What is in a name? When is a road a street or an avenue?
At school we learnt that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. But even then we knew the difference between a cobbled footpath and a pot-holed road which was constantly repaired by Public Works Department (PWD) labourers with small stones, sand and coal-tar. Roads, streets and avenues acquired a history which I am sure President Mahama never wanted erased when he requested all roads to be named.
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Our distinguished “Mayor” of Accra, Dr Oko Vanderpuije, is a born and bred cultured man of Accra who would like the past to inspire and not to confuse. I believe that public officers of his calibre with district or municipal experience are generally suited to enter parliament to promote thinking and development in a national and not parochial way. I therefore wish him well in his parliamentary campaign. But before he leaves I entreat him to clear the mess of “road” names which his officials have inflicted on the good people of Accra presumably in compliance with the Presiden
For some reason all roads at Adabraka were named when the Accra township was built after the influenza epidemic in 1919 or thereabouts. Unfortunately houses were not numbered serially but followed the strange and unhelpful identification mark of C64/1 and so on. I lived on Amugi Avenue and my father’s letterheads were so embossed. To my surprise when I was on the road the other day it had been named “Nii Amugi Street”. I then took careful note of the new road names. Many have been changed in furtherance of the whims and fancies of ignorant officials. Even “Kojo Thompson Road” has become “Kojo Thompson Street”. The ancient “Barnes Road” has now become “Barnes Avenue”.
In trying to display their expertise in etymology the little men and women engaged in the naming exercise betrayed their ignorance of history and tourism. Barnes Road separated the native or African area from the European Bungalows in colonial Gold Coast. It was a straight road from the Accra Club for Europeans (now the Arts Centre) to the Barnes Road junction where the TUC building now stands. At the junction, a tipsy or lonely European would take a black “maiden” for comfort in the bleak, hot night. Barnes Road acquired a bad name and no woman of repute would be seen on it at night.
Names of roads should not be changed so as to confuse historians and tourist accounts of our past. Please Mr. Mayor, let your staff maintain the old road names. Why should the well-known “Lokko Road” now become “Lokko Street”? And also please let them get the spelling of names like “Clerk” right.
When it comes to naming roads or streets after foreign personalities officials should stop, think and consult. In fact naming roads after foreign personalities should normally be a national issue. Surely the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should be consulted before we name landmarks after African leaders in the liberation struggle. Honestly, I think we make a laughing stock of ourselves when we name a road “Kasavubu Road”. Was he not partly responsible for the present sorry state of Zaire (then The Congo), which should have been one of the leading and prosperous African countries? And why should so many roads be named after African countries and their leader or even politicians and distinguished personalities?
Kwame Nkrumah promoted the naming of roads after the first eight African Heads of State and Governments who attended the conference in Accra after Ghana’s independence. It was for a purpose and progressive African leaders were later honoured. But Ghana has never honoured the “Tsombes” of Africa.
If we do not have enough distinguished names let us name roads after trees, fruits, animals and the like. If those who name the roads can count they can name roads and streets “First Street”, “Second Street” and so on. The advantage is that when it is necessary to honour a distinguished citizen of the area or nation, the first street may be changed to “Kofi Ansah” street. You do not then have to replace a former distinguished personality’s name by a new one and court controversy as we did not long ago. Surely all the great ones are not yet born and we are giving ourselves unnecessary problems by naming all the roads in Accra after persons not known even by the people of the area.
The naming exercise has revealed our ignorance. Does a person have to live in a street before it is named after him or her? And if we want to remember and be inspired by the past why do we not want to remember the warriors of African emancipation like Wallace Johnson and Nnamdi Azikiwe who inspired us by their stand and writings here in the Gold Coast? And do we need the President to remind us to erect monuments to honour all the members of the BIG SIX? Why is there no monument for William Ofori-Atta?
There is more to the naming of roads than finding out which old men lived for many years in the area and contributed nothing or little to the welfare of the people. As we confirm our “colonial mentality” by officially naming the Osu highway as “Oxford Street” let us not forget that Nii Kwabena Bonne lived in the area. And do not betray your ignorance, dear reader, by asking “And who was he?” Celebrating our independence anniversary will not be very meaningful if we are not reminded of “AWAM” and the boycott.