Why place names should be gender balanced

[Music]

i come

from a balanced family

four girls and four guys

and i am the fourth

our parents made sure that we all

did chose at home

and as we grew up they provided

similar opportunities for us all

because of this background i believe

that the subject of gender equality

is important for both men

and women it must be discussed

in all spheres of human endeavor

that is why i would like to see

equal gender representation

in the naming of public places which are

named after people

but first let me show you why

the subject of name is important to me

personally

my birth name is chanda panda

and somewhere along the way my parents

added allsword

as my roman catholic church baptismal

name

so my full name became auswad

chandapanda

but at some point during my primary

school years

whenever i showed up my friends started

laughing

at my last name saying

he’s counting because

it sounds like okupenda to count

in bamba however

my surname comes from the swahili

language

meaning beloved

i grew so sick and tired

of this constant teasing from my friends

as a kid that i

started feeling uneasy to write down my

phone name

on my notebooks so i only wrote

oswatijanda instead

and in the process school registers

captured this change

and by doing so i created two separate

identities for myself

which i still bear today chanda panda at

home

and among friends and oswald chanda in

government records

this experience ignited in me

the desire to know the meaning

of my first name chanda

but neither my parents nor

grandparents knew its meaning despite my

repeated questions on the same to the

point of bothering them

at one point my mother said ask your

grandmother my grandmother

go back to your mother just like that

at this early age therefore in my fifth

grade

in 1997 in the copper belt province of

zambia

i already developed this passion for

names

many years later while studying at the

university of zambia

my friends and i founded

the encyclopedia of african names

lifelong research and serial public

publication project

which focuses on collecting the names of

people

from our various local languages

their meanings and cultural significance

we got started with the help of some of

our lecturers and

other cultural authorities beyond the

university

i have been the series editor of this

work

for more than 10 years now

i also had the opportunity to work

for a brief period in the name planning

unit

at the institute of the estonian

language in tallinn

estonia my time at the

institute exposed me to that

government’s

policy and practice in regulating the

names of people

and of places and also to the un

treatment of place names

i would like to draw your attention to

the importance of

place names

according to the united nations group of

experts on geographical names

88 000 people died

following an earthquake in northern

pakistan

in 2005 because aid could not reach them

on time

despite the timely efforts by un

humanitarian officers

they were impeded by the lack of

standardized

geographical names

so they were unable to locate the

affected villages and people

in a timely manner

this data that was missing was important

for input into the geographical

information system

to enable rapid response

perhaps many of these 88 000 lives that

were lost

could have been saved had there been

standardized geographical names

on a positive note right about the same

period

following the tsunami natural disaster

indonesia was more aptly prepared

in terms of standardizing geographical

names

therefore they were able to locate

and save many lives

one of the most important elements in

these two examples

was the presence or absence of

standardized

geographical names

in fact according to the un

geographical names are key to the

fulfillment

of all 17 sustainable development goals

as they facilitate the efficient and

effective

delivery of services

and goods moreover if we include

gender balanced place name planning in

the expansion plans of our cities around

the world

we will be facilitating fulfillment of

sdg 5 which focuses on achieving gender

equality

around the world by the year 2030

let us now consider our need

to promote gender balance in place names

despite a un report stating that girls

and women make up half of the world’s

population

less than 10 percent of all the public

places which are named after people

in european cities on average bear

women’s names

some cities scoring as low as

two percent

this grim gendered picture is as

vivid in my home country zambia

and around the world as it is in europe

unfortunately the lack of representation

of female icons in public spaces is

rooted in our collective

cultural past as the human race

vinashe mamvura stated that

if a city’s streets project

a masculinized memory

people get the impression that women did

not participate

in the war but only men did

if we promote gender balance

in place names we will be providing

equal opportunities for young people of

both genders to find

inspiration as their models

or heroes will be put right on display

wherever they are in their respective

cities

however the renaming of public spaces

has been opposed for various reasons

renaming is an expensive exercise for

both

authorities and the general public

for authorities because they have to

bear the cost of erecting

new street signs for the general public

because they have to put up with the

inconvenience of

replacing their ids

and other related personal information

to include the new street names

this in turn changes

their personal identity

despite the expensive nature of this

exercise

some cities such as brussels

copenhagen paris vienna

and johannesburg here in africa are

already doing it

they are already renaming public streets

to promote commemoration of female icons

the other form of opposition is from

some

right-wing politicians who label

the renaming of public places after

women

as a liberal leftist concept

as you may know the liberal leftist

political ideology promotes individual

freedoms

and and social equality and is more open

to change

while some right-wingers are more

conservative and they would just

rather maintain the status quo

but our current topic is too important

to be polarized as

left or right

in africa the situation is different

for instance here in zambia half of our

streets have

no names the situation is

the same in other sub-saharan african

countries according to the un

though it poses many challenges we must

use

this status to our advantage

that we may potentially achieve gender

equality

faster and cheaper

because half of our costs are already

done away with

that is costs attached to the exercise

of renaming

are done away with by the absence of

names

in the first place

so how can we successfully achieve

gender equality in place names

we must take the following four simple

steps

first we must establish

or maintain place name authorities or

committees

and make sure that they agenda balanced

in their composition second

we must formulate and implement standard

professional guidelines for place naming

standardizing this process will ensure

continuity

regardless of who is in charge at any

particular point

third we must promote community

participation

in the name selection process

you’ll agree with me that in every

community

there are members who have lived in

those places

for longer than the authorities

therefore we cannot

do away with

this partnership between the authorities

and the community if we are to

successfully

rewrite this important aspect of our

local heritages

fourth we must set workable timelines

in which we will achieve gender balance

in place names

setting specific timelines will ensure

our

focus our discipline

and our success

it will also provide us with an

opportunity to measure

our progress or the lack of it

so how can i be a part of all this you

may ask

as the general public whether

individually or collectively

we are important stakeholders in

deciding

whom we wish to commemorate in our

public spaces and how they should be

remembered

for instance here in zambia in 2011

we were captivated by the naming of a

new stadium

after our national soccer team the

chipotle polo

who died in a plane crash in 1993

of the cost of gabon

the suggested name by the authorities

was the gabon disaster

victims national heroes

stadium

i wonder what names were rejected to

pave way for this one

however it provoked public outcry in

which the general public suggested the

name

national heroes stadium instead

the suggested name by the public was

eventually

gathered this

shows the importance of our

participation

in this process

we must feel free to walk over to the

offices

of our authorities and suggest the names

that we wish to see

in our public places

i challenge you to walk around wherever

you live

see if you do not agree with me about

the state

of gender exclusion in place names

no society was ever built by only

one gender

therefore place names must reflect

this reality

[Music]

you