Africa in Translation: Poetry in (e)motion

Africa in Translation: Poetry in (e)motion  
Friday 11 July, 10:00 – 13:00
BL Conference Centre, FREE

A three-panel symposium with critics and translators Wangui wa Goro, André Naffis-Sahely, Vusi Mchunu, Hany Rashwan, Dele Meiji Fatunla and award-winning poets Gabriel Okoundji and Ribka Sibhatu. Additional readings and presentations by James Figueroa and Afrikult (Marcelle Akita, Henry Brefo and Zaahida Mariam Nalumoso).

When words travel, what do they pick up and drop on the way? What are the limits and possibilities when translating creative literary works? Should one aim to find the mot juste or reach for poetic licence? In this symposium, we explore the works of a range of African poets and their translators, as well as marking 25 years of the translation of Ngugi Wa Thiong’o’s Matigari – analysing how meaning changes through time and tending to the pertinent theme of the future of translation.