SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This essay is concerned with translation in situations of linguistic or social inequality. Its focus is South African English and it relationship to the other South African languages. Its argument is that much of the translation work done in South Africa serves to extend and confirm monolingual privilege. Translation in official contexts in South Africa tends to happen into English, out of other South African languages, and the labour of translation is performed by heteroglots for the benefit of monolingual English-speakers, who are able to remain monoglot since the work is performed by someone else. A further inequality of this situation is the fact that monolingual South Africans tend to be English-speakers, and tend to be the beneficiaries of racially and linguistically determined privileges. When translation takes place out of other South African languages into South African English, this monolingual privilege can be confirmed and extended. The essay concludes that a refusal to translate out of African languages into South African English may be necessary in order to destabilize the hegemony of English.