‘Toponymic commemoration is not for one sex’: the gender politics of place renaming in Harare

Abstract

This article adds to discussions on gender and collective memory. During the war, the nationalist movement was generally gender inclusive. This collective discourse was driven by the need for forming a united front against colonialism. However, this inclusive aspect ceased to exist in the post-independence because post-colonial policies were sexist. After the attainment of independence, the government made attempts to commemorate the war through an extensive place renaming process, among other efforts. Through analysing the place renaming process, this article interrogates the government’s commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment when it consciously ignores other fronts in which women are marginalised. However, the place renaming process in Zimbabwe shows a nation which is imagined and invented along patriarchal discourses. This article analyses the renaming of the built environment, paying particular attention to streets and buildings in Harare because much of the renaming was done on these two components of the humanly constructed environment. The role of place names as components of the cityscape merits scholarly interrogation because they are neither politically neutral nor innocent. Place names, being part of a political regime’s assemblage of symbols of power, usually further the interests of the politically powerful in the society.