Abstract:
This article addresses challenges arising from the guarantee in South Africa’s
Constitution (1996) of continued use of indigenous law. This law has been
handed down in oral form, but increasingly, written sources are needed when
cases relating to indigenous law are heard in South Africa’s higher courts.
Although access to this kind of information is vital to empowerment and justice in
Africa, wider access is hampered by different literacy levels and language
differences. This article examines accountable translation into English of legal
anthropological texts, referring to a case study on law practised among the
Nkuna of Ritavi to demonstrate some of the complexities. The article considers the
Anglo-American translation tradition’s preference for idiomatic translation
(paraphrasis) rather than word-for-word faithfulness (metaphrasis). It advocates
focusing on the Skopos (purpose) of texts negotiated with the author. It also
proposes foregrounding the hermeneutic engagement of translators as readers. For
the text in the case study, it suggests two translations, for two audiences: one into an
academic register (for academics, legal experts, and educated members of the
Nkuna community), and one into Plain English (mainly for members of the
Nkuna community for whom English is a second language). To address
political dimensions of responsible translation, metatextual strategies espoused by
feminist translators to increase translators’ visibility and accountability can be used,
and postcolonial translation theory should be considered.
