A translation turn in Africa

Abstract

Once considered merely as a subfield of the science of linguistics, translation studies has earned its droit de cité, that is, the right to exist as an autonomous discipline. Having shed its linguistic confines, translation studies has been growing in leaps and bounds, owing to an ever-increasing cross-fertilisation process involving many other established academic disciplines. The term “translation” is no longer the preserve of theorists and practitioners of translation but has taken on a slew of meanings and connotations that may vary according to the perspectives of the host disciplines.