Placenames: Places, Images and Information.

Travelling around Southern Africa, discovering great places to visit and finding out about their history. Toponomy (the names of places), is a good way to start learning about any places that we visit. Taking pictures of people and their places follows naturally on from that interest.

                    Mills and milling in Southern Africa                                       Follow my BLOG on this link                                  Great Places in Southern Africa (and elsewhere)

             Click on the MILL WHEEL  for more                                        Click on the RED DOOR  for more                               Click on the SANDSTONE CAVE  for more

               Images of Lesotho, South Africa

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Taking pictures of signs in great places is  irresistable.

The great variety of place names in Southern Africa can of course be ascribed to the colourful past and present of the region.  San (Kung), Hottentot (Quena) Inguni, Portuguese, Dutch, English, French, German, Afrikaans, Indian, Chinese and anyone else who cared to take a look at these wonderful lands, gave their bit to our  vocabulary. Towns and villages, hills, mountains, roads and rivers all owe a part of their character and history to a variety of our people.

Names can have all sorts of origins. Often they are given by the discoverer or founder of a place: e.g.: -  Fouriesburg takes it's name from a family who trekked into the area from the Cape colony in 1843. Zeerust takes it's name from the Coetzee   family. Warden is named after a British administrator, the first magistrate of Bloemfontein. Where did the Name "Lesotho" come from? In Zulu, a picturesque and often onomatopoeic language, the name may describe a physical attribute: e.g.: - Eshowe - one popular version of the name's origin has it that "eshowe" is like the sound of the wind in the towns famous indigenous forest (Dlinza Forest).   Hluhluwe - is said to take it's whispering name from the nearby river which  in turn refers to the  Thorny Monkey rope creeper, Umhluhluwe, (Dalbergia Aemata) that is common in the area.

Placenames - what are we doing?

Collecting information about place names in Southern Africa, travelling to places of interest, talking to people who live there.Opening the discussion on names and the history and the culture of place names.

What do you know? What did your parents tell you? Do you have information  or anecdotes to share about place names or local history?  Throw in your bit, contribute. Tell us a story, criticise and advise the webmaster.

Do you have placenames for Lesotho and Swaziland?

Contact Information

The webmaster Paul Gosselin is sometimes at home where you can contact him by telephone. However, it is far better to send an e-mail to the address indicated below.   Thank you.

e-mail :  webmaster@placenamesa.com

Map of Southern Africa

Click on the map for a high res. file of this vintage map

For more Great Places, Placenames and Images of Lesotho, try these pages

NEW BOOK LAUNCH NOVEMBER 2009 - Basotho: people at work - a photographic essay on Lesotho

Publishing now by Highveld Press, Johannesburg. ISBN No. 780620 453 899

Contact webmaster for more information and see many of the images from the book on the website below.

For the best part of a decade, businessman turned photographer René Paul Gosselin has been drawn to the remote mountain kingdom of Lesotho.

Gradually, he has learnt that, rather than chasing people and scenes, he should ‘wait quietly by the roadside’, and his subjects will eventually arrive by themselves.

This approach has resulted in a stunning set of photographs depicting the lives of a people who, while fundamentally at peace with themselves and their environment, are constantly at work: ploughing, reaping, threshing, winnowing, milling, weaving, and tending their livestock.

They include images of a gathering of hundreds of Basotho horsemen in the remote central highlands, held under the auspices of their paramount chief, to discuss grazing rights and other vital land use issues – the first ever taken of this spectacular annual event.

 René Paul Gosselin presents a marvellous portfolio of photographs which testify to the hard work and skill of the rural Basotho at surviving in a harsh landscape, where little is achieved without major effort.’

– from a foreword by David Ambrose

 ‘René Paul Gosselin’s empathy with and love for Lesotho and its people are clearly reflected in these photographs.’

All photographs in this section are copyright of the webmaster, Paul Gosselin. Contact  webmaster@placenamesa.com

for permission.

Last updated:  22 January 2012