When a Wonder Is Not a Wonder: Swahili, Translation, and the Communication of Knowledge

Abstract

Talking about the things we know is at once an everyday occurrence and an incredibly complicated process—the complexity of which, as historians of science have frequently demonstrated, can be a hindrance to the production and communication of knowledge. This essay frames this difficulty as a problem of translation. “Translation” here means two things: first, the interlinguistic process of moving ideas from one language to another; and, second, the intralinguistic question of whether knowledge can be turned into words at all, regardless of the languages in question. Paying attention to both dimensions of the translation problem, the essay explores various solutions proposed in and with the Swahili language during the colonial and postcolonial periods in Tanganyika/Tanzania. This context brings into stark relief the flows of power and authority that often determine which ways of speaking and knowing are accepted and which dismissed; it also brings to light translations that sometimes move against the expected current of power, as speakers and writers, both “expert” and “nonexpert,” simply went about the business of discussing the things they knew.