The Street As Contested Space

But as we shall see, the word ‘street’ has taken on an added meaning in addition to what town planners had in mind with the beginning of planning for modern towns and cities.

From the perspective of a town planner, the street is seen as a functional and artistic aspect of the overall planning of a city. So, you would like to have wide streets with well laid-out pavements for pedestrians to walk on, and also for people, especially children, to be able to play near without parents having to have constant headaches worrying that the kids might be knocked down by passing cars and motorcycles.So, the wider the streets the better they are, both in terms of the functional possibilities they provide and also from the aesthetic aspect.I’m sure that most people would prefer cities with broad streets: who wants to be holed up in narrow, winding streets where you constantly have to bump into the next person or having to dodge cars every now and then? Closer to home, a city like Harare with its elaborate boulevards is much more pleasant aesthetically speaking than cities which have narrower streets.A lot of space, of course, provides for individuality, relaxation and also for creative thinking.But ‘street’ has acquired a life just like a human being.And that’s why streets are given names.Well, you might say that’s done for easy identification and direction.Yes, that’s one of the reasons.But if it was that simple, we would probably just give those streets numbers, which they do in some instances, and there would be no quarrels and fights over the names.Thus, the naming of streets is not just a technical issue left to the whim of town planners and city managers.Politicians and the general public also get involved.Precisely because the names, just as the space itself, are also contested at times.We have seen, for example, how rival drug gangs always want to control a specific street as turf for their business, especially in some of the world’s big cities.But there are also issues of politics and history involved.Just four years ago or so, the city of St Paul in Minnesota wanted to name one of the main streets after Martin Luther King.It was not without controversy.Namibians are used to quarrelling over the naming of streets as well, because some of the names mean different things to different people – they represent historical figures that are not necessarily acceptable to everybody.Sometimes it is simply a fight over authenticity and meaning.It is a way of saying we were here before you, just as a lion would mark its territory.In our case, for example, we have seen history being rewritten at the stroke of a pen by erasing one street’s name and giving it another.Whether this is a distortion or remaking of history is a moot question.And it has been hard to satisfy everyone.One can probably correct the wrongs of the past by compensating people who have been left out of mainstream economy, whose land has been alienated or whose rights have been violated in the past.But that’s not the same thing as remaking or rewriting history.My own inclination is to let inter-generational history stand side by side because there is no such thing as good or bad history – if we define history as the record of events that happened in the past.I would assume that the term ‘street’ came into usage more or less with the development of modern towns and cities.That explains why the term street is not in the daily vocabulary of people on farms or in the rural areas.This is a far cry from the city dweller where the term forms part of everyday discussion.The word ‘street’ has enriched many languages.And there are many usages associated with it.Here are some few examples: a ‘street kid’, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean that the child lives on the streets but it’s a shorthand way of referring to children from depressed families who are not in a position to adequately provide for them.Yes, they do go out on the streets to fend for food but that’s not necessarily why they are labelled as such.Let’s take another usage: ‘streetwise’ doesn’t necessarily refer to someone who is only wise on the streets but it means the person has acquired some of the survival techniques needed in difficult and dangerous conditions – so someone would arrive from, say, Lianshulu and soon learn the survival strategies of a big city like Windhoek.So there are many usages associated with the word ‘street’ – some positive and others negative.In the rural areas you don’t tell your children not to play on the streets, or say “I met so and so in the street” in a rural setting.The street has played an important role in the political life of many societies as a space not only for social interaction but also for political mobilisation and agitation.The phrase ‘taking to the streets’ refers to that process.Demonstrations, riots and marches against bad government policies all have taken place on this space called the street.And that is why in cases of emergency the first thing governments do is to ban street demonstrations or marches and impose a curfew to keep people off the streets.Because this is one social space that can accommodate a large gathering of people and it has a psychological impact on bystanders who usually end up joining the crowd as well.And people have taken to the streets to oppose repressive regimes in many societies – some literally sacrificing their lives in the process.So, it is not just the naming and names that are sometimes contested but even the space itself.So, you would like to have wide streets with well laid-out pavements for pedestrians to walk on, and also for people, especially children, to be able to play near without parents having to have constant headaches worrying that the kids might be knocked down by passing cars and motorcycles.So, the wider the streets the better they are, both in terms of the functional possibilities they provide and also from the aesthetic aspect.I’m sure that most people would prefer cities with broad streets: who wants to be holed up in narrow, winding streets where you constantly have to bump into the next person or having to dodge cars every now and then? Closer to home, a city like Harare with its elaborate boulevards is much more pleasant aesthetically speaking than cities which have narrower streets.A lot of space, of course, provides for individuality, relaxation and also for creative thinking.But ‘street’ has acquired a life just like a human being.And that’s why streets are given names.Well, you might say that’s done for easy identification and direction.Yes, that’s one of the reasons.But if it was that simple, we would probably just give those streets numbers, which they do in some instances, and there would be no quarrels and fights over the names.Thus, the naming of streets is not just a technical issue left to the whim of town planners and city managers.Politicians and the general public also get involved.Precisely because the names, just as the space itself, are also contested at times.We have seen, for example, how rival drug gangs always want to control a specific street as turf for their business, especially in some of the world’s big cities.But there are also issues of politics and history involved.Just four years ago or so, the city of St Paul in Minnesota wanted to name one of the main streets after Martin Luther King.It was not without controversy. Namibians are used to quarrelling over the naming of streets as well, because some of the names mean different things to different people – they represent historical figures that are not necessarily acceptable to everybody.Sometimes it is simply a fight over authenticity and meaning.It is a way of saying we were here before you, just as a lion would mark its territory.In our case, for example, we have seen history being rewritten at the stroke of a pen by erasing one street’s name and giving it another.Whether this is a distortion or remaking of history is a moot question.And it has been hard to satisfy everyone.One can probably correct the wrongs of the past by compensating people who have been left out of mainstream economy, whose land has been alienated or whose rights have been violated in the past.But that’s not the same thing as remaking or rewriting history.My own inclination is to let inter-generational history stand side by side because there is no such thing as good or bad history – if we define history as the record of events that happened in the past.I would assume that the term ‘street’ came into usage more or less with the development of modern towns and cities.That explains why the term street is not in the daily vocabulary of people on farms or in the rural areas.This is a far cry from the city dweller where the term forms part of everyday discussion.The word ‘street’ has enriched many languages.And there are many usages associated with it.Here are some few examples: a ‘street kid’, for example, doesn’t necessarily mean that the child lives on the streets but it’s a shorthand way of referring to children from depressed families who are not in a position to adequately provide for them.Yes, they do go out on the streets to fend for food but that’s not necessarily why they are labelled as such.Let’s take another usage: ‘streetwise’ doesn’t necessarily refer to someone who is only wise on the streets but it means the person has acquired some of the survival techniques needed in difficult and dangerous conditions – so someone would arrive from, say, Lianshulu and soon learn the survival strategies of a big city like Windhoek.So there are many usages associated with the word ‘street’ – some positive and others negative.In the rural areas you don’t tell your children not to play on the streets, or say “I met so and so in the street” in a rural setting.The street has played an important role in the political life of many societies as a space not only for social interaction but also for political mobilisation and agitation.The phrase ‘taking to the streets’ refers to that process.Demonstrations, riots and marches against bad government policies all have taken place on this space called the street.And that is why in cases of emergency the first thing governments do is to ban street demonstrations or marches and impose a curfew to keep people off the streets.Because this is one social space that can accommodate a large gathering of people and it has a psychological impact on bystanders who usually end up joining the crowd as well.And people have taken to the streets to oppose repressive regimes in many societies – some literally sacrificing their lives in the process.So, it is not just the naming and names that are sometimes contested but even the space itself.