Community Interpreting and Translation in Africa

Bridging the Language Divide

Abstract

In an increasingly interconnected world, the relevance of effective communication cannot be overemphasized. Nowhere is this more evident than in the diverse and linguistically rich continent of Africa. With over 2,000 indigenous languages spoken across its vast expanse, Africa presents unique challenges and opportunities for community interpreting and translation. As a matter of fact, community translation and interpretation is a daily occurrence in many African communities, from the newsreader who takes an article from Reuters or BBC and renders it in the local language, adding their own cultural twist, to the master of ceremonies at a traditional marriage ceremony between a couple from different ethnic/ language groups, to the agricultural extension officer who
needs to translate his message of seedling management to a group of farmers who speaks a different language. In this editorial, we present selected papers from the ATSA conference on Community Interpreting and Translation in the African Context, exploring the significance of language empowerment and the bridging of linguistic divides.