Home » Grahamstown to be Renamed Makhanda

Grahamstown to be Renamed Makhanda

The Department of Arts and Culture announced in South Africa on Friday that the name of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape is soon to be changed to Makhanda, . The name change was published in the Government Gazette on Friday after almost two decades of calls for a change, according to the Department. Arts Minister Nathi […]

By SAPeople
21-09-19 23:10
in Fab South African Stuff

The Department of Arts and Culture announced in South Africa on Friday that the name of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape is soon to be changed to Makhanda, .

The name change was published in the Government Gazette on Friday after almost two decades of calls for a change, according to the Department.

Arts Minister Nathi Mthethwa reminded South Africans that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended “the renaming of geographic features be a form of ‘symbolic reparation’ to address an unjust past”.

In a statement, the Minister said name changes are an internationally accepted practice fully supported by the United Nations, and that there has been a push to change Grahamstown’s name because of what Colonel Graham epitomises “and the painfully bitter memories his name evokes”.

His name is captured in history “as being the most brutal and most vicious of the British commanders on that frontier” – even post-battle he and his soldiers used the ‘scorched-earth policy’ to burn the people’s fields and kill their cattle… thus “starving them into submission before killing them”, said the Arts Minister.

The popular university town will instead by named after a Xhosa warrior, philosopher, prophet and military man named Makhanda who fought against colonialism. Makhanda – also known as Nxele – led an attack against the British garrison at Grahamstown in 1819.

The statement outlined the renaming process and said: “Minister Mthethwa would like to urge all South Africans to all be crystal clear about the meaning of name-change in the national effort to transform the country.”

https://twitter.com/Nandz_90/status/1012749857889628162