Literary translation and nation-building in post-independence Tanzania

Abstract

In post-independence Tanzania (prior to that known as Tanganyika), literary translation and discourse on it were indispensable resources for conceptualizsing and forging a (cultured) socialist nation. In this chapter, I discuss the relationship between the construction of ujamaa, or Tanzanian socialism, and translation practices in a way that helps us to comprehend to what extent the two nourished each: how did ujamaa permeate translation practice and dictate literary imports? And how did translation contribute to fostering the ujamaa project? Thus, I adopt a twin-track approach, whereby the history of translation provides insights into the history and nature of ujamaa, and the history of socialism informs our understanding of translation practices. In Tanzania of the 1960s and 1970s, translation helped to conceptualisze the ujamaa project, construct the ideal of the intellectual patriot, and foster linguistic and cultural self-reliance. Simultaneously, the tenets of Tanzanian socialism permeated translation practice, which embodied the negotiating between localism and internationalism. Exploring the complex social history of literary imports and Tanzanian socialism at diverse related levels – translation flows, para- and extratextual analysis, social contextualiszation – sheds light onto the (often unrecognizsed) role of translation in the history and development of Tanzanian socialism. At the same time, such exploration invites reflection on the importance of the interactions among history, sociology, and translation studies in creating an interdisciplinary research framework.