A local name is, therefore, both a label, a wish and a brand that the residents of a place can derive motivation from as they thrive and strive to traverse life’s challenges and in building a better tomorrow for themselves and their children. It is even better to have no name than to have a horrible name.
Recently, the place we have known as Block 7 was suddenly named Ditimamodimo. Forget that there is a kgotla named ‘Ditimamodimo’ in Serowe, but that name cannot be transferred wantonly to the residents of Block 7. For an area that hosts two institutions of learning with thousands of students, to receive such a negative and poorly inspiring declaration demonstrates a worrisome understanding of the power of naming. Yet, for an area that has several church organisations, with thousands of followers every week, to be called Ditimamodimo is a poke in the eye of the believers. What more of the residents who went to bed living in a lazily named, but neutral place, Block 7, only to wake up with a declaration that they are the selfish and foolish misers who do not give back to God ?
