Honestly, not a great deal is locked in a name. When the late Joseph Desire Mobutu changed his names to Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Gbendu Wazabanga and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Zaire, he was unleashing nationalistic zeal into Zaire’s politically ideational redefinition. His attempt represented a break from a colonial past into a more indigenous present. However, that indigenous present failed to translate into a secure future for most Zairois. Today, the Congolese from Kinshasa take offense at being referred to as Zairois. Once again, a name is used to break with a nauseous past, while still predicting an uncertain future.
However, with SA still seething in the racial legacy of the Apartheid era, the move from Pretoria to Tshwane might be more than just a name change…it might be an attempt to reclaim the city from its colonial past and recast the city underneath its pre-colonial shadow. You wish….:-) Long Live Tshwane...but is it time for a name change in Baghdad?
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