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Translations as Sources for African History*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Beatrix Heintze
Beatrix Heintze*
Affiliation:
Frobenius Institut, Frankfurt
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Extract

Translations ought not to serve as sources for academic research. This precept is an ideal which has today become quite unattainable in many fields, notably in the natural sciences and medicine. In the human sciences it is still widely operative (at least tacitly), yet here too it is increasingly becoming Utopian. For any scholar of German literature, of course, command of the German language is (and, one hopes, will remain) an essential prerequisite: a treatise on Goethe's Faust based on a translation of this work could scarcely be taken seriously. Likewise it should be expected of classical historians that they study their Greek and Latin sources in the original language. The question becomes more problematic, however, when we consider the citation of modern pieces of research and other secondary literature. Admittedly, the majority of studies are still published in one of the major world languages, and it is possible to get by with a command of two or three modern languages (e.g. with English and French, with Russian and English, or with Arabic and French). But the internationalization of research is gaining ground steadily. A book written in Japanese on, say, the history of South America has little prospect of coming to the notice of western historians unless it is made accessible to them in translation, in this instance probably in Spanish, Portuguese, or English (leaving aside as a rare exception the historian with an above-average flair for languages).

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 11 , 1984 , pp. 131 - 161
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1984

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Edouard Conte, Adam Jones, and Joseph C. Miller for their valuable comments. I am also grateful to Adam Jones for undertaking the thorny (and somewhat ironic) task of translating a paper on the pitfalls of translation!

References

Notes

1. In this respect, however, microfilm and microfiche copies of such works will in future be able to fill at least some of the gaps.

2. de Montecúccolo, João António Cavazzi, Descrição histórica dos três Reinos do Congo, Matamba e Angola, translated and edited by de Leguzzano, Graciano Maria (2 vols.: Lisbon, 1965).Google Scholar

3. Hair, P.E.H., “Barbot, Dapper, Davity: A Critique of Sources on Sierra Leone and Cape Mount,” HA, 1 (1974), 25–54Google Scholar; van Dantzig, Albert, “Willem Bosman's New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea: How Accurate Is It?” HA, 1 (1974), 101–08.Google Scholar

4. For a brief historical sketch of the legal position of the translator see Mounin, Georges, Die Übersetzung. Geschichte, Theorie, Anwendung (Munich, 1967), 186–89Google Scholar; first published as Teoria e Storia della Traduzione (Turin, 1965).Google Scholar

5. The example was first used in this context by Louis Hjelmslev (cited in Mounin, , Übersetzung, 68–69Google Scholar).

6. Example cited in ibid., 66.

7. Some American authors also speak of “evocative” or “non-cognitive” signs. See ibid., 90, 119–20; Kade, Otto, ed., Probleme des übersetzungswissenschaftlichen Vergleichs (Leipzig, 1981), 4.Google Scholar

8. Oettinger, Anthony Gervin, “Das Problem der Übersetzung” in Störig, Hans Joachim, ed., Das Problem des Übersetzens (Darmstadt, 1963), 446.Google Scholar

9. For the history of translations see Mounin, , Übersetzung, 22–55Google Scholar, and works listed in The Science of Translation: An Analytical Bibliography (2 vols.: Tübingens, 1970–1972)Google Scholar; Van Hoof, Henry, Internationale Bibliographie der Übersetzung (Pullach bei München, 1973.Google Scholar).

10. For a general overview of such theories see the bibliographies mentioned in note 9 and specialist journals such as Babel (Berlin).

11. For the different types of translation see Mounin, , Übersetzung, 113–59.Google Scholar

12. In the present context I propose only to deal with the translations of European texts concerning Africa and originally written in a European language. This implies not considering texts of European authors principally derived from conversations with African informants in the latter's own tongue, whether or not corrected with the assistance of an interpreter.

13. Labat, J.B., Relation Historique de l'Ethiopie occidentale: Contenant la Description des Royaumes de Congo, Angolle, & Matamba, traduite de l'Italien du P. Cavazzi, & augmentée de plusieurs Relations Portugaises des meilleurs Auteurs,… (Tome I Paris 1732), 7.Google Scholar

14. Mounin, , Übersetzung, 35–41, 185–86.Google Scholar For a discussion of real and fictitious travel accounts, see Adams, P.G., Travelers and Travel Liars, 1660–1800 (Los Angeles, 1962).Google Scholar For the problematical value of compilations as sources for African history see Adam Jones, “Semper aliquid veteris. Printed sources for the History of the Ivory and Gold Coasts, 1500–1750” (forthcoming).

15. Labat, , Relation historique, 7–8.Google Scholar

16. It would have been possible to select extracts with a similar theme for virtually all my illustrations, but in this context such an approach would seem to serve little purpose: it would be monotonous and would hardly yield any significant additional insights. Although the extracts selected form only a tiny portion of the works concerned, I consider all of them to be fairly representative, having made more extensive and more systematic random samples.

17. Cavazzi, Istorica Descrizione; Cavazzi, Joanne Antonio: Historische Beschreibung Der In dem vntern Occidentalischen Mohrenland ligenden drey Königreichen/Congo, Matamba vnd Angola … (Munich, 1694)Google Scholar; Labat, Relation Historique; Cavazzi, Descrição histórica.

18. Proyart, Abbé, Histoire de Loango, Kakongo, et autres Royaumes d'Afrique (Paris/Lyon, 1776)Google Scholar; Proyart, Abbé, Geschichte von Loango, Kakongo und andern Königreichen in Afrika,… (Leipzig, 1777)Google Scholar; Le Vaillant, , Voyage dans l'intérieur de l'Afrique, par le Cap de Bonne-Espérance, Dans les années 1780, 81, 82, 83, 84 & 85 (Liège, 1790)Google Scholar; Le Vaillant, , Reise in das Innere von Afrika, vom Vorgebürge der guten Hoffnung aus. In den Jahren 1780 bis 1785 (Frankfurt am Main, 1799).Google Scholar

19. David, and Livingstone, Charles, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries;… (London, 1865)Google Scholar; David, and Livingstone, Charles, Neue Missionsreisen in Süd-Afrika… Forschungen am Zambesi und seinen Nebenflüssen… Martin, Aus dem Englischen von J.E.A. (Jena, 1874)Google Scholar; Capello, H. and Ivens, R., De Benguella ás terras de lácca… (2 vols.: Lisbon, 1881)Google Scholar; Capello, H. and Ivens, R., From Benguella to the Territory of Yacca… Translated by Elwes, Alfred (2 vols.: London, 1882).Google Scholar

20. Donelha, André, Descrição da Serra Leoa e dos Rios de Guiné do Cabo Verde (1625). Description de la Serra Leoa et des Rios de Guiné du Cabo Verde (1625). Edição do texto português, introdução, notas e apêndices por Avelino Teixeira da Mota, notas por Hair, P.E.H., tradução francesa por Léon Bourdon (Lisbon, 1977).Google Scholar An English translation of the same work by P.E.H. Hair was also published in Lisbon in 1977.

21. See, e.g., Jones, Adam, German Sources for West African History 1599–1669 (Wiesbaden, 1983), 5–6.Google Scholar

22. Cf. Heintze, Beatrix, “Der portugiesisch-afrikanische Vasallenvertrag in Angola im 17. Jahrhundert,” Paideuma, 25 (1979), 195–223.Google Scholar

23. Brásio, António, Monumenta Missionaria Áfricana. África Ocidental, 1st Series (12 vols.: Lisbon, 1952–1981)Google Scholar; Jadin, Louis, L'Ancien Congo et l'Angola 1630–1655 d'après les archives romaines, portugaises, néerlandaises et espagnoles (3 vols.: Brussels, 1975).Google Scholar

24. Jadin, Louis, “Relations sur le Congo et l'Angola tirées des archives de la Compagnie de Jésus, 1621–1631,” Bulletin de l'Institut Historique Belge de Rome, 39 (1968), 333–453.Google Scholar

25. There were two groups of people called Jaga by the Portuguese: the Jaga who in the middle of the sixteenth century conquered the capital of the Kongo kingdom and the Jaga who at the beginning of the seventeenth century were roaming as warriors and slavers to the north and to the south of the River Kwanza and who in the course of the same century founded the kingdom of Kasanje. Whereas with regard to the first there is still a theory that they might have had a historical connection with the Yaka of the Kwango, this is no longer thought to apply to the second group (to whom the example refers) and who in modern studies are called Mbangala or Imbangala.

26. Jadin, Louis, “Pero Tavares, missionaire jésuite, ses travaux apostoliques au Congo et en Angola, 1629–1635,” Bulletin de l'Institut Historique Belge de Rome, 38 (1967), 271–401.Google Scholar

27. Wilss, Wolfram, The Science of Translation. Problems and Methods (Tübingen, 1982), Chapter 7.Google Scholar

28. Cf. de Carvalho, Henrique Augusto Dias, Ethnographia e Historia tradicional dos povos da Lunda (Lisbon, 1890), 303–04.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. Cf. [25]: pessas/pièces d'Inde.

30. In reality Cavazzi is just as reliable on this point as Fernão de Sousa. Only Cadornega and Dapper have the different sequence. See Heintze, Beatrix, “Das Ende des unabhängigen Staates Ndongo (Angola). Neue Chronologie und Reinterpretation (1617–1630),” Paideima, 27 (1981), 223.Google Scholar

31. van Dantzig, Albert, “English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: A Comparison of Texts,” HA, 2 (1975)Google Scholar through HA, 11 (1984).Google Scholar