Against a single African literary translation theory

In this chapter, Ngũgĩ calls for translation into and among African languages in order to facilitate a vision of a multilingual conversation across the region’s many cultures without collapsing into dependency on a single unifying language. Drawing on the example of the translation of a poem by African American poet Langston Hughes into African languages, Ngũgĩ proposes a mode of alternative knowledge production across a multiplicity of African languages, defying calls for a single African theory of translation, and instead revealing the rich theoretical resources of African literary cultures.