Park to go Garvey?

DENVER ISAACS OUT with Zoo Park, in with Marcus Garvey Memorial? That might well be the case if civil group Africawise gets its wish to change the name of one of Windhoek’s most popular landmarks to honour black nationalist icon Marcus Garvey.

On August 17, Garvey’s birthday, Africawise requested the City of Windhoek to rename Zoo Park, situated in the capital’s main street, to the Marcus Garvey Memorial Park. “An African hero as respectable, popular and great as Marcus Garvey deserve(s) to have a park named after him for his noble deeds (for which) he sacrificed his whole life,” the group argues.Times have changed, the organisation’s president Borro Ndungula says, and Zoo Park “with its colonial monument right in the middle of the park and which hasn’t had any animals in it for years”, should move with it.The society, which says it exists to promote and advance pan-Africanism in Namibia, also added a request to rename one of the capital’s more prominent streets, John Meinert Street, to Marcus Garvey Street.”Not just any street that is just a 50 or 100 metres long, or hidden somewhere in a dusty neighbourhood,” Ndungula says of their idea for a Marcus Garvey Street.”Marcus Garvey does not need that.He deserves a lot better.”The Jamaican-born Garvey, a publisher, journalist and entrepreneur, is best remembered for his role in the ‘Back to Africa’ movement, which encouraged people of African ancestry to return to their ancestral homelands.This movement is greatly credited for inspiring the Rastafarian movement.City of Windhoek spokesperson Elizabeth Sibindi says proposals for new street names are forwarded to the Street and Place Name Committee, which then makes a submission to the City Council for a final decision.”The committee will then inform the applicant on the outcome,” she said.The Zoo Park was originally established as a memorial for the German colonial administration in 1897 to honour German soldiers killed in a war against Hendrik Witbooi’s forces in the battle of Naukluft.It later evolved into a zoo for some time, and at one stage was also named the Verwoerd Park.”An African hero as respectable, popular and great as Marcus Garvey deserve(s) to have a park named after him for his noble deeds (for which) he sacrificed his whole life,” the group argues.Times have changed, the organisation’s president Borro Ndungula says, and Zoo Park “with its colonial monument right in the middle of the park and which hasn’t had any animals in it for years”, should move with it. The society, which says it exists to promote and advance pan-Africanism in Namibia, also added a request to rename one of the capital’s more prominent streets, John Meinert Street, to Marcus Garvey Street.”Not just any street that is just a 50 or 100 metres long, or hidden somewhere in a dusty neighbourhood,” Ndungula says of their idea for a Marcus Garvey Street.”Marcus Garvey does not need that.He deserves a lot better.”The Jamaican-born Garvey, a publisher, journalist and entrepreneur, is best remembered for his role in the ‘Back to Africa’ movement, which encouraged people of African ancestry to return to their ancestral homelands.This movement is greatly credited for inspiring the Rastafarian movement.City of Windhoek spokesperson Elizabeth Sibindi says proposals for new street names are forwarded to the Street and Place Name Committee, which then makes a submission to the City Council for a final decision.”The committee will then inform the applicant on the outcome,” she said.The Zoo Park was originally established as a memorial for the German colonial administration in 1897 to honour German soldiers killed in a war against Hendrik Witbooi’s forces in the battle of Naukluft.It later evolved into a zoo for some time, and at one stage was also named the Verwoerd Park.