By Princess Eugene Majuru
If Part I exposed the persistence of colonial school names, Part II must confront the deeper issue:
why Zimbabwe has hesitated to act — and what can be done now.
Resistance Does Not Come From the Public
Ordinary Zimbabweans rarely oppose renaming.
The resistance comes from:
Elite nostalgia
Alumni prestige networks
Fear of “losing brand value”
Institutional inertia
Colonial names have been repackaged as “tradition” and “excellence,” when in reality they are unexamined inheritance.
Education, however, is not a brand.
It is a public trust.
History Versus Honour
Colonial figures belong in:
History books
Archives
Museums
Honour belongs in names.
No serious nation permanently honours those who denied it sovereignty. Britain does not name its schools after African rulers. Zimbabwe should not feel obligated to honour imperial ones.
This is not erasure.
It is moral clarity.
The Case for a National Framework
Zimbabwe does not need chaos or emotional renaming campaigns.
What is required is policy maturity.
A workable solution would include:
A national audit of colonial-era school names
Clear criteria for renaming, guided by historians and heritage institutions
Community consultation — not elite veto
Phased implementation to manage logistics
This is administrative work, not radical politics.
What Should Replace Colonial Names?
Zimbabwe is not short of alternatives:
Liberation heroes and heroines
Educators, writers, and cultural leaders
Indigenous place names
Spiritual and resistance figures such as Mbuya Nehanda, Kaguvi, Chaminuka, and others
Renaming is an opportunity to teach history correctly, not sentimentally.
Why Delay Is a Decision
Every year Zimbabwe delays, another generation grows up learning under colonial honour. Silence becomes policy. Inaction becomes endorsement.
As Frantz Fanon warned, “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it.”
The mission here is simple:
finish what Independence began.
The Work Is Overdue
Zimbabwe won political independence in 1980.
Cultural independence has been postponed ever since.
Renaming colonial-era schools will not change the past — but it will correct the future. History will not ask whether it was controversial. It will ask why it took so long.
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