Recording Native Place Names

It is often said that numerous place names have appeared on maps of different parts of Africa and Asia (and no doubt of America too) which mean nothing more nor less than I don't know. There seems no reason to doubt this, for only elaborate precautions can give reasonable security against mistakes in this field, involving a demand on time which can probably be met only by the deliberate procedure of survey parties, rarely by travellers. But apart from extreme cases of this nature, a name is frequently wrongly recorded for lack of sufficient investigation. Perhaps the two most tempting pitfalls are undue reliance on one's interpreter (or on a single guide) and over-confidence in one's own knowledge of the language. Many inaccuracies can be attributed to the employment of an interpreter who does not belong to the region, and is possibly even of a different tribe or race from the inhabitants. And no doubt bad manuscript results in the draughtsman writing a certain number of names incorrectly. Thus, to quote instances in East Africa within the writer's experience, Horali (for Gurati) and Tubhi (for Tabda) would appear to be explainable by a combination of these factors; while it is evident that a Swahili interpreter was employed for the survey of the coast between Lamu and Kismayu from the fact that several islands have been recorded as having names with an initial t, thus Tovai, Tula, Tandraa. The natives of this part of the coast, the Bajuni, speak a dialect of Kiswahili in which t becomes ch, so that these islands are in fact called Chovai, Chula, Chandraa. It must be stated, regretfully, that at least one List of Place Names published by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names suffers from the compiler having been caught in one or other of the ways mentioned. An African once described a journey he had made, through country he knew thoroughly, as guide to a European. He found himself in frequent trouble for the first few days as a result of his assertions that places which the European considered should have names did not possess any. The European became annoyed and abused him roundly, threatening to discharge him for lack of knowledge of the country. To protect himself therefore, the guide took to inventing names for the places passed from any local characteristic that offered; and his employer was then entirely satisfied. This anecdote is noteworthy not only as an example of bad handling of a guide; it also brings out the fact that place names are given differently by peoples of different economic orders and at different stages of civilization. Features considered to need place names by pastoral nomads would not be the same as those chosen by a settled agricultural population; and certainly western European ideas on the matter by no means coincide with those of other races, particularly those still at a relatively early stage of development. For instance, nomads will name parts of a hill, its slopes, spurs, and valleys, but will very possibly have no name for the whole?a situation which is apt to

Archaeology · Geography · Toponymy · African history and culture analysis · African history and culture studies · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

• "Something Savage and Luxuriant"

  Open Access•R Herman, R D K Herman•American Indian Culture and…•2015

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