Heritage
and Identity
The name “Pretoria” and the rewriting
of South African history
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| 4 | SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY | HERITAGE AND IDENTITY | X LESSONS |
Heritage
and Identity |
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Picture A: Pretoria After the 1994 elections South Africa’s new government decided that some city, area and street names had to change because they represented a bad part of our past. At the time there were no streets, cities or areas named after black people and heroes. Since 2003 there have been discussions about changing the name Pretoria to Tshwane. The city of Pretoria was named after Andries Pretorius, the Voortrekker leader, and falls inside the Tshwane Metropolitan area. The reason the name could change to Tshwane is because, according to legend, the area used to be called that when Chief Tshwane ruled his people in the area. Who was Chief Tshwane? According to oral tradition or stories Chief Tshwane was one of the sons of Chief Mushi or Msi from KwaZulu Natal. Chief Mushi moved to the region in about 1652 and gave an area near the Apies River to his son. The name of the area possibly comes from the word “tshwana”, which means “we are the same”. There is hardly any information available about Chief Tshwane. It could also be that the word Tshwane hints at a river that flows under black forests of hills and thick forests used to cover the whole area where Pretoria stands today. Some people also think that Tshwane refers to the colour black in Sotho, as in black cow or “kgomo e tshwene” while others say it means “little monkey”. Voortrekkerhoogte or Thaba-Tshwane?
Many residents of Pretoria feel that it would be wrong to change the city’s name because it is known all over the world and is also our capital city. It will also cost a lot of money because all the businesses in the city would have to change the addresses on there stationery. Other people feel it’s important that the name changes because it is a reminder of the days of apartheid, and like some of our provinces, should get a new name that shows the new South Africa so that we can rewrite the history of South Africa and include the events and people that were left out before. Learning Outcome: The learner is able to use information from sources about Pretoria/Tswhane and to communicate knowledge and understanding of the topic through writing a paragraph. He or she is also able to recognise that there can be two points of view about an aspect of the past.
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