Abidjan is the colonial capital of Côte
d'Ivoire and the country's largest city. In 1933 a port was built and the new
city grew.
According to oral tradition of
the Ebrie as reported in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Côte
d'Ivoire, the name "Abidjan" results from a misunderstanding.
Legend states that an old man carrying branches to repair the roof of his house
met a European explorer who asked him the name of the nearest village. The old
man did not speak the language of the explorer, and thought that he was being
asked to justify his presence in that place. Terrified by this unexpected
meeting, he fled shouting "min-chan m'bidjan", which means in
the Ébrié language: "I just cut the leaves." The explorer, thinking
that his question had been answered, recorded the name of the locale asAbidjan.
Wikipedia of course.
Is this true, and what is involved in the
process of naming a New Town? In Milton Keynes, the name was that of the
smallest village surrounding the new town centre in order to avoid competition
between the largest dwellings in the region. Shenzhen means "deep
drains", a descriptive title of the cities geography which used to be a
delta with streams and rivers throughout - that was before the bulldozers
arrived and reclamation began. Thamesmead launched a competition in the Sunday
Times to suggest names for the new town. One of the suggestions, New
Wooabbeleri became the title of artist Stuart Whipp's project of 2011.
What does a name designate? How does a
population relate to the name of town in which they live? Does choosing the
name of the small hamlet that once stood in the new town's place offer some
kind of panacea to the lack of material heritage in a new city?
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