I write to you as a resident of East Africa, disappointed that even in 2024, important landmarks in Africa are still named after the colonizers. This is a personal plea to reinstate the native names of Lake Victoria which was renamed during a time of colonial rule. We are no longer under colonial powers and therefore our landmarks should reflect the same. It's time to reclaim our identity and restore the native names of our landmarks. Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the world's second-largest freshwater lake, has had many ancestral names before the imperialist christened it 'Victoria.' Among these were 'Nam Lolwe' in Luo, 'Nnalubaale' in Luganda, 'Ukerewe' in Swahili and 'Nyanza' in Kinyarwanda and some other Bantu languages. These names, deeply rooted in our culture, were replaced in 1858 when British explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document the lake, named it after Queen Victoria. In doing so, our heritage was obscured by a colonial moniker. Let's honor our past, our culture, our ancestors, and our languages, by restoring the native names to this magnificent body of water. It's a step towards cultural preservation and a post-colonial identity. Sign this petition to request our local leaders and geographical bodies to formally recognize and use our lake's ancestral names: Nam Lolwe and Nyanza. Stand with us in decolonizing our landmarks. Your signature makes a difference.