27 Feb 2020

What is in a name and what story do we want to tell as Batswana?

This question was asked by former University of Botswana Vice Chancellor and chairperson of the Botswana Society, Professor Bojosi Otlhogile as he took the audience through the importance of choosing a name for a place, especially in the context of Botswana during a workshop on the symbolism of place naming in Gaborone on Wednesday.

The workshop was hosted by the Department of History -UB and the Botswana Society.

Prof. Otlhogile said serious thinking must go into choosing a name for a place.

“Take Gaborone as an example, one will notice that there was a pattern to the naming of streets.

It seems they worked from the generic to the particular.

At Extension 9, officially called Phologolo, most streets are named after animals while at Village; most streets are named after rivers,” he said.

Prof. Otlhogile said often, two factors influenced the naming of places, namely industrialisation and migration while sometimes the two merge into one. 

He added that with regards to industrialisation, the British were the main culprits who often carried the names of their towns from the United Kingdom to new settlements and at times influenced by the dominant mode of production.

“The same influence permeated into local toponomy and influenced place names, even if only colloquially, such as those coming from Francistown’s hinterland still refer to the city as ‘toropo’, and we know there is only one toropo, called the Ghetto” he said.

Prof Otlhogile said there were a few oddities with local place names and wondered why some places had more than one names, sometimes official and unofficial, yet both accepted.

‘Artesia is known as Mosomane, Palla Road as Dinokwe and Village for Extension 15.

Some names are unofficial yet revered such as Jinja, Kasi, Bobcity or Kwa Motjing.

For his part, Dean of Humanities - UB, Prof. Andy Chebanne, said the aim of the workshop was intended to remind Batswana about their roots and where they were going as a nation.

“This reminder is around the core theme of names.

We live in a named environment and therefore we want to interrogate this symbolism of place naming and its linkage with the story of this town,” he said. ENDS