A critical analysis of the translation of African literature (original) (raw)

1990, Language & Communication

Literature like translation is a linguistic event. African Literature in European languages presents special problems for the African and non-African translator because of language contacts and interference. The cross-fertilization of African and European languages throughout the continent has influenced different kinds of artistic expressions from Cape to Cairo. Within the scope of this study, it is necessary to underscore the fact that literary translation in Africa is still a novelty but is governed by similar constraints which have influenced this special kind of translation. Hartmann's remarks in Contrastive Textology: Comparative Discourse Analysis in Applied Linguistics concerning literary translation is noteworthy. He lists The study of literary texts, their production, transmission, critical evaluation and verbal art. The traditions, judgments and methods of literary theory must be respected when we try to account for the ways in which works of literary art cross linguistic and cultural boundaries. . The task of the (literary) translator is to produce an equivalent text, typically for a reader who is not proficient enough to understand the text in the language of the original. Hartmann approves Andre Lefevere's 7 different types or "strategies" of literary translation: phonemic translation, literal translation, metrical translation, poetry into prose, rhymed translation, blank verse and free interpretation. .. (Hartmann, 1980, pp. 62-63). Hartmann and Lefevhe's salient observations are very pertinent to the relationship between literature and translation in Africa. Lefevere's observations and classification would be extremely useful particularly in an African context, where the cultural imperative influences linguistic structures in all the major literary genres in oral and written African literatures. Before delving into a detailed analysis of the interrelationships between 'creative translation', literature, and translation in Africa, it is useful to indicate that historically, a vast body of African literature of Portuguese expression thrived in Africa in the nineteenth century. It is necessary to underscore this point because the general belief in academic circles is that the translation of African texts into European languages began in the 1960s with Achebe, Soyinka, Beti, Bebey, Ngugi, and a host of other artists. Lusophone African Literature comprising works produced in Angola,