From fauna to founding fathers: Semiotic layers and identity construction in the street nomenclature of Tanzania’s capital

Adronis Kanonko Selestino; Shingwa Magashi

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.2.48

Authors

Adronis Kanonko Selestino The University of Dodoma, Tanzania https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3694-5367
Shingwa Magashi The University of Dodoma, Tanzania https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6036-0380

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.2.48

Keywords:

Critical Toponymy, Dodoma, Linguistic Landscape, Postcolonial Onomastics, Street Naming, Tanzania

Abstract

Guided by an integrated framework combining linguistic landscape theory, critical toponymy, postcolonial onomastics, and semiotic theory, this study examines how street naming functions as a mechanism of identity construction in Dodoma. The research adopts a mixed-methods research approach, integrating quantitative corpus analysis with qualitative ethnographic and semiotic interpretation. Data were drawn from multiple sources, including an official municipal register of 205 street names, government gazettes, cartographic materials (OpenStreetMap and satellite imagery), a photographic corpus of street signage, semi-structured interviews with planners and residents, and participatory mapping workshops. The data analysis followed a four-stage procedure: corpus preparation and translation, iterative qualitative coding into semiotic categories, quantitative frequency and spatial patterning, and in-depth semiotic interpretation grounded in Peircean and critical toponymic frameworks. The findings reveal a highly structured toponymic regime dominated by personal commemorative names (48.3%), followed by fauna-based and ecological references, moral-ideological terms, and institutional labels. The study identifies a distinctive model of personalist–ecological nationalism, where political authority, moral discourse, and wildlife symbolism jointly construct national identity. However, the naming system also exhibits significant exclusions, particularly of women, Islamic identities, and indigenous Gogo spatial knowledge. The study concludes that street names in Dodoma function as instruments of top-down nation-building and ideological inscription, while their everyday uptake remains uneven. It recommends the adoption of participatory naming frameworks, greater representational balance, and the integration of vernacular place knowledge to enhance inclusivity, legitimacy, and practical usability of urban toponymy.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Alderman, D. H. (2000). A street fit for a king: Naming places and commemoration in the American South. The Professional Geographer, 52(4), 672-684. https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-0124.00256

Alderman, D. H. (2008). Place, naming, and the interpretation of cultural landscapes. In B. Graham & P. Howard (Eds.), The Ashgate research companion to heritage and identity (pp. 195-213). Aldersgate: Ashgate. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315613031-11

Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of globalization. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Aronczyk, M. (2013). Branding the nation: The global business of national identity. New York: Oxford University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752164.001.0001

Azaryahu, M. (1996). The power of commemorative street names. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 14(3), 311-330.

https://doi.org/10.1068/d140311

Azaryahu, M. (2011). The critical turn and beyond: The case of commemorative street naming. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 10(1), 28-33.

Azaryahu, M. (2012). Renaming the landscape: The formation of Israeli national identity through street names. In Y. Bar-Gal, A. Henig, & D. Jacobson (Eds.), Studies in the geography of Israel (pp. 135-153). Jerusalem: Israel Geographical Association.

Azaryahu, M., & Kook, R. (2002). Mapping the nation: Street names and Arab-Palestinian identity in Israeli cities. Social & Cultural Geography, 3(2), 195-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649360220133952

Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. H., & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 7-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790710608668383

Bigon, L. (2008). Names and toponyms in colonial and postcolonial urban spaces: The case of Dakar. Journal of Historical Geography, 34(4), 616-639.

Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.27080070.7

Blommaert, J., & Maly, I. (2019). Invisible lines in the linguistic landscape: A diachronic approach. In S. Brunn & R. Kehrein (Eds.), Handbook of the changing world language map (pp. 1-18). Cham: Springer.

Côté-Roy, L., & Moser, S. (2019). 'Does Africa need new capitals?' The creation of Abuja and the making of a new political class in Nigeria. Urban Studies, 56(10), 2005-2021.

Duminy, J. (2019). Street naming as urban liberation: The case of post-apartheid Cape Town. Urban Forum, 30(2), 163-180.

Elleh, N. (2012). Abuja: The single most ambitious urban design project of the 20th century. Weimar: VDG.

Giraut, F., & Houssay-Holzschuch, M. (2016). The politics of place naming in African cities: Contested memories and power relations. Journal of Place Name Studies, 6, 1-19.

Gorter, D. (Ed.). (2006). Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853599170

Guyot, S., & Seethal, C. (2007). Rewriting the past: Street names and the politics of belonging in post-apartheid South Africa. Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, 89(4), 331-347.

Irvine, J. T., & Gal, S. (2000). Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. V. Kroskrity (Ed.), Regimes of language: Ideologies, polities, and identities (pp. 35-83). Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press.

Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (Eds.). (2010). Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.

Kironde, J. L. (2006). The regulatory frame work, unplanned development and urban poverty: Findings from Dar es salaam, Tanzania. Land Use Policy, 23 (4),460-472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2005.07.004

Koch, N. (2018). The geopolitics of spectacle: Space, synecdoche, and the new capitals of Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501720925

Kumasi, K., & Bigon, L. (2021). Street naming and the politics of memory in Accra. African Studies Review, 64(2), 356-380.

Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. Y. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality: An empirical study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X970161002

Light, D., & Young, C. (2015). Public memory, identity and place naming in post-socialist East-Central Europe. Area, 47(3), 287-295.

Mazrui, A. A. (2007). Swahili beyond the boundaries: Literature, language, and identity. Athens: Ohio University Press.

Mekacha, R. K. (1993). The sociolinguistic situation of Swahili in Tanzania. Nairobi: Institute of Kiswahili Research.

Mtesigwa, P. (2009). Street naming in Tanzania: A case study of Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam Press.

Nash, J. (2016). Toponymic cleansing: The politics of street renaming in Durban. African Geographical Review, 35(3), 239-255.

Palonen, E. (2008). The politics of street names: Identity and power in Budapest. Nationalities Papers, 36(3), 461-482.

Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E. (2015). Metrolingualism: Language in the city. London: Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315724225

Potts, D. (1985). Capital relocation in Africa: The case of Malawi and Tanzania. The Geographical Journal, 151(2), 182-196.

https://doi.org/10.2307/633532

Project Planning Associates. (1976). Dodoma: National capital master plan. Toronto: Project Planning Associates.

Puzey, G. (2016). Linguistic landscapes. In G. Puzey & L. Kostanski (Eds.), Names and naming: People, places, perceptions and power (pp. 3-20). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783094929

Puzey, G., & Kostanski, L. (Eds.). (2016). Names and naming: People, places, perceptions and power. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

https://doi.org/10.21832/9781783094929

Rose-Redwood, R. S. (2008). "Sixth Avenue is now a memory": Regimes of spatial inscription and the performative limits of the official city-text. Political Geography, 27(8), 875-894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2008.11.002

Rose-Redwood, R. S., & Alderman, D. H. (2011). Critical interventions in political toponymy. ACME: An International E-Journal for Critical Geographies, 10(1), 1-9.

Rose-Redwood, R., Alderman, D., & Azaryahu, M. (2010). Geographies of toponymic inscription: New directions in critical place-name studies. Progress in Human Geography, 34(4), 453-470. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132509351042

Scott, J. C. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain schemes to improve the human condition have failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Shohamy, E. (2015). Linguistic landscape in the city: Multilingualism, ideology and power. In E. Shohamy & N. H. Hornberger (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (new ed., pp. 109-122). London: Bloomsbury.

https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.1.1-2.09sho

Shohamy, E., & Gorter, D. (Eds.). (2009). Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery. New York, Routledge.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203930960

Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication, 23(3-4), 193-229.

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0271-5309(03)00013-2

Stroud, C., & Mpendukana, S. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 363-386. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00410.x

Swart, M. (2010). Name changes as a tool of symbolic restitution in post-apartheid South Africa. Politikon, 37(1), 69-86.

Swilla, I. N. (2008). Street names in Dar es Salaam: A sociolinguistic study. Dar es Salaam: University of Dar es Salaam Press.

Vale, L. J. (2008). Architecture, power, and national identity (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

Wanjiru, M. W., & Matsubara, K. (2017). Street toponymy and the decolonisation of the public space in Nairobi. Journal of Cultural Geography, 34(1) 1-23. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2016.1203518