THE bell has rung; ECPGNC and KGG are going into no-holds-barred combat for another round.Lest you should think that these are acronyms for two underground cage fighters, let me explain. The Eastern Cape Provincial Geographic Names Committee (ECPGNC) has, for some years, been lobbying to have the city of Grahamstown renamed. In the opposite corner, equally tenacious, is the Keep Grahamstown Grahamstown (KGG) campaign.There are two feasible cases to be put. On the one hand, there is the symbolic argument. Col John Graham represents the worst of British imperialism in South African history: he inflicted terror while pushing the frontier of the Cape Colony further east, killing or displacing thousands of amaXhosa. Why should the town he founded continue to honour his name?On the other hand, there is the pragmatic argument. Name-changing costs money; a place such as Grahamstown has a certain "brand leverage" owing to its hosting of the National Arts Festival and its status as an educati...
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