Mona Baker & Gabriela Saldanha. Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies (2nd edition)

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areessentiallyliberaltranslationsofAfricanoraltexts.Tutuola,forexample,

literallytranslatedsomeYorubamythologyintoEnglish.Inanattempttocapture

YorubasyntaxinEnglish(andgiventhathewasapublicserviceclerkwithjust

anelementaryschooleducation),heproducedcurioussyntacticpatternsthat

endearedhimtoEuropeanreaders.Apartfromsuch‘translations’ofAfrican

oralliterature,theworksofwellknownAfricanwriterssuchasAchebe,

Soyinka,OkaraandSenghorhavealsobeentranslatedintoseveralEuropean

languages.

ThesituationinEastAfricaishighlyinfluencedbywhathasbeendescribedas

EastAfrica’stripleheritage–African,IslamicandEuropean.Whiletherehave

beenmanytranslationsfromtheethnoAfricanheritageintoEuropean

languages,therehasbeenrelativelylessEuropeanlanguageliteraturetranslated

intoAfricanlanguages,andhardlyanytranslationbetweenAfricanlanguages.

EthnoAfricanliteraturereflectstheethnicdivisionsinEastAfrica,wherethe

literaturesofethnicgroupssuchastheKikuyu,Baganda,Chagga,Acholiand

Luohaveremainedseparate.TheUgandanOkotp’Bitekiswellknownforhis

translationofthepoem‘SongofLawino’intoEnglish,whichhehadoriginally

writteninhisnativeAcholi.ThepoemwassubsequentlytranslatedintoFrench,

SpanishandPortuguese;p’Bitek’sworkhadmuchmoreimpactthroughthe

translationthanthroughtheoriginalversioninAcholi.P’Bitekisalsoavery

knowledgeablelinguistterminologist.Hemakeshistranslationsaccessibleto

nonAcholireadersbyincludingananalyticalglossaryofAcholiwordsand

expressionsthatdonothaveEnglishequivalents.

ThefamousKenyanauthorNgugiWaThiong’o,whowroteinEnglishfor

severalyears,becamefrustratedwiththeinabilityoftheEnglishlanguageto

expresstheessenceofhisnativecultureandswitchedtowritinginhisnative

Kikuyuandthentranslatingsomeofhisworks,suchashisnovelDevilonthe

Cross,intoEnglish.

TherehasalsobeensometranslationactivityontheAfroIslamicfront.Swahili

isessentiallytheproductofcontactbetweenIslamandtheBantucivilization.A

largevolumeofethnoAfricanliteraturehasbeentranslatedintoSwahili.The

AfroIslamicheritageinSwahilihasbeenmadeavailableinEnglishbyscholars

suchasLyndonHarries,JamesdeVereAllen,IbrahimShariff,JanKnappert

andothers(Gérard1986:1049).TherehavealsobeentranslationsfromEnglish

intoSwahili.FamousamongthesearethetranslationsbyJuliusNyerere(the

founderpresidentofTanzania)ofShakespeare’sJuliusCaesarandThe

MerchantofVenice.ThesetranslationswoncriticalacclaimsinceSwahilihas

becomeahomebredlinguafrancaofEastAfrica,spokenbyover100million

people.

ThesignificanceofSwahiliasalinguafrancaofsuchavastregionofAfricahas

ledMhina(1970)toargueinfavourofproducingworksinSwahiliand

translatinginternationallyrecognizedworksintoSwahili.Unliketherestof

AfricasouthoftheSahara,wherethereisnowidelyusedhomegrown

internationallanguage,EastAfricahastheuniqueadvantageofhavingSwahilias

aviableinternationallanguageoutclassingmanyforeignlanguages.

Sinceindependence,publicservicetranslationhascontinuedtoflourishasthe

governmentsofvariousAfricanstatesattempttocopewithWesternstyle

bureaucraciesleftbehindasacoloniallegacy.WhenmostAfricancountries

becameindependentinthe1960s,theywereleftwithalinguisticsituationthat

wasboundtoenhancetheroleoftranslatorsandinterpreters.Severalofthese

newlyindependentAfricancountriesalreadyhadmanyindigenousAfrican

languagesspokenwithintheirborders,towhichwasaddedthecolonial

language(s)which,thoughforeign,hadbecometheofficiallanguage(s)ofthese

countries.Ironically,insteadofaflourishingtranslationactivitybetweenAfrican

languages,asonemighthaveexpectedinapostcolonialsituation,translation

evolvedmainlyintwodirections:AfricanintoEuropeanlanguagesandvice

versa,andEuropeantoEuropeanlanguages.Facedwiththeneedtocopewith

worldaffairsandtheinternationaleconomicmarket,itbecameincreasingly

necessaryforAfricancountriestocommunicatenotonlywithotherAfrican

nations,butalsowithothercountriesoftheworld,particularlytheirformer

colonialmasters.Inthiscontext,EuropeantoEuropeanlanguagetranslation

thrivedinAfricainthefieldofforeignaffairs,aswellasinadministrative,

economicandculturalareas.

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Thepresentday

Sinceindependence,manyeconomicandinternationalorganizationshavebeen

formedtoenhancecooperationamongAfricanstates,thusstrengtheningthe

needforEuropeanlanguagetranslators.WhentheOrganizationofAfricanUnity

(OAU)wasfoundedin1962,English,French,Portuguese,Spanishand–ona

smallerscale–Arabicweredeclaredtheofficialworkinglanguages.The

decisiontouseEuropeanratherthanAfricanlanguagesasamediumof

communicationamongmemberstateshasbeenstronglycriticizedbymany

scholarsandissaidtohavebeenindicativeofthefatethatawaitedAfrica.

Duringtheearlyyearsofindependence,theWesternstylegovernmentsin

variousAfricancountrieswereleftwiththelegacyofcoloniallanguagesbut

withoutanypersonnelorinfrastructuretocarryouttheimmensetranslation

workthatthenewlinguisticsituationentailed.Inmanyinstances,government

civilservantswithbarelyanelementaryeducationandasmatteringof

knowledgeintwoEuropeanlanguageswerecalledupontoprovidetranslations.

Butastimewentby,itbecameincreasinglyobviousthat,giventheamountof

worktobedoneandtheneedforqualitytranslations,governmentshadtotake

aninterestinthetrainingofprofessionaltranslators.Foralmosttwodecades

afterindependencemanyAfricangovernmentssponsoredsomeoftheir

brightestgraduatestostudyintranslationschoolsinEuropeandNorthAmerica.

Cameroonprovidesagoodexampleofhowtranslatortraininghasevolved

sinceindependence.HavingadoptedEnglishandFrenchasofficiallanguages,

CameroonistheonlyAfricancountrywithofficialbilingualisminEuropean

languages.Hence,itisoftencitedasthecentreforEuropeantoEuropean

languagetranslationinAfrica;itisalsooftencomparedtoCanada,where

EnglishandFrencharesimilarlyofficiallanguages.Yet,foraverylongtime,

Cameroon’stranslatorsweretrainedinEuropeorNorthAmerica.Itwasnot

untilthe1980s,thattheAdvancedSchoolofTranslatorsandInterpreterswas

establishedinBuea,Cameroon.

TranslatortrainingisthereforearelativelyrecentphenomenoninmostAfrican

countries,andforthisreason,trainedandcompetenttranslatorsareinshort

supply.Simpson(1985:107)mentionsastudycommissionedbyUNCTAD‘on

theneedforasubregionaltranslation,interpretationandstafflanguagetraining

supportserviceandtoassessthefeasibilityofsettingupsuchaserviceifit

turnedouttobeneeded’.Amongtherecommendationsmadeisthecreationof

asubregionalTranslationandInterpretationSchool.

PoliticalchangesinSouthAfricasincethe1990sbroughtabouttheneedfora

massiveoverhauloftranslationtrainingprogrammes.TheANC’sConstitution

forapostapartheidSouthAfricarecognizeselevenofficiallanguages,mostof

whichareAfricanlanguages.Unlikepasttranslationprogrammeswhichdealt

mainlyinEnglishandAfrikaans,currenttranslationprogrammesmustinclude

Africanlanguages.Ithasbeenrecommendedthattranslationtraining

programmesshouldaimatpromotingmultilingualismandeliminatingthekindof

linguisticprejudicesandsocialinequalitythathaveexistedinSouthAfricaforso

long.Inordertoachievethis,translatorsshouldbetrainednotonlyatthe

postgraduatelevel,butalsoattheundergraduateandpretertiarylevels.Adding

acriticallanguageawarenesscomponenttothetrainingprogramme,itis

thought,mighthelpfightlinguisticprejudiceandinstilrespectforthelanguage

rightsofallcitizensinapostapartheiddemocraticsociety.Itisalsobelieved

thattheenshriningoflanguagerightsinthenewConstitutionwillleadtoamajor

expansionandprofessionalizationoflanguageservices.Communityinterpreting

andtranslationarealsobeingactivelysupported,especiallyatthelevelofhealth

careandsocialservicesprovision,soastoavoidalienatingnonEnglishand

nonAfrikaansspeakers.Terminologyresearchplaysanimportantrole,

particularlyinprogrammesdesignedtomeettheneedsofAfricanlanguage

translators(Kruger1994).

Thestatusofthetranslator/interpreterhasundergoneaconsiderable

transformationsincethetimeofthegriot.Unlikethegriotwhowasreveredand

evenfearedinprecolonialAfrica,today’stranslatorisoftenperceivedasa

disenchantedcivilservantwhotoilsawaywithoutreceivinganyrecognitioninhis

orhercountry’spublicservice.Theonlylanguagespecialistswhoseemsatisfied

withtheirlotareconferenceinterpreters,whoenjoytheglamour