Translating across the imperial divide: the role of agents in translating and publishing Chinua Achebe’s works in French

Abstract

ABSTRACT Chinua Achebe’s influence on the development and institution of African literature has proved to be pertinent, critical, and indelible. This paper reflects on the history of translating and publishing this renowned Nigerian writer’s major novels and essays in France. It identifies two French publishers, Présence Africaine and Actes Sud, as the most important agents in the translation and publication of Achebe’s works. By conducting interviews with Achebe’s French editor and translator as well as reviewing published work by scholars and one of Achebe’s translators, this study examines the trajectory of Achebe’s works in France and how the ideologies of the agents may have affected which/when works were chosen for translation and publication. This study demonstrates that Achebe’s trajectory in French has been eclectic and largely controlled by both publishers’ worldviews and politics as well as broader discourses in African literature, such as literary legitimisation and colonialism.