Street naming and political identity in the postcolonial African city: A social sustainability framework

Abstract

ABSTRACT Street naming in Windhoek, Namibia, traces its political origins to the German colonial period. While the role of toponymy as a tool for political construction in the postcolonial epoch is an important matter of scholarly interest, much work remains to be done on the subject in the sub-Saharan African context. Moreover, the dialectical relationships between political identity and sustainable development have largely not been broached. This study seeks to bridge the noted lacunae by propounding a social sustainability framework for street naming premised on the conceptual tripod of postcolonialism, subaltern geopolitics and memorialization. It employs questionnaires administered to residents, interviews with subject matter experts and planners, as well as field visits, photography and document analysis to dissect the ontological processes, characteristics and meanings encapsulated in Windhoek’s approach to street naming. The social sustainability framework evinces the identity of the postcolonial African city in six main facets: urban toponymy and morphology; urban planning and development; political engagement; social equity and innovation; indigenization and cultural identity; as well as transitional justice. Through a cynosure of Windhoek, a southern African city under-researched in the existing literature, it provides important theoretical and empirical insights regarding the political dynamics of sustainable development.