ABSTRACT
Inhis opening address to thepost-apartheidSouthAfricanparliament in 1994, President Nelson Mandela said that a word like ‘kaffir’ should no longer be part of our vocabulary. Its use was subsequently outlawed in South Africa. Imagine you are asked to translate, for publication in that country, an historical document from the pre-apartheid era which contains the word. Should you write it, gloss it, omit it or replace it with something else – and if so, with what, with another derogatory word or some blander superordinate term? Are you not duty-bound to respect the authenticity of the historical record? Would you have any qualms about using the word if the translation was meant for publication outside South Africa?
