Professor traces T&T’s history through ancestral toponymy

The historical genealogy of the names of some of the places in Trinidad and Tobago and the possible need for changing current nomenculture was examined by senior Research Fellow, Professor Brinsley Samaroo at a forum on March 27 hosted by the UTT Academy of Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs at its campus at the National Academy for the Performing Arts. The forum was entitled Retaining The Heritage: Place Names in Trinbago. Samaroo, the feature speaker, explored the theoretical reasons for the names of places and their historical and global significance. The well published scholar also traced this country’s place naming origins from the Amerinidian toponyms, European intrusions and renaming, African emendations, Jewish and Asian additions and the eventual obliteration of ancestral place names. 

 

Throughout his presentation he outlined the different eras of our history and the influence each had on place names. For example, he said, the toponymy of the Amerindians reflected flora and fauna origins, while the Spanish dominance in 1498 saw an evolution of the place names, due to the fact that the Spanish wanted to establish themselves and remove any lineage of Amerindian influence. This evolution of place names, in essence, commensurated with the colonial conquerors at the time, such as the British and the free slaves, who eventually settled in places such as Naparima and Princes Town. Professor Samaroo also gave interesting facts about the naming of Lady Young Road, which got its name after Lady Young, the wife of a governor, and Wrightson Road, named after Sir Walsh Wrightson who built a sewer line from the Woodbrook Estate and paved a road to the lighthouse. This road was later extended by an Indian engineer in 1937. The forum began with a welcome address by Dr Hollis Liverpool, who endorsed the fact that this country’s historical colonial past had indeed served a profound purpose in society where place naming was concerned. He opined that our ancestral place names had contributed “irrevocable ingredients of our past” and should not change.