This study analyses the different social variables that conditioned the naming of schools during the colonial period in Zimbabwe (1890-1979). The study collects and analyses the names given to schools in Salisbury (including Chitungwiza), Umtali and Fort Victoria the colonial period in Zimbabwe. The study adopts Geosemiotics, a theory propounded by Scollon and Scollon (2003), together with insights from Semantics, Semiotics and Pragmatics in the analysis of school names. Critical Discourse Analysis is used a method of data analysis. One of the main findings of the study is that place names are discourses of power which are used to express and legitimise power because they are part of the symbolic emblems of power. It was possible to ‘read’ the politics during the colonial period in Zimbabwe through the place names used in the colonial society. Both Europeans and Africans made conscious efforts to imbue public places with meanings. Overally, people who have access to power have ultimate control over place naming in any society. In this case, they manipulate place naming system in order to inscribe their own meanings and versions of history in the toponomastic landscape. The second finding is that place names are critical place-making devices that can be used to create imagined boundaries between people living in the same environment. Place names are useful discourses that index sameness and differences of people in a nation-state. Place names exist in interaction and kinship with other discourses in making places and imposing an identity on the landscape. Semiotics, Semantics and Pragmatics are instrumental in the appreciation of the meaning conveyed by school names. This study makes an important contribution to onomastic research in the sense that its findings can be generalised to other place naming categories during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. This study provides background information on how place naming was done during thecolonial period in Zimbabwe. This makes it significant because it provides insights on place naming in other states that went through the colonial experience, in Africa or elsewhere in the world. / African Languages

This study analyses the different social variables that conditioned the naming of schools during the colonial period in Zimbabwe (1890-1979). The study collects and analyses the names given to schools in Salisbury (including Chitungwiza), Umtali and Fort Victoria the colonial period in Zimbabwe. The study adopts Geosemiotics, a theory propounded by Scollon and Scollon (2003), together with insights from Semantics, Semiotics and Pragmatics in the analysis of school names. Critical Discourse Analysis is used a method of data analysis. One of the main findings of the study is that place names are discourses of power which are used to express and legitimise power because they are part of the symbolic emblems of power. It was possible to ‘read’ the politics during the colonial period in Zimbabwe through the place names used in the colonial society. Both Europeans and Africans made conscious efforts to imbue public places with meanings. Overally, people who have access to power have ultimate control over place naming in any society. In this case, they manipulate place naming system in order to inscribe their own meanings and versions of history in the toponomastic landscape. The second finding is that place names are critical place-making devices that can be used to create imagined boundaries between people living in the same environment. Place names are useful discourses that index sameness and differences of people in a nation-state. Place names exist in interaction and kinship with other discourses in making places and imposing an identity on the landscape. Semiotics, Semantics and Pragmatics are instrumental in the appreciation of the meaning conveyed by school names. This study makes an important contribution to onomastic research in the sense that its findings can be generalised to other place naming categories during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. This study provides background information on how place naming was done during thecolonial period in Zimbabwe. This makes it significant because it provides insights on place naming in other states that went through the colonial experience, in Africa or elsewhere in the world. / African Languages / D. Lit. et Phil. (African Languages)

This study is a survey of war names adopted by guerrillas during the Zimbabwean conflict (1966-1979). The study collects, describes and analyses war names that were used by ZANLA guerrillas in the conflict. It explores onomastic patterns and processes that influenced these war names. Names collected from textual sources and from interviews of former guerrillas are analysed and classified into nine categories. One of the main findings is that the background of the namer influenced the naming patterns and processes identified in the study. Another finding is that most guerrillas named themselves and it was also observed that some guerrillas have retained their names. The findings, analysed within the theoretical framework developed earlier from the onomastic and identity theories, indicate that the war name plays a vital role not only in concealing the old identity of the guerrilla but also in creating new identities, which were used as weapons for challenging the enemy and contesting space. Onomastic erasure and resuscitation are proposed as partial explanation for the creation of some war names. The study contributes to onomastic research not only in that it has produced a large corpus of war names that can be used for further research in that it is a significant point of reference in onomastic research in Zimbabwe and in southern Africa, especially in the area of nicknames and war names. It also lays the foundation for further research on the role of naming patterns and processes in peace building and conflict resolution in Zimbabwe, on the southern African subcontinent and elsewhere. / Thesis (D. Litt et Phil.)

Text in English / This qualitative study presents an onomastic perspective on the changing linguistic landscape of Zimbabwe which resulted from the post-2000 land reforms (also known as the Third Chimurenga). When veterans of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation assumed occupancy of former white-owned farms, they immediately pronounced their take-over of the land through changes in place names. The resultant toponymic landscape is anchored in the discourses of the First and Second Chimurenga. Through recasting the Chimurenga (war of liberation) narrative, the proponents of the post-2000 land reforms endeavoured to create a historical continuum from the colonisation of Zimbabwe in 1890 to the post-2000 reforms, which were perceived as an attempt to redress the historical anomaly of land inequality. The aim of this study is to examine toponymic changes on the geo-linguistic landscape, and establish the extent of the changes and the post-colonial identity portrayed by these place names. Within the case study design, research methods included in-depth interviews, document study and observations as means of data generation. Through the application of critical and sociolinguistic theories in the form of post-colonial theory, complemented by geo-semiotics, political semiotics and language ecology, this study uncovers the richness of toponymy in exposing a cryptic social narrative reflective of, among others, contestations of power. The findings indicate that post-2000 toponymy is a complex mixture of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial place names. These names recast the various narratives in respect of the history of Zimbabwe through the erasure of colonial toponyms and resuscitation older Chimurenga names. The resultant picture portrayed by post-2000 toponymy communicates a complex message of contested land ownership in Zimbabwe. There is a pronounced legacy of colonial toponymy that testifies to the British Imperial occupation of the land and the ideologies behind colonisation. This presence of colonial toponymy many years after independence is an ironic confirmation of the indelible legacy of British colonialism in Zimbabwe. The findings show a clear recasting of the discourses of violence and racial hostility, but also reveal an interesting trend of toponymic syncretism where colonial names are retained and used together with new names. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

This study is a survey of war names adopted by guerrillas during the Zimbabwean conflict (1966-1979). The study collects, describes and analyses war names that were used by ZANLA guerrillas in the conflict. It explores onomastic patterns and processes that influenced these war names. Names collected from textual sources and from interviews of former guerrillas are analysed and classified into nine categories. One of the main findings is that the background of the namer influenced the naming patterns and processes identified in the study. Another finding is that most guerrillas named themselves and it was also observed that some guerrillas have retained their names. The findings, analysed within the theoretical framework developed earlier from the onomastic and identity theories, indicate that the war name plays a vital role not only in concealing the old identity of the guerrilla but also in creating new identities, which were used as weapons for challenging the enemy and contesting space. Onomastic erasure and resuscitation are proposed as partial explanation for the creation of some war names. The study contributes to onomastic research not only in that it has produced a large corpus of war names that can be used for further research in that it is a significant point of reference in onomastic research in Zimbabwe and in southern Africa, especially in the area of nicknames and war names. It also lays the foundation for further research on the role of naming patterns and processes in peace building and conflict resolution in Zimbabwe, on the southern African subcontinent and elsewhere. / Thesis (D. Litt et Phil.)