“Nibezwe kodwa ningabalaleli” – An Analysis of Hidden Treasures in African Literature

Celimpilo Piety Dladla ORCID iD 

Issue: Vol.5  No.15 Special Issue Article 3 pp.29-42
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245153 | Published online 4th December, 2024
© 2024 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Views: 319
456 Downloads

DOWNLOAD PDF

This study critically explored African literature, focusing on the creative strategies 19th-century authors employed to resist censorship of African literary expression. The paper addresses the prevalent criticisms of African literature by examining Nyembezi’s novel “Inkinsela YaseMgungundlovu,” translated as “The Richman of Pietermaritzburg,” by  Sandile Ngidi. The research highlighted the pivotal role of annotations in uncovering implicit societal constructs shaped by historical limitations within South African literature. Through a qualitative desktop study, this paper systematically analysed selected passages from the novel, employing monolingual and bilingual dictionaries along with scholarly literature to extract deeper meanings. The findings underscored how annotations bridge linguistic and cultural gaps, enriching readers’ understanding of the socio-political contexts embedded in the text. Additionally, the study advocates for the re-evaluation of African ethnic literature and encourages greater engagement among scholars and readers. It further posits that annotations enhance translation by providing crucial contextual information, empowering target readers to engage with the text as intended by its original audience. Ultimately, this research illuminates the hidden treasures within African literature, promoting its broader significance in literary studies and advocating for future analyses that reveal the rich cultural heritage of its people.

Keywords: African Ethnic Literature, IsiZulu Literature, Literary Annotation, Literary Censorship, Translation

Achebe, Chinua. “The African Writer and the English Language.” In Colonial Discourse and Post-Colonial Theory, 428–34. Routledge, 2015.

Alberts, M. “Terminology in South Africa.” Lexikos, 9 (1999): 18-35.

Altijani, Ashraf Ahmed Omer and Omer, Mahmoud Ali Ahmed. “Major themes of sociopolitical post-colonial African literature.” International Journal of Contemporary Applied Researches, 6(7), (2019): 160-73.

Ardhinie, Eka. “An Annotated Translation of Daughter.” Journal of Language and Literature 5, no. 1 (2017).

Baker, Mona. In Other Words: A Coursebook on Translation. Routledge, 2018.

BeDuhn, Jason. Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. University Press of America, 2003.

Beinart, William, and Saul Dubow. Segregation and Apartheid in Twentieth-Century South Africa. Psychology Press, 1995.

Birukou, Aliaksandr, Enrico Blanzieri, Paolo Giorgini, and Fausto Giunchiglia. “A Formal Definition of Culture.” Models for Intercultural Collaboration and Negotiation, 2013, 1–26.

Booysen, Frikkie. “Urban–Rural Inequalities in Health Care Delivery in South Africa.” Development Southern Africa 20, no. 5 (2003): 659–73.

Braveman, Paula. “Social Conditions, Health Equity, and Human Rights.” Health & Hum. Rts. 12 (2010): 31.

Canonici, N N. “BW Vilakazi and the Birth of the Zulu Novel.” Literator: Journal of Literary Criticism, Comparative Linguistics and Literary Studies 31, no. 2 (2010): 15–44.

Coogan, Michael David, Marc Zvi Brettler, Carol Ann Newsom, and Pheme Perkins. The New Oxford Annotated Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version. Oxford University Press, 2018.

Evelyn, Marcella, and Julia Eka Rini. “An Annotated Translation of a Book Entitled Experiencing God in The Ordinary.” Kata Kita:Journal of Language,Literature, and Teaching 10, no.2(2022):342–48.

Fredericks, George H., and Zolile Mvunelo. “Publication of books in indigenous South African languages and their availability and use in public libraries.” South African Journal of Libraries and Information Science 69.2 (2003): 133-139.

Figone, Kelsey E. “The Hegemony of English in South African Education,” 2012.

Hunter, Mark. “The Bond of Education: Gender, the Value of Children, and the Making of Umlazi Township in 1960s South Africa.” The Journal of African History 55, no. 3 (2014): 467–90.

Khoza, Njabulo Sifiso. “Nibezwe Kodwa Ningabalaleli” King Misizulu. TikTok video, 00.34. August 23, 2022. https://www.tiktok.com/@njabulosfisokhoza/video/7135191820924980486

Kunene, Mazisi. Amalokotho Kanomkhubulwane. Kzn Books, 1996.

———. “Some Aspects of South African Literature.” World Literature Today 70, no. 1 (1996): 13–16.

Leal, Alice. English and Translation in the European Union: Unity and Multiplicity in the Wake of Brexit. Taylor & Francis, 2021.

Maphumulo, Abednego Mandla. ed. Ukuvamisa imithetho yokubhala nobhalomagama lwesiZulu lonyaka wezi-2021. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.2021

Modise, Leepo, and Ndikho Mtshiselwa. “The Natives Land Act of 1913 Engineered the Poverty of Black South Africans: A Historico-Ecclesiastical Perspective.” Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae 39, no. 2 (2013): 359–78.

Ndimande-Hlongwa, Nobuhle, and Leonce Rushubirwa. “Gender Inequality and Language Reflections in African Indigenous Languages: Comparative Cases from IsiZulu and Kiswahili.” Alternation 13 (2014): 390–410.

Newmark, P. A Textbook of Translation. Hemel Hempstead:  Prentice Hall International Ltd., 1988.

Nkosi, L. Tasks and Masks: Themes and Styles of African Literature. Longman Group United Kingdom, 1981.

Nord, Christiane. “Scopos, Loyalty, and Translational Conventions.” Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 3, no. 1 (1991): 91–109.

———. “Skopos and (Un) Certainty: How Functional Translators Deal with Doubt.” Meta 61, no. 1 (2016): 29–41.

Ntuli, Isaac Dumsani. “Zulu Literature in the Global Book Market: The English Translation of Inkinsela YaseMgungundlovu,” 2015.

Nyembezi, C.L.S. Scholar’s Zulu Dictionary; English-Zulu, Zulu-English. 4th ed. Shuter and Shooter, 2009.

Oelofse, S H H, P J Hobbs, J Rascher, and J E Cobbing. “The Pollution and Destruction Threat of Gold Mining Waste on the Witwatersrand: A West Rand Case Study.” In 10th International Symposium on Environmental Issues and Waste Management in Energy and Mineral Production (SWEMP, 2007), Bangkok, 11–13. Citeseer, 2007.

Phoofolo, Pule. “Face to Face with Famine: The BaSotho and the Rinderpest, 1897-1899.” Journal of Southern African Studies 29, no. 2 (2003): 503–27.

Pym, Anthony. “The Translator as Non-Author, and I Am Sorry about That.” The Translator as Author: Perspectives on Literary Translation, 2011, 31–43.

Raffel, B. Macbeth: Fully Annotated, with an Introduction by Burton Raffel (The Annotated Shakespeare). Yale University Press, 2005.

Translating Nyembezi no walk in the park. Mail and Guardian Newspaper. 11 January 2019. Online. Available at: https://mg.co.za/article/2019-01-11-00-translating-nyembezi-no-walk-in-the-park/ [Accessed: 2024 June 2024].

Verkhovtsova, Olga. “Cultural Equivalence in Translation.” Sworld-Us Conference proceedings, no. usc21-01 (November 30, 2023): 129–31. https://doi.org/10.30888/2709-2267.2023-21-01-009.

Walt, Johannes L van der, Ferdinand J Potgieter, and Charl C Wolhuter. “Education Reform in Southern Africa since the 1960s: What Progress Has Been Made?” The Anthropologist 17, no. 1 (2014): 279–90.

Williams, Jenny, and Andrew Chesterman. The Map: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing Research in Translation Studies. Routledge, 2014.

Dr. Celimpilo Piety Dladla is a lecturer in the Department of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has 20 years of experience as an interpreter and translator for the South African government (from English to isiZulu and vice versa). Her undergraduate and postgraduate studies are in Language Practice; Management, Translation and Interpreting Studies; IsiZulu Studies; and African Languages and Linguistics. Her postdoctoral research focuses on the language of teaching and learning in South Africa, lexicography, translation, and interpreting.

Dladla, Celimpilo Piety. ““Nibezwe kodwa ningabalaleli” – An Analysis of Hidden Treasures in African Literature ,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 5, no.15 (2024):29-42. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20245153

© 2024 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Articles in this Issue

About Journal