What Comes In Its Place?

In recent years, the deeds of historical figures are inspected more and more critically. Naming a street after a person can be seen as a tribute, and some people might be offended by putting the person in question on a pedestal. Does this cover-up action in the Transvaal neighborhood in Leiden befit this new movement? Yes, to a certain extent it does. The action originated from the hardship caused by the names of the Boers themselves, but the residents also had a more general desire to have more street names named after women. Furthermore, covering up these historically dubious people might even incite the debate on how we in the Netherlands could, or even should, deal with our history.

We spoke to some residents in the area and asked how they felt about the original and the new street names in the Transvaal neighborhood. Opinions were divided, and there is some struggle in the conversation. Does a street name have to change if the person referred to is considered bad in our time? And if a name were to be changed, then “what would come in its place?” This is what one of the residents questioned. Although many would consider Rosetta Reitz worthy of her own street, she has nothing to do with the Boers, Transvaal or South Africa.

Perhaps street names has lost their moral value, but people might easily consider the name of the street they live on as part of their identity, as they see or write down their own address many times. One resident said: “If I live in a street, but its name is changed, did I really ever live in that same street?” Another resident said that from a contemporary perspective, she found the acts of the Boers despicable, but that changing the subscript (as with Reitz) was a bridge too far for her. Another neighbor thought it wrong as well, but he did see the comical side of it: “Residents can also just pick their own Reitz and stick it underneath the sign.” By now a lot of residents have also gotten attached to the sign.

As of yet, the street names in Leiden remain unchanged, but in the Transvaal neighborhoods in other cities, the street names have been debated even more seriously. For example, in 1978, the Pretoriusplein in Amsterdam was changed to the Steve Bikoplein, who was a civil rights activist in South Africa during the Apartheid. There is no conclusive answer to this difficult and sensitive question, as everyone looks at the same name differently (Fig. 1 & 2).