Page 8 - Heritage Streets of KwaMashu 2025

4 HERITAGE STREETS OF KWA-MASHU
By acknowledging and incorporating unofficial histories (mostly oral narrations) into our understanding of the past, we can gain a more complete and nuanced understanding of the complex forces that have shaped our world.
What’s behind the “name”? In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare is quoted as saying... “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.” Names carry significant meanings. Naming is very important in Africa’s everyday life even from time immemorial. In the past, African names were utilised to mark events that happen at the time when a person was born, in process becoming historical and also names were given as a wish (vision) by parents at the birth of the child (eg Bhekumuzi; the one who will look after the home; Simakade – the one who will stand forever; Phumelele, continuous success, Nontokozo, the perpetual happiness, etc.
In Africa (and elsewhere) there is a lot of historization of names – which could be geographical, a name of a river and its character, the mountain, the tree, etc. In England there is a place called “Oxford” – which is a combination of the animal “ox” and the river “Ford” – narrated as an historical occasion when “an ox crossed river Ford”.
Kwa-Mashu Street names equally reflect iconography of the township’s existence and significance relating to the Zulu heritage. This acquaintance appropriately gives birth to the naming of this book “Heritage Streets of Kwa-Mashu”.
It must be remembered that there is also a whole coding that goes with naming and pronunciation of names in certain circumstances – with the meaning of names sometimes embedded and subtextual. At times among Africans naming is about continuity and change, becoming very important in the family set-up. Sometimes naming is about respect, traditional protocol (alternative naming), for example a woman respecting the father of her husband’s family (abasemzini) who is “Mbuzi” will out of respect never call the goat, a “imbuzi” but
instead will call it “inkuleko”, or “amanzi” (water) would become “amacubane, amada” if there was a historical respected elder who was “Manzi in that particular family. Most people in oral tradition had argued that it was only the women who were expected to respect the calling of certain names, especially in families where they were married. However, history tells us that even King Shaka out of respect of his Mother Nandi he did not say “amanzi amnandi” (water is sweet) but instead used an equally alternative name “amtoti” (sweet) instead. The late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the late Prime Minister of the Zulu Nation, for example, never used the word “mnyama” out of respect of his great-grandparent “Mnyamana kaNgqengelele” – hence he always referred Black-Dark African people as abantu aba”mpisholo”.
Interestingly, even the Bible some names are written in codes – such as the first book of Moses, Genesis (“genes is”) which is about the creation’s relationship to “genes” and atoms (Adam), and the Revelation (Isambulo) – a code representing something needing to be decoded for it to be revealed – for example “666”