I have received a petition from Change.org to change the name of Hottentot Crescent, Mullumbimby to another South African word, ‘Khoisan’, also totally irrelevant to the area. Why can’t it be changed to the name of an Australian bird or an Australian tree in keeping with the rest of the area? As in Cockatoo, Quail, Tuckeroo, Corella, etc.
According to sahistory.org: ‘It is important to remember that the Khoi-San people were the most brutalised by colonialists who tried to make them extinct, and undermined their language and identity. As a free and democratic South Africa today, we cannot ignore to correct the past.’
So by using Khoisan, as was suggested, are we not repeating the offence caused by the word Hottentot?
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
