Dictionary of Southern African Place Names¶
Raper, P. E. (1987). Dictionary of Southern African Place Names. Human Sciences Research Council (Onomastic Research Centre), Pretoria.
| Type | book |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1488–1986 |
| Regions | South Africa, South-West Africa/Namibia, Transkei, Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Lesotho, Botswana, Swaziland |
| Themes | methods data sources, demography urbanisation, bantustans removals influx, mining migrant labour |
| Citation key | raper1987 |
Argument¶
This is a semi-popular reference dictionary of place names, not an argumentative study. An introduction covers the standardization of names by the National Place Names Committee, their structure, meaning, reference and syntax. The alphabetical entries give the location, status, founding and municipal dates, language of origin and etymology of cities, towns, townships, rivers and mountains. It has no economic argument, but it serves as a gazetteer for dating town foundations and mining or township origins.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary compilation of published sources (see the bibliography of travellers' journals, earlier place-name works and official name lists), the National Place Names Committee's official name lists of 1951 and 1978, and Khoekhoen and Zulu etymological research by Nienaber and Raper.
Place in the debates¶
- Onomastic theory: whether place names carry lexical meaning (synchronic vs diachronic meaning). The work holds that names lack current lexical meaning synchronically but have traceable etymological meaning diachronically. It warns against folk etymology. This does not bear on the economic-history debates.
Findings¶
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The standardization body was set up in 1939 and has a mandate over official names. (p. 11)
At the recommendation of this committee, a Place Names Committee, later to become the National Place Names Committee (NPNC), was appointed in 1939.
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The NPNC's guidelines treat names of places in self-governing territories and black urban areas differently from names in white areas, which reflects racial spatial administration. (p. 27)
Names of places in self-governing territories and in urban areas inhabited by Blacks are written in accordance with the officially recognized orthography of the language concerned.
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Soweto's name is an acronym of the apartheid-era township complex. (p. 23)
Soweto (South Western Townships).
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The dictionary records the dates and purposes of Johannesburg's founding as a gold-mining centre. (p. 231)
Gold-mining and industrial centre, largest city in South Africa, 56 km south of Pretoria, founded in 1886 on the farm Randjeslaagte.
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The entries record the creation of segregated townships and their dates, such as KwaMashu. (p. 267)
Township some 19 km north of Durban. Started in 1958 and completed in 1969.
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Ga-Rankuwa was opened to serve a border industry area, which links to decentralization policy. (p. 171)
Township 34 km north-east of Pretoria and 10 km south-west of Mabopane, it was opened in February 1966 to serve the border industry area of Rosslyn.
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The entry for Delareyville records its designation as a border industry area. (p. 133)
It was laid out in 1914 and declared a border industry area in 1968.
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Francistown is recorded as the staging point for migrant mine recruits, who were flown there and sent on to South Africa by rail. (p. 167)
it is now the rallying point for labourers working in the Republic of South Africa; they are brought there by air and travel to the Republic by rail.
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The Coalbrook colliery disaster is noted, with its death toll. (p. 118)
Scene of a major disaster on 21 January 1961; 435 workers were buried alive when the mine collapsed.
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The entry for Klerksdorp records its significance for gold output. (p. 252)
The mines here are very rich and produce 11 per cent of the world's free gold.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official Place Names in the Union and South-West Africa (1951) and Official Place Names in the Republic of South Africa and in South-West Africa (1978) | commission or official report | 1951, 1978 | Authority for officially approved names, marked with an asterisk in the dictionary, and for spelling and form guidelines. |
| Manual for the Giving of Place Names (1979) | commission or official report | 1979 | Source of the NPNC principles and guidelines on naming and spelling, reproduced in adapted form. |
| Official map-sheets of the Directorate of Surveys and Mapping (1:50 000, 1:250 000 topographical and topo-cadastral) | maps spatial data | not specified | Provides the degree-square grid referencing system used to locate every entry. |
| Pettman, C. 1931. South African Place Names Past and Present, and Nienaber, P.J. Suid-Afrikaanse pleknaam woordeboek | secondary literature compilation | 1931; 1963/1972 | Earlier place name dictionaries that the volume updates and partly corrects, e.g. on Koppies. |
| Toponymica Hottentotica A and B (Nienaber & Raper), and Hottentot (Khoekhoen) placenames | secondary literature compilation | 1977, 1980 | Research base for Khoekhoen etymologies, which the author calls reliable. |
| Various published sources consulted for etymologies | secondary literature compilation | not specified | Etymologies are reported as found in these sources, without verification. |
| Concise Oxford Dictionary, 6th edn, 1980 | secondary literature compilation | 1980 | Illustrates the lexical meaning of a common noun (mountain) in contrast to proper names. |
New data¶
A gazetteer-dictionary of roughly 2,000 major Southern African place names (cities, towns, mountains, rivers, bays, regions), each with location grid reference, history, official status and etymology, compiled from existing sources.
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
A reference compilation. Entries are assembled from earlier toponymic works, travellers' journals and official name lists, and etymologies are reported as found in them. The introduction is conceptual and discursive and builds on onomastic theory. No testing or statistical analysis.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| South Africa has standardized official place names since 1939 through the National Place Names Committee, which approves or rejects new names and corrects spelling. (p. 12) | NPNC mandate and its published lists (1951, 1978). | Partial data |
| Southern African place names show layers of San, Khoekhoen, African-language, Portuguese, Dutch, English and other origins, with hybrid forms and dual names reflecting language contact. (p. 9) | Dictionary entries and structural analysis of name types. | Partial data |
| Apparently transparent names often have different origins; Koppies, for example, derives from a San or Khoekhoen word meaning wild sage, not 'hillocks'. (p. 34) | Etymological research, with Toponymica Hottentotica and earlier dictionaries as the basis. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Etymologies in the dictionary are taken from various sources; Khoekhoen and Zulu etymologies are research-based and reliable, others are the most likely or only one available. (p. 35) | Compilation of secondary sources; asserted by the author. | Asserted |
| Place names in the apartheid period reflect official policy: names are standardized by language group, with differing orthography rules for White areas and Black areas, and with prominent politicians commemorated. (p. 27) | NPNC guidelines on African-language names, and entries on airports, dams and towns named after leaders. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| Townships, mines and industrial towns record the economic geography of the country, e.g. gold, diamond, coal and copper centres founded by mining companies. (p. 160) | Individual entries giving founding dates, mining companies and status. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that this is a semi-popular first step toward a fuller dictionary. The work is not exhaustive. Some etymologies are uncertain or rest on folk etymology, and pronunciation is omitted. Many entries give alternative or unverified derivations.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The work gives few archival or primary citations; entry-level source attributions are mostly absent, so claims about founding dates, status and etymology cannot be traced individually. For economic history use, it would need systematic links to census data, mining and township records, and proclamation notices, which existed in the Government Gazette and archives. The dictionary is a name list, not a tool for analysing apartheid-era economic change.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.