In 2008, many residents of what was then Van Riebeeck Street in the small city of Potchefstroom in South Africa defied the city council’s renaming it Peter Mokaba Avenue by erecting replica Van Riebeeck Street signs on their private... more
In 2008, many residents of what was then Van Riebeeck Street in the small city of Potchefstroom in South Africa defied the city council’s renaming it Peter Mokaba Avenue by erecting replica Van Riebeeck Street signs on their private property. Our interviews with these residents revealed a theme of moral, discursive and spatial straying and lostness. To explain this lostness we first show that Van Riebeeck and Mokaba are the master signifier and abject other of modern South Africa’s symbolic order. Second, we demonstrate how this symbolic order is inexorably linked to the racialised relations of production embodied in planned urban spaces such as Potchefstroom. Preserving the spatio-symbolic coincidence forged in the 1952 Van Riebeeck festival that tied Van Riebeeck, the bringer of modernity, to the Foreshore Plan, its first spatial manifestation, is what motivates this privatisation of toponymy. To move Mokaba from abject other to signifier of a new mythology that fails to coincide with the unaltered spatial embodiment of racialised relations of production is to stray too close to the uncomfortable message of Peter Mokaba – namely that the revolution has yet to happen.
Notes on Contributors. List of Figures. List of Tables. 1. Introduction (Oliviu Felecan and Alina Bugheșiu). PART I. NAMING POLICIES, TRENDS AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTICULTURALISM. 2. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in... more
Notes on Contributors. List of Figures. List of Tables. 1. Introduction (Oliviu Felecan and Alina Bugheșiu). PART I. NAMING POLICIES, TRENDS AND PRACTICES IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTICULTURALISM. 2. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in the United States (Frank Nuessel). 3. Hamburguesas and Enchiritos: How Multicultural Are American Fast-Food Names? (Laurel Sutton). 4. Policy of Name and Naming: Multicultural Aspects (Justyna B. Walkowiak). 5. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church: The Thematic Group “the Names of New Saints” (Halyna Matsyuk). 6. Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Russian Post-Soviet Streetscapes (Marina Golomidova). 7. Multicultural and National Anthroponymicon: Orthodox Name Versus Neo-pagan Pseudonym (Sergey Goryaev and Olga Olshvang). 8. Multicultural Influences on Russian Nicknaming Practices (Anna Tsepkova). 9. Multicultural Patronymic Landscapes of Naming in Russia, France, Germany, Great Britain and Romania (Eugen Schochenmaier). 10. Transylvania – An Anthroponymic Perspective (Oliviu Felecan). 11. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in Hungarian Anthroponymy (Mariann Slíz). 12. Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Pre-conquest Times and Catholic and Protestant Churches from Hungary: A Comparative Perspective. (Andrea Bölcskei). 13. Multicultural Features in Scandinavian Toponymy (Staffan Nyström). 14. Multi-cultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Contemporary Italian Anthroponymy (Davide Astori). 15. Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in a Postcolonial Word (Marie A. Rieger). 16. Onomastic Multiculturalism: Anthroponymy and Toponymy in South Africa (Bertie Neethling). 17. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in the Arab World (Wafa Abu Hatab). 18. The Formation of a Multicultural Society in Japan: An Observation of the Names of Shops and Signboards (Kazuko Tanabe and Yuan Jiang). PART II. NAMING AS A FORM OF IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION IN MULTI-CULTURAL SOCIETIES. 19. Names and Naming in the Iberian Peninsula. Joan Coromines’ Intercultural Approach in Onomastics (Joan Tort-Donada). 20. Between Cultural Heritage and Marketing: German Place Names in Post-Communist Czechia (Jaroslav David and Tereza Klemensová). 21. Multiculturalism in Polish Toponymy (Barbara Czopek-Kopciuch). 22. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming Reflected in German Brands (Angelika Bergien). 23. Italian Brand Names as Mirrors of Multicultural Aspects (Paola Cotticelli-Kurras). 24. Names of Street Food Vendors in Romania: Between Locality and Globality (Alina Bugheşiu). 25. The Contribution of the Greek Catholic Church to the Multicultural Diversification of Transylvanian Anthroponymy (Daiana Felecan and Nicolae Felecan). Multicultural Aspects Names and Naming in Russian Toponymy (Vladislav Alpatov). 27. Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in African Cultures: The Case of Kenya and Zimbabwe (Tendai Mangena and Solomon Waliaula). 28. Multicultural Aspects of Name and Naming in Nigeria: A Sociolinguistic Study (Idowu Odebode). 29. Multicultural Aspects of Names and Naming in American Literature (Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L. F. Nilsen). 30. Multiculturalism in Shakespeare’s Names (Grant W. Smith). Author Index. Subject Index.
