ABSTRACT
African contexts have not only been underrepresented in translation studies; they have also largely been limited to postcolonial theoretical constructs. It is only recently that African contexts have been receiving more attention—and from different conceptual angles, such as development studies. However, studies about precolonial translation practices in Africa are even more limited. Against this background, and taking into account Tymoczko’s arguments about internationalisation translation studies, the need for studying precolonial translation practices becomes apparent. In this chapter, I present a case of such precolonial practices and link it to multimodal semiotic theory to argue that translation as an interlingual practice is a European theoretical construct that is deconstructed by data from precolonial practices. It provides a glimpse into the complexity of precolonial meaning-making practices, which were decidedly multimodal. Apart from a semiotic theory of translation to allow for the multimodal nature of precolonial translation practice, I present data from West Africa regarding the notion of ‘the linguist’ and ‘the linguist’s staff’ (okyeame poma), to present an argument regarding precolonial translation practice.
