Introduction

Ella Wehrmeyer and Judith Inggs North-West University, Vanderbijlpark University of the Witivatersrand, Johannesburg

This book was inspired by the 2016 student movements across South Africa calling for the decolonisation of university curricula, echoing similar voices in translation studies calling for a move away from Eurocentric approaches (Hung and Wakabayishi 2005). It also follows on from recent interest in rhe discipline at African universities, demonstrated by the establishment of the African Translation Studies Association (founded by Use Feinauer and Kobus Marais) and its academic journal.

African translation theory (especially in terms of literary translation) shares with Asian translation theory many of the factors identified by Hung and Wakabayishi (2005) that distinguish it from the tradition of Western literary translation theory. These include a strong oral literary culture (Bandia 2009b), a cultural worldview that grounds and interprets present and future trends in the light of history, a plethora of languages at different levels of development and literacy (Eberhard et al. 2020) complicating both choice of academic lingua franca and publication languages (of source and target texts), and disparity between national and ethnic boundaries resulting in “multilingual and multicultural realities in the region that have so far been little studied in translation terms” (Hung and Wakabayishi 2005:4).

This complexity is further compounded by the lack of established translation departments at universities across Africa. Perhaps, as Hung and Wakabayishi (2005) suggest for their volume Asian translation traditions, this present offering similarly reports on a fledgling field with enormous scope for growth. We echo their sentiments that even identifying expertise for the purposes of this book proved challenging; that translation is often regarded only as a practical skill; that translation studies as a discipline in general—let alone scholarly research into literary translation in particular—is still in its early stages in most African countries; that we experienced the same challenges in obtaining consistently world-class standards of research or theoretical innovation on the one hand, and comprehensive coverage of African literary studies on the other. However, the discipline is growing steadily, producing a number of significant works (Bandia 2008; Inggs and Meintjes 2009; Hanna 2016; Mazrui 2016; Marais and Feinauer 2017; Mwangi 2017). Currently, the lack of established translation departments results in scholars who do engage in literary translation research publishing in journals related to other disciplines, rendering their work less accessible to translation studies audiences. The paucity of scholars is compounded by the lack of resources at many African universities, resulting in talented African academics frequently relocating to North American, European or British universities.

There are also more complex reasons for the invisibility of African scholars in many academic fields. Similar to the Asian context, African scholarly discourse is characterised by approaches which to Western eyes may appear long-winded and overly preoccupied with history and tradition. African scholars often have to conform to Western norms if they are to be published and acknowledged, especially if dependent on foreign funding (Nyamnjoh 2004:334). Nyamnjoh’s study is particularly illuminating, shedding light on the lack of capital enjoyed by African scholarship and the continued domination of Western perspectives and epistemologies, and showing that African scholars are pressured to emulate Western scholarship and the perceived universal nature of that tradition. Perhaps, as has been suggested for Asian translation studies (Hung and Wakabayishi 2005:4), some merging of African and Western academic discourse needs to develop. The plethora of languages and the decolonisation discourse also has a marked effect on discussions of which language to use as a lingua franca for academic discourse.

Finally, academics have to deal with a general ignorance of African literature, not only abroad but also within Africa. Although this is being rectified in that some European and American universities offer courses in African literature, the Eurocentric approach adopted by most African universities means that Africans are sadly largely ignorant of their own literary heritage, and therefore turn to Europe or America as the source of world literature and critical thinking. A few publications, such as the Routledge handbook of African literature, have sought to correct the situation, evidencing a deeper engagement with critical literary studies in an African context (Adejunmobi and Coetzee 2019). The editors of this extensive volume state that the contents “are intended to materialise a project of expanding and complexifying scholarship in African literary studies as a research area in its own right” (Adejunmobi and Coetzee 2019:1). We hope that this volume on literary translation will achieve a similar objective in relation to African literary translation studies.

This book is therefore aimed at bringing a much-needed African perspective to literary translation studies, especially given Africa’s rich linguistic diversity and history of story-telling. The chapters represent a range of topics pertaining to the translation of literary works originating in Africa from an African perspective, particularly for postgraduate students of literary translation and early-career researchers. It will, however, also be of interest to other scholars in translation studies and related fields. Not all the contributors are based in Africa, but all are linked to the continent in some way. The studies therefore also capture the African literary spirit, born of both beauty and pain, of grandeur and of smallness, of subjugation and of liberation. In this sense, the book makes a significant contribution to decolonising the currently Eurocentric curricula and methodological approaches in translation studies, especially on the continent.

As our intention is to showcase innovative research in literary studies, some chapters contribute a fresh look at established topics, such as reception theory, cultural shifts, gender studies, postcolonial studies, agency and translation strategies, whereas others tackle new directions, such as the ethics of literary translation, dynamics of self-translation, translator creativity, and mapping literary translation history. Likewise, some research frameworks comprise established methods such as critical discourse analysis, and approaches within the framework of descriptive translation studies, while others pioneer more recent methods such as literary corpus studies and cultural mapping, or propose new methodologies, for example for exploring ethical issues and histories of literary translation. The higher proportion of South African contributors reflects the small number of departments of translation studies referred to above, though the discipline is growing, particularly in Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Senegal.

The following sections provide overviews of aspects pertinent to African literature, including an overview of literary production in Africa, to address the general lack of prominence and awareness of African achievements in Africa.