Mugabe wants to rename Victoria Falls

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...l-history.html

Zimbabwe renames Victoria Falls to get rid of its colonial history

- Mugabe believes the name Victoria Falls does not reflect liberation heritage
- The waterfall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World
- Locals already refer to it as Mosi Oa Tunya - 'the smoke that thunders'
- Government also told to get rid of all colonial names for towns and schools

President Robert Mugabe wants Victoria Falls to be renamed 'the smoke that thunders' to get rid of its colonial history.

The president of Zimbabwe believes Victoria Falls does not reflect its liberation heritage.

The waterfall, which is along the Zambezi River at the border of Zimbabwe and Zambia. is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Locals already refer to the landmark as Mosi Oa Tunya - which means 'the smoke that thunders'.

The ruling party, Zanu PF, said the government would be instructed to get rid of all colonial names for towns and schools.

Ignatious Chombo, local government minister, said: 'Institutions bearing colonial names must be changed and be given indigenous names... school syllabuses in schools must also change.'

It was first discovered by Scottish explorer David Livingstone who named it after Queen Victoria.

Jabulani Sibanda, leader of Zimbabwe’s vocal war veterans, supported the move.

He said: 'David Livingstone was not the first person to see the Victoria Falls, they (the falls) must be rebranded Mosi Oa Tunya.

'How can we have our barracks continue to be named after a foreign king?'

President Mugabe’s party came to power in 1980 and changed names of some cities and towns such as Harare.

However, a number of institutions and roads still have their colonial names.

Victoria Falls is known as the greatest curtain of falling water in the world.

Columns of spray can be seen from miles away as and at the height of the rainy season, more than five hundred million cubic meters of water per minute plummet over the edge of Victoria Falls, over a width of nearly two kilometers, into a gorge over one hundred meters below.

The wide, basalt cliff over which the falls thunder, transforms the Zambezi from a placid river into a ferocious torrent cutting through a series of dramatic gorges.

Coming from a man named 'Robert', that's pretty ironic.

But there you have it. I'm sure we'll have the usual suspects comment and say 'colonial oppression' etc etc and that it's Britain's fault that Zimbabwe is such a mess, but they're in the same league as Mugabe himself who does exactly that. Blind to the reality that most of Africa is simply reverting back to the uncivilised hellhole that it once (or you could argue always has been) was.

As far as i'm concerned, let them name it whatever they want. I'll still be calling it Victoria Falls just as Mumbai is still Bombay to my mind along with many other name changes. Sadly I can't call Zimbabwe Rhodesia anymore as it'd be an insult to the memory of Rhodesia to even mention the two in the same breath.

Thoughts?

[Chippiewill]

The smoke that thunders sounds way cooler.

[Inseriousity.]

The official name of Big Ben is named after our Queen but it'll always be Big Ben so I doubt it'd really make any difference to those who want to call it Victoria Falls. Regardless of whether you think colonialism is a good or bad thing, they have their soverignity now and are free to rename their landmarks to whatever they see fit.

[AgnesIO]

Is it Zimbabwe's choice? I mean surely Zambia gets a say too :L

Mugabe is a crackpot anyway.

[dbgtz]

The official name of Big Ben is named after our Queen but it'll always be Big Ben so I doubt it'd really make any difference to those who want to call it Victoria Falls. Regardless of whether you think colonialism is a good or bad thing, they have their soverignity now and are free to rename their landmarks to whatever they see fit.

No, Big Ben is the bell whereas the actual tower is named after the Queen (still it's considered all to Big Ben I guess).

I wonder if he realises king =/= queen... The whole thing is a joke. I could kind of understand why they might want to change the name for other reasons, but he just spewed a whole load of Mugabe ****.

[Kardan]

The waterfall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World

Well, that's new...

[AgnesIO]

Well, that's new...

One of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World

[FlyingJesus]

There are so many different lists of "Wonders of the World" now that pretty much anything bigger than a car can be said to be on one of them

[GommeInc]

Well if they want to rename it, then it is up to them. If the locals call it something different then they may as well make it official. Loads of places rename buildings, places etc. I'm sure we've done the same enough times too (although I can't think of a single example but it is late )

[FlyingJesus]

My brother's coming down from Ratae Corieltauvorum in a few days, that'll be nice. My stepsister in Durovernum Cantiacorum is also coming down for the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti festivities; perhaps we could all pop off down the road to Noviomagus Reginorum and catch a film