Configuring Thematic Tropes in Kiswahili Literature: Translating Mariama Ba’s 'So Long A Letter' as 'Barua Ndefu Kama Hii'

Abstract

The scholarly explications of literary translations in Kiswahili have for long been predicated on a paradigm which homogenizes and explicates all translations as unvarying in meaning, habitually focused on the transposition of literary value from English into Kiswahili. This paper contends that the translation of Song Long a Letter into Kiswahili as Barua Ndefu Kama Hii affirms Venuti’s assertions and demonstrates a conscious rewriting that variously configures literary themes in Kiswahili literature. It further contends that literary translation is a cultural undertaking that enables the rendition of literary and cultural material in target paradigms. By foregrounding the social and cultural significance of the source text, the translation is a tour de force that reinvigorates feminist writing in Kiswahili literature, underprops knowledge creation, and refocuses the centrality of translation as enabling the perception of difference and presentation of alternative possibilities.