the military wing of ZANU-PF dominated by the Shona and led by Robert Mugabe in the late 1970s. The ZIPRA army was the military wing of dominated and controlled by the Ndebele under Joshua Nkomo.

3 A spirit medium who lived between 1862 and 1898 and who was instrumental in the orchestration of the First Chimurenga Liberation war against the British Colonial settlers in the late 1800s.

4 He was the founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), a militant organisation that opposed the Rhodesian colonial government. After independence Sithole formed his opposition political party ZANU Ndonga and went on to be arrested for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe in 1995. He eventually died in prison while appealing the two-year sentence that he had been sentenced.

5 ZANU-PF is associated with the cock as their emblem that shows the male dominance in the party exemplified by how a single cock usually dominates a flock.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abraham R. Matamanda

Abraham R Matamanda is an urban and regional planner who has also trained as a social ecologist. Abraham is a lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of Free State. His research focuses on urban governance and planning, informal urbanism in the Global South, human settlement planning, systems thinking, and political economy.

Innocent Chirisa

Innocent Chirisa is a full professor in the Department of Rural and Urban Planning at the University of Zimbabwe. He is currently the acting dean of the Faculty of Social Studies. He is also a research fellow with the University of the Free State, South Africa, in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. His research interests include environmental stewardship and planning, urban governments, and urban and regional resilience.

Tinashe N. Kanonhuhwa

Tinashe N Kanonhuhwa is a Master graduate from the Department of Rural and Urban Planning, University of Zimbabwe. Her research interests are urban transport planning, housing studies, and informal urbanism.

Dixon D. Mhlanga

Dixon D Mhlanga is a Lecturer in the Department of Architecture and Real Estate, University of Zimbabwe. His research interests are in urban design, sustainable urbanism, and the application of resilience principles in planning cities of the Global South.