Namen als Träger kolonialen Gedankenguts

In Tanzania guidebooks, history plays a subordinate role. Nevertheless, one name is mentioned again and again: Shirazi. Like several of other ethnonyms, anthroponyms and praxonyms, the name embodies the still widespread conviction that urban and educated Swahili culture can in no way have African roots. Even if scientifically disproved long ago, this perpetuates a racist worldview that portrays Tanzanians as a passive and will-less mass. If one understands political correctness as the avoidance of linguistic and non-linguistic behaviors that exclude, discriminate and marginalise others, then the uncritical and biased use of these names must be called politically incorrect.