For the Love of the Word: Experiences of African Translators

As stated in a previous article, Region Change Through Word Exchange: The Need for Translation in Africa, people who work as African translators tend to hold advanced degrees, speak multiple languages and have knowledge of a wide range of subjects. To get a bit more personal and local flavor, we interviewed several Alpha Omega Translations African translators to ask them about the joys and challenges of their work.

While each of these translators has lived, worked, gone to school and traveled throughout the world, each of them now lives on or near the African continent. While they speak many languages and have clients from many world regions they most commonly work with following African languages:

• English
• French
• German
• Twi
• Swahili
• Arabic

Translating in Africa brings unique challenges that truly test the expertise and flexibility of the translator:

• Literal versus Contextual: Languages such as Arabic are very contextual, meaning the same words can have very different meanings in different surrounding contexts. So the translator often needs to take great care in creating the right surrounding context so the intended meaning is communicated.
• Understanding of Local Culture: Projects require a solid knowledge of the current local culture and an area’s cultural background. Translators need to understand local idiomatic phrases and metaphoric expressions specific to each region. These local concepts may then need to be explained to readers from very different parts of the world, or the local group may need to have a new program in healthcare, voting, etc explained in terms that are relevant to their local culture. Each of the Alpha Omega translators conveyed great satisfaction in being that “bridge” of communication.
• Written Form: Even basic writing techniques can differ from one language to another. For example, translation is challenging between English and Arabic because the translators must change back and forth between writing left to right (English) and right to left (Arabic). Also, poorly worded phrases or slang in the original document need to be taken into account for the translation to be successful.

African translators are passionate about their work. They are long-term, loyal recruits who have worked in translation for years, some for decades. Over time, they learn about many different subjects. (One translator said that until he worked on a translation project with the United States Department of Agriculture, he never realized that the subject of food standards could be so interesting!)

Some of the subjects covered by African translators include:

• Public health
• Epidemiology, infectious diseases, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis
• The handicapped
• Government work
• Financial and businesses topics
• Military and defense
• Tourism
• Finance
• Family planning
• Food
• IT
• Medical devices
• Nuclear power
• Industrial equipment

African translators work on a variety of projects. They may be needed for simple legal documents like birth and death certificates and letters. And they may be tested for tougher projects like technical documents and military reports.

They also work on development and humanitarian projects for NGOs who try to solve some of the world’s biggest problems such as hunger, relief after natural disasters, nutrition, education, corruption. 
These are often closely linked to access to information. When populations needing the information cannot get it in their native language, they may not have the tools to survive. Translators facilitate the transfer of knowledge from one language to another by working on projects used to help communities in difficulty.

Some of their greatest challenges are in coordinated multi-document, multi-language programs across the continent, in different languages.

Finally the translators were appreciative of the Alpha Omega Translations (AOT) network. AOT trains and provides tools such as Computer Assisted Translation (CAT) and project workflow management systems. AOT also provides support, training, a network of other professional translators and coordination.

If you would like advice on a possible translation project, please contact us.

For an overview of our translation expertise, visit our legal translation service page.

Tags: Africa, languages, translation

Category: Alpha Omega News