The name Sandton Drive seems so benign, so anodyne you’d think it would survive a name change tsunami, were we to have one. Yet, even in the absence of such a tsunami, Sandton Drive is about to be renamed Leila Khaled, if some in the City of Joburg have their way.
Leave Sandton Drive alone, and we have many socioeconomic challenges worthy of our time, screams ActionSA, just as others agitate for the name change.
The truth though is that names are not random collection of letters, they carry meaning and symbolism that reinforces who we are, where we come from, what we are about and where we are going.
Our names are tied to our being. As a country, we await the government and civil society to convene a national dialogue, our Codesa II, to help us navigate the next 30 years of our democracy and more.
But what we also desperately need to sort out is who we are, so it’s clearer where we are going. The confusion, of course, may have its genesis in the very name Africa, given controversies about who gave Africa her name.
That Africa itself is not in any African language must break hearts. Some scholars argue Africa has its provenance from the Egyptian word Afru-ika, which means Motherland or the Latin word aprica, which refers to a sunny place.
If true, we are simply a place described and known for nothing but our abundant sun. If not true, the alternative is that we have this place whose name can’t be interpreted in any of the African languages.
How can it be correct that we are described by others merely as the sun? We sure have identity issues. To bring it home, many of us today carry names whose provenance makes no sense to us.
We use streets, enter into buildings and are surrounded by names that communicate many hurtful or benign things. One thing we must do is to be intentional about communicating who we are.
When we give ourselves names, we communicate our reverence and connection to our languages and those who came before us in our families. Or express myriad emotions for whatever reason. So Sandton Drive may not insult anyone.
But naming is more than just removing insults. It’s an affirmation of the self. It’s the curation of one’s identity. The point is not whether the name Leila Khaled is the right name for an important street in Africa’s richest square mile.
To rename and reflect on ourselves and our associations is to find ourselves. This is a struggle that must happen at a continental, national and individual level
Khaled is an inspiration for those who believe in Palestine’s right to exist. That the US consulate off Sandton City’s address will, if it’s renamed, include Khaled, symbolises a different type of victory.
The point isn’t to enter the rabbit hole that is the Palestine and Israel war, but to emphasise the importance of intentionally creating identifiers that resonate with who we are, as a country and a people.
If Khaled represents that, then great.
Rhodesia renamed itself Zimbabwe. South West Africa became Namibia when it attained independence. In that context, does South Africa itself need a new name?
Just as the name Africa, our sunny continent, may be innocuous and anodyne, it doesn’t mean it’s a thing to behold.
As a country, we need to identify and list major routes, streets and structures that need to be renamed and, following all legal prescripts, change these in one fell swoop. We need to do this and put it all behind us.
The current approach subjects us to the same recurring uproars, the same motivations for change, and we get defocused on the economic work that needs to be done to lift millions of people out of poverty.
Those who argue, therefore, that we have much bigger problems than street names are partly correct. We must move beyond the renaming mini sagas.
In the end, it’s not only a great idea to rename both insulting and benign names as a celebration and affirmation of who we are, it is a necessity imposed on us by history.
To rename and reflect on ourselves and our associations is to find ourselves. This is a struggle that must happen at a continental, national and individual level.
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