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Cultural Politics of Translation
This book is the first full-length examination of the cultural politics at work
in the act of translation in East Africa, providing close critical analyses of a
variety of texts that demonstrate the myriad connections between transla-
tion and larger sociopolitical forces. Looking specifically at texts translated
into Swahili, the book builds on the notion that translation is not just a
linguistic process, but also a complex interaction between culture, history,
and politics, and charts this evolution of the translation process in East
Africa from the precolonial to the colonial to the postcolonial periods. It
uses textual examples, including the Bible, the Qur’an, and Frantz Fanon’s
Wretched of the Earth, from five different domains—religious, political,
legal, journalistic, and literary—and grounds them in their specific socio-
political and historical contexts to highlight the importance of context in the
translation process and to unpack the complex relationships between both
global and local forces that infuse these translated texts with an identity all
their own. This book provides a comprehensive portrait of the multivalent
nature of the act of translation in the East African experience and serves as
a key resource for students and researchers in translation studies, cultural
studies, postcolonial studies, African studies, and comparative literature.
Alamin M. Mazrui is a Professor in the Department of African, Middle

Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures at Rutgers University.
His publications include Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the
African Experience (1998) (with Ali Mazrui), English in Africa: After the
Cold War (2004), and Swahili Beyond the Boundaries: Literature, Lan-
guage and Identity (2007).
Routledge Advances in Translation Studies
1 Applying Luhmann to 8 The Dao of Translation

Translation Studies An East-West Dialogue
Translation in Society Douglas Robinson
Sergey Tyulenev
9 Translating Feminism in China
2 Interpreting Justice: Ethics, Gender, Sexuality and Censorship
Politics and Language Zhongli Yu
Moira Inghilleri
10 Multiple Translation
3 Translation and Web Searching Communities in Contemporary
Vanessa Enríquez Raído Japan
Edited by Beverley Curran, Nana
4 Translation Theory and Sato-Rossberg, and Kikuko Tanabe
Development Studies
A Complexity Theory Approach 11 Translating Culture Specific
Kobus Marais References on Television
The Case of Dubbing
5 Perspectives on Literature and Irene Ranzato
Translation
Creation, Circulation, Reception 12 The Pushing-Hands of
Edited by Brian Nelson and Brigid Translation and its Theory
Maher In memoriam Martha Cheung,
1953–2013
6 Translation and Localisation in Edited by Douglas Robinson
Video Games
Making Entertainment Software 13 Cultural Politics of Translation
Global East Africa in a Global Context
Miguel Á. Bernal-Merino Alamin M. Mazrui
7 Translation and Linguistic

Hybridity
Constructing World-View
Susanne Klinger
Cultural Politics of Translation
East Africa in a Global Context
Alamin M. Mazrui
First published 2016
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Taylor & Francis
The right of Alamin M. Mazrui to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in
any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mazrui, Alamin M. 1948– author.
Title: Cultural politics of translation : East Africa in a global context /
By Alamin M. Mazrui.
Description: New York : Routledge, [2016] | Series: Routledge Advances in Translation
Studies | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041191 | ISBN 9781138649392 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Translating and interpreting—Politcal aspects—East Africa. |
Translating and interpreting Cultura
Classification: LCC P306.P7.P65 M49 2016 | DDC 418/.0209676—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041191
ISBN: 978-1-138-64939-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62583-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
In loving memory of
(Mjomba) Ali A. Mazrui,
a global translator of cultures,
an inspiration through life,
a tower of strength when the going got tough.
Though gone to the land of the ancestors,
your spirit lives on
forever in our hearts.
This page intentionally left blank

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Language, Identity, and Translation:

Between the Bible and the Qur’an 15
2 Translation and Foreign Relations: Between Tradition and

Modernity 40
3 Translating Fanon in Socialist Tanzania: Between the

Wretched and the Damned 65
4 Translation Post-9/11 92
5 Translating the Law: Reflections of a Linguistic Activist 114
Conclusion 144
Appendix: Linking Text and Context: Ali Mazrui and

Translation Studies in Africa 155
Bibliography169
Index179
This page intentionally left blank

Acknowledgements
This collection of essays is a continuation of my earlier work on language

and literature in Africa. Chapters One and Two, in particular, draw and
build on some of the ideas initially explored in two previous books: The
Swahili: Idiom and Identity of an African People (coauthored with Ibrahim
Noor Shariff) and Swahili Beyond the Boundaries: Literature, Language
and Identity. The central arguments, however, are developed quite differently:
They make a connection between literature and identity in my previous
work and between politics and translation in this particular project. Schol-
arly originality is not simply a matter of discovering new information and
data; it is often a matter of connecting the same old dots in new ways. Mak-
ing new connections between aspects of preexisting information is partly
what I have tried to do in the first two chapters, offering new perspectives
on some familiar issues.
In the course of preparing this monograph, I have been in conversation
with several friends and colleagues, and some of them had the opportu-
nity to read and react to the entire manuscript. Prominent among these
are: Muhammad Al-Munir Jibril, an independent researcher in New York;
Walter Bgoya, the managing director of Mkuki na Nyota in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania; Rocha Chimerah of Pwani Universitty in Kwale, Kenya; Aldin
Mutembei of the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Kimani Njogu, the
director of Twaweza communications in Nairobi, Kenya; and Ken Walibora
Waliaula of Nation Media in Nairobi, Kenya. I was also fortunate to have
the opportunity to discuss several aspects of the manuscript with Abdilatif
Abdalla of Leipzig, Germany, when he was a visitor at Rutgers University in
November 2015. For Chapter 3 on Fanon, I am indebted to Kathryn Batch-
elor and the other colleagues of the “Fanon In and Through Translation”
Project for their feedback on a different version of the essay. I also gained
immensely from my conversations with Willy Mutunga about Frantz Fanon
in Tanzania. To all these scholars, I owe a great debt of gratitude for their
invaluable feedback.
The Department of African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages
and Literatures (AMESALL) at Rutgers University has an abiding interest
in and commitment to translation studies. This academic orientation of
x Acknowledgements
the department was always a source of inspiration that encouraged me to
complete the work. Among my colleagues in AMESALL, I am particularly
grateful to Anjali Nerlekar and Preetha Mani for inviting me to speak to
their students in their foundational course in translation studies. This guest-
lecturing setting created a fertile context for us to engage in discussions on
shared interests in a wide range of issues touching on translation theory and
practice from which I gained so many comparative lessons. I am also thank-
ful to the dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, James Swenson, and my
department chair, Charles Häberl, for their material and moral support in
the process of completing this project.
Of course, none of this would have come to fruition without the intellec-
tual partnership of my wife and colleague, Ousseina Alidou. She was always
willing to serve as a sounding board for my ideas and observations. And
with our daughter, Salma, my family not only provided the lighter moments,
but continued to nourish me with care and affection, always reminding me
of the splendor of the linguistic intermingling we enjoyed at home, from
which so much could be learnt about translation. In part, then, this mono-
graph is also a tribute to them.
Introduction
Translation has often been deeply implicated in political projects of one

kind or another. We know, for example, that the tragic events of 9/11 in
the United States led to a dramatic rise in, and demand for, linguistically
proficient specialists in translation. As Emily Apter explains, with the new
realization about the wider implications of America’s monolingualism,
“translation moved to the fore as an issue of major political and cultural
significance. No longer deemed a mere instrument of international relations,
business, education, and culture, translation took on special relevance as
a matter of war and peace” (Translation 2). More recently, of course, we
saw how, through the power of the Internet, translation enabled youth in
Egypt and other parts of Africa and the Middle East to articulate their own
“alternative narratives across national and linguistic boundaries, to create
an international community bound by a similar vision of the world unhin-
dered by linguistic frontiers” (Baker 40).
The political dimension of translation, however, is evident not only when
the texts themselves are overtly political—political inscriptions are some-
times as much a product of the context as they are of the text. Colonial
translation efforts in East Africa have ranged from the sacred to the secular,
from the philosophical to the botanical, all with the aim of control and
expropriation. In the postcolonial period, the translation of literary materi-
als has routinely been enlisted in competing ideological projects of one kind
or another. In the meantime, forces of globalization in the post-Cold War
period have spun their own responses to translation and translated texts,
including the production of new, politically inspired translations of the
Qur’an. It is some of these wider themes in the cultural politics of transla-
tion that I intend to explore in this monograph, drawing primarily on Swa-
hili translated material over the last few decades. As one of the most widely
spoken and most vibrant African languages, Swahili has been galvanized
repeatedly in postcolonial translation projects of international, regional, or
national scope, yielding a fascinating array of translated texts that are of
special value to translation studies.
I have used the term “postcolonial” very broadly to refer to that period
of translation activity that falls within the scope of what came to be known
2 Introduction
as “independent” Africa, with all the trappings and limitations that such a
term implies. To the extent to which the texts studied here enact discourses
that respond to the political and cultural legacies of European colonialism
in Africa, however, the term may also be considered to have a disciplinary
content connected to the historical legacy of imperialism. Even some of the
new translations of the Qur’an from Arabic into Swahili are, in a sense,
responses to new forms of imperial domination in the aftermath of the Cold
War. And, in line with responses of the postcolonial type, the East African
responses to the translations discussed here vary from incorporation to out-

right rejection.
In East Africa in the last few decades, of course, translation has been
regarded as an important instrument for language engineering, often as
part of an overarching linguistic nationalist project to stimulate the growth
of Swahili as a national language. The media have been among the most
important facilitators of this linguistic process. I remember when I was in
Kenya in March 2008, I participated regularly in what has become a com-
mon Kenyan ritual, especially among middle-class men, of congregating
around the television set to listen to the 7:00 p.m. Swahili news. With me
were usually my brother Munir, his wife, and my sister. Repeatedly, I found
myself turning to Munir to understand aspects of various news items. The
language was definitely changing at a rapid rate, and an important force of
that change was the need to translate items from international news agen-
cies such as Reuters and the AFP, constantly requiring the coining of new
terms to keep up with the current state of knowledge in the world. The
language was developing more specialized registers, becoming scientificated
and technologized in the process. Usually the younger generation is the one
versed in the latest coinages in language. Not in this case. Munir, about ten
years older than I, had become far more proficient and comfortable in this
technical Swahili of international news media than I was. My long absences
from the East African scene definitely had an effect on my Swahili compe-
tence. I had to rely on my brother to translate the news into the kind of
Swahili I could understand. Similar developments have been taking place in
Swahili in the domains of science, economics, literary criticism, and other
disciplines, giving rise to technical limbs that often necessitate translation
into and from the Swahili of the common person in the streets.
The need for intra-Swahili translation, of course, is not new. Specialized
and secret codes of unyago (initiation ceremonies for girls), for example,
were a restricted form of knowledge and could not be readily understood
by everybody without interpretation. The mediation of interpreters was all
the more necessary and frequent in communication between the demands
of pepo (spirits) and mortals, as such communication often involved highly
esoteric language forms. Interpretive intervention was also required some-
times to decode the kind of glossolalia called majadi, seemingly unintel-
ligible vocalizations under the influence of the spirit, found during the zefe
processions to commemorate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.
Introduction 3
As a maritime civilization, the Swahili people naturally encountered
many external civilizations—Arabs, Persians, Indians, Chinese, and Portu-
guese. All these instances of contact must have involved some degree of
interpretive mediation: A trade language evolved to facilitate communica-
tion between the various traders and consumers of the world at the cross-
roads of the East African coast. There were many instances, however, when
interpreters and translators became necessary, such as when foreign traders
and officials needed to enter into pacts and agreements with local leaders or
with local traders.

The introduction of Islam into the region expanded the scope of trans-
lation/interpretation into a new arena, with Swahili and classical Arabic
locked in constant semantic negotiations. Sessions on interpretation of the
Qur’an and the Hadith by local sheikhs took place regularly, especially in
mosques. In addition, quoting from sections of Hadith or Qur’anic verses to
make a philosophical or moralistic point has long been a tradition of normal
Swahili conversation, and this tendency to quote from Islam’s canonical
texts in the course of a social conversation was usually regarded as a mark
of sophistication. Such quotations would often be followed by some Swahili
interpretation when necessary.
In addition to the interpretation of Islamic doctrinal texts, the Islamic
experience also resulted in what may have been the beginning of a tradi-
tion of literary translation on the Swahili coast, though the objective of the
translation exercise might still have been primarily religious. According to
available evidence, the first major translation into Swahili and the one that
remains most widely known from the precolonial period is the Hamziya,
a long narrative poem based on an Arabic original about the life of the
Prophet Muhammad. The Swahili of the translated text is said to be “so
archaic that it cannot be dated later than the 17th century, although the
earliest extant manuscript is dated 1728 AD” (Knappert “Four,” 104).
It was not until the inception of European colonial rule toward the end
of the nineteenth century that translation into Swahili, mainly from English-
language texts, took a dramatically upward turn. These translations can
be divided into three interrelated temporal phases. The earliest ones,
which appeared in the early colonial period, were primarily—though not
exclusively—translated portions of the Bible. According to Jack D. Rollins,
during the early part of European-Swahili contact, there was an outpouring
of biblical materials in Swahili produced by missionaries (62). Invariably,
these were intended for evangelical purposes, as Christianity tried to make
inroads into the East African region. In this same period, Christian mis-
sionaries translated Aesop’s Fables, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and a few
other literary works.
It was also during this early period that the Swahili coast was first exposed
to the plays of William Shakespeare, even though the Swahili renderings
themselves were all in prose form. These appeared in a collection entitled
Hadithi Ingereza (English Tales), produced by the Universities Mission of
4 Introduction
Central Africa in Zanzibar in 1900. The collection contains Swahili prose
versions of four of Shakespeare’s plays: The Taming of the Shrew (translated
as Mwanamke Aliyefugwa), The Merchant of Venice (Kuwia na Kuwiwa),
The Tragedy of King Lear (Baba na Binti), and The Life of Timon of Athens
(Kula Maji). Jack D. Rollins mentions an even earlier collection of stories
based on Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare that was translated by
Bishop Edward Steere in 1867 (62). What is particularly striking about this
collection is the extent to which the translator tried to mold it to fit the Swa-
hili cultural universe, constantly breathing Swahili life and culture into the
textual fabric of the stories.
The second phase spans the late 1920s to the early 1940s, when there
was an influx of Swahili translations of English classics done by British colo-
nial officers and some missionaries. This period coincided with increasing
interest among members of the British colonial establishment in standard-
izing Swahili, using it as a medium of instruction in lower elementary educa-
tion in some regions of the colonial dominion, and teaching it as a subject
in the upper levels. These translations, it appears, were intended to fill a gap
in Swahili school readers and perhaps provide models that would encourage
East African nationals to write prose fiction along similar lines. Texts trans-
lated during this phase included Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island,
Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli Stories, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, H.
Rider Haggard’s Allan Quatermain and King Solomon’s Mines, and Lewis
Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
Cutting across these decades of colonial rule was, of course, the crucial
role of African interpreters. These wakalimani served as mediators not only
between colonial officers and local chiefs and leaders, but also between the
colonial functionaries and the subject people. In time, they became crucial
for the entire functioning of at least two branches of colonial administration:
the executive and the judiciary. In this role, they were active participants in
the construction of the colonial reality itself. As captured in Amadou Ham-
pate Ba’s 1973 novel The Fortunes of Wangrin, these intermediaries quickly
demonstrated remarkable skills in the manipulation of the delicate interplay
between authority, knowledge, and power that was at the heart of colonial
society. In a sense, colonial interpreters occupied a space that allowed them
to see both sides of colonialism. Some used that privileged position for self-
promotion, others to promote the interests of colonialism, and others still
to advance the goals of resistance and liberation, all at a time of great eco-
nomic and political uncertainty.
It was not until the early postcolonial period of the 1960s that the third
wave of Swahili literary translations began, which involved not just Eng-
lish classics but also other European works available in English. Some of
these are clearly translations of translations. The Swahili editions of William
Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice, Nikolay Gogol’s
The Government Inspector, Maxim Gorky’s Mother, Bertolt Brecht’s The
Good Woman of Szechwan, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm were all
Introduction 5
products of this period. So were translations of the works in English by Afri-
can authors such as Chinua Achebe (No Longer at Ease), Ayi Kwei Armah
(The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born), Peter Abrahams (Mine Boy), and
Wole Soyinka (The Trials of Brother Jero) that appeared under the Swa-
hili translation imprint of Heinemann’s now-defunct African Writers Series.
Other translations, not part of this series, included Ousmane Sembene’s The
Money Order, Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino, and Elieshi Lema’s Upendo’s
Dream. In 2004, the Tanzanian publisher Mkuki na Nyota also published
Deogratias Simba’s Swahili translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s Al-Tariq, based

on the English translation The Search, under the title Msako. Conspicuously
absent from the list of Swahili translations of African authors are the works
of North Africans, other than the one novel by Mahfouz, a situation that
is perhaps reflective of the continuing contestation about the definition and
scope of “African” literature.
In 1993, Macmillan (Kenya) Publishers reprinted a number of Swahili
translations from its 1958 Hadithi za Kukumbukwa (“Stories to Remem-
ber”) series. All based on abridged English-language works, some also trans-
lations, these include Ngano za Ajabu Kutoka Ugiriki (Wonder Tales from
Greece, translated by Abdi Sultani), Robinson Crusoe Kisiwani (Robinson
Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, translated by Michael Waweru), Safari za Gulliver
(Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift, translated by Alice Kasibwa), Kisiwa
cha Matumbawe (The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, translated by Eliza-
beth Pamba), Visa vya Oliver Twist (Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, trans-
lated by Amina Vuzo), Visa vya David Copperfield (David Copperfield, also
by Charles Dickens, translated by Alfred Kingwe), Kisiwa chenye Hazina
(Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, translated by Peter Kisia),
Kuzunguka Dunia kwa Siku Themanini (Around the World in Eighty
Days by Jules Verne, translated by Yusuf Kingala), and Hekaya za Miujiza
Arabuni (Strange Tales from The Arabian Nights, as adapted by Margery
Green and translated by Alfred Kingwe). In 2000, Longman Publishers
also reproduced its 1928 translation of Stevenson’s Treasure Island (Kisiwa
chenye Hazina), done by F. Johnson with the help of E. W. Brenn and later
edited by M. Saidi. Typical of the translated works of this (postcolonial)
period, these narratives were all rendered into Swahili by East Africans. The
Macmillan project was partly inspired by the hope that the translated texts
might someday be adopted into the national Swahili literature syllabus. We
now know that at least four were, in fact, selected and taught in Kenyan
high schools: the two translations of Shakespeare by Julius Nyerere, Gogol’s
The Government Inspector, and Orwell’s Animal Farm.
In the meantime, in 2004, Mkuki na Nyota began producing the first
complete and unabridged collection of the Swahili translation of A Thou-
sand and One Nights. The earlier translation by Edwin W. Brenn, which
included only a select number of abridged stories, first appeared in 1929
under the title Mazungumzo ya Alfu-Lela-Ulela, au Siku Elfu na Moja:
The Arabian Nights Entertainments in Swahili. The new edition is a series
6 Introduction
of eight volumes translated by Hassan Adam, who once taught Swahili at
the Institute of African Languages of the University of Cologne. Its title is
Masimulizi Kamilifu ya Alfu Lela U Lela au Siku Elfu Moja na Moja (Com-
plete Narratives of Alfu Lela U Lela or A Thousand and One Days). The
final volume was released in 2010.
These translations vary widely in terms of their artistic quality and pre-
sumed fidelity to the original. On the one extreme, we have rather liberal
translations, such as that of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, which is
so liberal, in fact, that it led one observer, Lyndon Harries, to make the fol-
lowing remarks:
The translator presents Alice as a Swahili-speaking African girl! A Swahili-

speaking Alice is a charming idea, something I feel Lewis Carroll would
have been happy to discover, but by making this transformation surely
the translator has done more than a translator has a right to do. His
desire to appeal to his African audience has taken him much too far.
By presenting Alice as an African girl he makes it impossible for him to
remain objective and consequently faithful to his text. (30)
Along similar lines, Samuel S. Mushi reminds us in the introduction of his

translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that his work was guided less by the
imperative of fidelity to the original than by sensitivity to the Swahili lingo-
cultural milieu of the intended audience (v–vii).
On the other extreme of the fidelity spectrum are translations that have
ostensibly attempted to be as faithful to the original texts as possible. For
example, Julius Nyerere’s translations of two of Shakespeare’s plays were
clearly informed by the idea that the best translation is the one that is closest
to the original in form, meaning, and style. Like Gayatri Chakravorty Spi-
vak, perhaps, he seems to have believed in fidelity to the original in principle
“not because it is possible, but because one must try” (Spivak 14). Nyerere
even proceeded to produce a revised edition of his Swahili translation of
Julius Caesar to eliminate certain errors he had supposedly committed in the
first edition in a conscious attempt to bring it into closer conformity with
the original (vi).
It is an intriguing fact that in spite of the many translations that have been
in existence for decades, there has not been a book-length study of transla-
tion in the Swahili experience. In fact, books on translation in Africa in gen-
eral have been quite rare. One particularly fascinating study is that of Paul
F. Bandia in 2008, Translation as Reparation: Writing and Translation in
Postcolonial Africa, which does not look at translation in the conventional
sense of the word. Rather, Bandia explores how the act of writing in English
or French by African authors who grow up speaking African languages is
itself a mode of translation. Bandia makes a compelling argument that lit-
erature in European languages by African authors gets its African imprint
through the ways in which oral culture, artistry, and creativity influence and
Introduction 7
shape its resulting texts. Drawing on a large body of empirical demonstra-
tions, he shows that the fictionalization of oral literature that arises from
this process is, in fact, a form of translation rooted in the practice of inter-
cultural writing that, though Europhonic in its final products, shatters the
(post)colonial boundaries of linguistic propriety. In a sense, then, the book
problematizes the notions of both “postcolonial” and “translation” in new
ways.
Another of the few existing volumes on this subject is the FIT-UNESCO
collection of conference proceedings under the title Problems of Translation

in Africa: Proceedings of the Round Table Conference (1990). The focus of
the volume is on linguistic and structural issues in translation; none of the
contributions pays attention to the contextual factors and the politics of
translation. One of the overriding concerns of the collection has to do with
the development of Swahili’s technical limb in a way that would increase
the language’s compatibility with the present state of knowledge in the age
of technology.
It is in South Africa, however, that we see the most consistent efforts
at studying translation in Africa. In The Portable Bunyan of 2004, Isabel
Hofmeyer offers us, for the first time, an extremely detailed account of
African responses to translations of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress,
linking text to context to reveal how it was sometimes appropriated and
indigenized. There is also the 2009 edited collection Translation Studies in
Africa by Judith Inggs and Libby Meintjes, which brings together a variety
of translational experiences, mainly from South Africa. Currently, J. Marais
and A. E. Feinauer of the University of the Free State in South Africa are
in the process of putting together an edited volume, Translation Studies
in Africa and Beyond: Reconsidering the Postcolony, which seeks to look
comparatively at the kinds of questions and challenges that translation and
translation studies raise about postcoloniality.
The kind of interest in the critical and theoretical study of translation
that is beginning to emerge in South Africa does not yet exist in East Africa.
Even essays that pay a critical theoretical attention to translated works are
limited. There are a couple of survey studies of Swahili translated texts.
One of the most extensive, written by Thomas Geider in 2008, additionally
provides a very useful list of the world literary titles translated into Swahili
from the late 1800s to the early twenty-first century. Gabriel Ruhumbika,
on the other hand, provided a different kind of survey in 2003, looking at
the impact of translated works on Swahili literature.
The translated texts that have received the greatest attention have been
those of Shakespeare’s plays. Perhaps this situation has been triggered in part
by the fact that two of the Bard’s three Swahili translations were undertaken
by Tanzania’s first president, Julius Nyerere, and interest in those transla-
tions has been part of the African fascination with Nyerere’s political ideas.
For example, one of the chapters in Ali Mazrui’s Political Sociology of the
English Language, entitled “On Poets and Politicians: Obote’s Milton and
8 Introduction
Nyerere’s Shakespeare,” is partly devoted to Nyerere’s Swahili translation of
Shakespeare. My own 1989 article, “Shakespeare in Africa: Between Eng-
lish and Swahili,” contrasts the fate and reception of Shakespeare in English
with Swahili translations of Shakespeare’s works in Kenya’s literature syl-
labus. In his 2000 publication titled “Subject to Translation: Shakespeare,
Swahili, Socialism,” Faisal Fatehali Devji discusses how the translation of
The Merchant of Venice, in particular, was partly intended to be Nyerere’s
commentary on the commercial community of Tanzanians of South Asian
origin in the wake of his move to socialism.

A few other essays have been published about Swahili translated texts
generally or translations of individual texts. D. Masoko (1996), for exam-
ple, engages in a lexical analysis of the Swahili translation of a novel ren-
dered originally in Kikerewe, one of the languages of Tanzania. Y. M. Kihore
(1989) and A. M. Khamis (1989) explore some linguistic, mainly syntac-
tic, aspects of translation in Swahili. Flavia Aiello Traore compares three
translated works—Orwell’s Shamba la Wanyama (Animal Farm), Achebe’s
Shujaa Okonkwo (Things Fall Apart), and Hemingway’s Mzee na Bahari
(The Old Man and the Sea)—along the “foreignization/domestication”
axis (2013). Ken Walibora Waliaula’s 2013 essay provides an excellent and
detailed textual analysis of the Swahili translation of Ferdinand Oyono’s
Une vie de boy. The other translated works that have been the focus of any
critical attention are the few mentioned earlier that came to be selected as
examinable texts in the Swahili literature course of Kenya’s national high
school; this “criticism” took the form of study guides consisting of a plot
and central theme summary and character description with nothing or little
to say about the texts in relation to their translation.
A number of essays have also focused on the Swahili translations of the
Qur’an. Most of these are contextual, looking at the socioreligious forces
that inspired the translations (Abdalla 1975; Lacunza-Balda 1977; Topan
1992). Gerard van de Bruinhorst offers particularly original perspectives of
specific editions from the point of view of discourse and historical analy-
sis and sheds some fascinating light on the interplay between translators
and their translations. I. Yusuf has written a rare textual study focusing on
Qur’ani Takatifu, the 1969 translation of the Qur’an by Sheikh Abdallah
Saleh Farsy; this cleric devoted much attention to challenging the claims of
an earlier translation, the 1953 Kurani Tukufu by Mubarak Ahmad of the
East African Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, long considered a heretical sect
by Sunni Muslims throughout the world. Yusuf’s essay aims to demonstrate
how the sheikh’s preoccupation with counteracting the Ahmadiyya transla-
tion might have affected his own Swahili translation of the Muslim holy
book.
The only book about translation in Swahili that I am aware of is Hermans
Mwansoko’s Kitangulizi cha Tafsiri: Nadharia na Mbinu. This is essen-
tially a textbook that provides some historical background to and theoreti-
cal understanding of translation studies, as well as an introduction to the
Introduction 9
practice of translation. Although it reproduces a couple of essays on Swahili
translation, it adds little to our understanding of the Swahili experience in
translation studies. Ida Hadjivayanis even suggests that the book is “actu-
ally a representation of Peter Newmark’s A Textbook of Translation” (95).
Two of the most extensive book-length studies of Swahili translation are
in the form of unpublished doctoral dissertations. One of these is Uaminifu
Katika Tafsiri: Uhakiki wa Ushairi wa Jadi Kabla ya Karne Ishirini by the
late Naomi Luchera Shitemi. Shitemi’s study looks at the question of “fidel-
ity” to the original in the translation of classical Swahili poetry into English.
A more recent (2011) dissertation study is that of Ida Hadjivayanis, Norms
of Swahili Translation in Tanzania: An Analysis of Selected Translated
Prose. This fascinating study employs the notion of translation norms oper-
ating within the Swahili polysystem as manifested in the Swahili editions
of A Thousand and One Nights (looking comparatively at Brenn’s colonial
and Adam’s postcolonial translations), Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Ven-
ice, and Naguib Mahfouz’s The Search. In a sense, Hadjivayanis’s unpub-
lished thesis is the text that comes closest to the kinds of concerns explored
in the following chapters. Otherwise, East Africa continues to show a cer-
tain barrenness in the study of translation. It is my hope that this book will
contribute not only to filling the East African gap in translation studies, but
also in stimulating greater interest in the field in the postcolonial context.
Cultural Politics of Translation focuses on Swahili translations of vari-
ous genres, all undertaken more or less within the postcolonial period, with
the aim of understanding both their textuality and contextuality, the cul-
tural politics that frame their reception, and the ways in which East Afri-
cans have been galvanized by them. In the process, the Swahili experience
shows that translation feeds on both the original and target sources in such
a way that ultimately the translated text is infused with a new, sometimes
domestic identity. As Lawrence Venuti puts it, the process involves “active
reconstitution of the foreign language text mediated by irreducible linguis-
tic, discursive, and ideological differences of the target-language culture”
(Introduction 10). The resulting product is partly a function of the choices
that the subaltern makes to appropriate particular translated texts and put
them to specific uses, sometimes counterhegemonic, or to reject them alto-
gether, sometimes as a counterhegemonic act.
The book opens with a chapter on “sacred translation,” with a compara-
tive focus on the Bible on the one hand and the Qur’an on the other. Here,
I am particularly concerned with how the interplay between language and
identity in the Swahili experience has affected the choice of language or
dialect of translation. With regard to Bible translation, this concern goes
back to the earliest moments of the European colonial encounter with the
African continent. The fact that Islam was an accompanying attribute of
Swahili’s native speakers added a new dimension to colonial views of the
language as a medium of the Bible and Christian missions. In the case of
the Swahili translation of the Qur’an, the language-identity issue is of more
10 Introduction
recent concern, articulated mainly by some contemporary translators of the
Muslim holy book, often as a response to forces of post-Cold War global-
ization. The cumulative effect of these responses to the interchange between
language and identity may have been the emergence of two religious regis-
ters in the Swahili language: one Christian and one Muslim.
From the beginning of European colonialism in Africa, Bible translation
went hand in hand with literary translation and, as in the case of Bunyan’s
Pilgrim’s Progress, the two projects were seen as reinforcing each other. The
reason for this complementarity between the translation of the Bible and
the translation of classical English literary texts was that both were seen as
instruments of cultural modernization. In the postcolonial period, Africans
themselves embraced the idea of translating into Swahili as a modernizing
influence, though in their case, the focus was on linguistic modernization,
augmenting Swahili’s capacity to cope with the demands of the modern age
in its widest scope. In the postcolonial period, especially during the Cold War,
translation was used repeatedly as a possible tool of politicoeconomic mod-
ernization, with the USA and the Soviet Union sponsoring the translation
of competing texts that represented their own ideologies. In the post-Cold
War period, however, and with the rise of a certain Afrocentric orientation,
a space emerged in which translation could serve a traditionalizing role,
giving fresh validity to “traditional” African cultures and institutions. The
literary exploitation of this space of “tradition” was also indicative of the
changing politics in international relations, especially between Africa and
(post-Soviet) Russia on the one hand, and Africa and (post-Communist)
China on the other. It is this tension between tradition and modernity, as
enacted in the sphere of translation, that is the focus of Chapter Two.
But if the USA and the Soviet Union had their own modernizing and
traditionalizing agendas that led them to select which texts to translate
into Swahili, East African societies in turn had their own visions of mod-
ernization that, in some cases, influenced how they used these externally
sponsored translations, and, in other cases, led to the production of Swahili
translations of their own choice of texts. An example of the latter is Frantz
Fanon’s Les Damnés de la Terre (The Wretched of the Earth). It has been
particularly rare in the Swahili experience so far to see more than one com-
peting translation of the same literary text. The Wretched of the Earth has
been fortunate to have two Swahili translations, one based on the French
original and the other on an English translation. In Chapter Three, I take a
comparative look at these two translations, especially in terms of how they
reflect their translators’ ideological positions and those of their sponsors.
Chapter Four continues to explore the cultural politics of translation in
the Swahili experience, but in the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11,
2001, in the United States. In seeking to make ideological gains in the world
through soft-power strategies, imperial powers have either done so indirectly
by presenting their imperial competitors as “the bad guys”—as occured fre-
quently during the Cold War—or themselves as “the good guys.” Of course,
Introduction 11
imperial powers usually employ both strategies at the same time. The USA
soon realized that in its “war on terrorism” it had succeeded in alienating
and sometimes inflaming many Muslims around the world. In response,
the United States was stimulated to explore alternative strategies to win
the hearts and minds of Muslims in various regions. Yet all these strategies
of cultural penetration required a new post-Cold War (re)engagement with
some of the languages of Africa as essential tools of political propaganda.
One of those strategies in East Africa was the launching of a Swahili periodi-
cal, Maisha Amerika/Uislamu Amerika (Life in America/Islam in America),

which relied heavily on translated Muslim-friendly materials from US gov-
ernment releases and reports. A discussion of this periodical, its context,
its contents, and its reception in Swahili-speaking East Africa, against the
global backdrop of a new imperial language policy, is the primary focus of
this book’s fourth chapter.
The ongoing international war on terrorism has sometimes coincided
with a moment of increasing pressure locally for greater political plural-
ism and for constitutional reform. Kenya began earnest efforts at a consti-
tutional overhaul in about 2000. Contestations between various political
interest groups led to several drafts, one of which, the so-called Wako Draft,
was defeated in a national referendum in 2005. The nation was finally able
to agree on the “harmonized draft” compiled by a committee of experts
appointed by Kenya’s Parliament; this was adopted in 2010 after another
national referendum. The task of making the various versions of the draft
constitution accessible to the “common” Kenyan in Swahili translation dur-
ing the ten-year constitutional review process fell primarily on the shoulders
of a small group of Swahili experts led by Kimani Njogu in particular. In
Chapter Five, I reproduce and analyze an interview with Njogu that high-
lights the multilayered challenges involved in this crucial process at a critical
time in the country’s political history, and the role that linguistic and trans-
lation activism played in shaping the law and the constitution in Swahili.
In the Conclusion, in addition to summarizing and synthesizing the find-
ings of previous chapters, I look at the changing fortunes of the English and
Swahili languages in East Africa and how this is likely to impact on the field
of translation. The Conclusion also discusses the emergence of relatively
new publishing houses after the demise of Heinemann’s Swahili translation
project of the 1960s and 1970s—such as Mkuki na Nyota in Tanzania—
which seem to have taken special interest in the production of translated
works, and their motives for doing so. I will argue, in the final analysis, that
there are strong cultural and political indicators that the field of translation
will grow in East Africa, and that this development will ultimately attract
greater interest in translation studies as an important contribution to our
understanding of the (post)colonial condition.
“Modernity” is a recurrent concern throughout much of the book, though
“modern” refers very broadly to trends set in motion by dictates of contem-
porary circumstances. In Chapter One, we witness the contestation between
12 Introduction
Standard Swahili, which started as a colonial project of linguistic modern-
ization and has been maintained as a modernist project in the postcolonial
period, and “traditional” dialects of the Swahili people of East Africa, in
the quest for religious identity as played out in the Swahili translations of
the Bible and the Qur’an. At the same time, new Swahili translations of the
Qur’an have appeared, which signal Muslim efforts to reread the doctrinal
text either to make it more compatible with, or use it as a response to, the
present state of politics and society in a globalized world.
In the domain of international politics discussed in Chapter Two, we

see how America, China, and the Soviet Union once used translation in
East Africa to impose their own versions of modernity, whether built on
capitalism or on socialist foundations. Developments in the aftermath of
communism, however, allowed both China and the new Russian Federa-
tion to rethink their translation “policies” in Africa, now seeing the transla-
tion of “traditional” tales from their past as more compatible with modern
demands of cultural collaboration. China and Russia have not been alone in
this partly opportunistic inscription of the traditional into the African space
of the modern: Finland has also contributed to this momentum. Though
seemingly less motivated by imperialist ambitions, its intentions have been
less unscrupulous. Finland seems genuinely interested in sharing with Africa
the experience of drawing on “tradition” in defining the modern nation.
As Africa continued to be a target of ideological contestation between the
USA and the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War period, the continent
was also seeking to define its own destiny, perhaps in line with the “third
way”: a way of modernity of nonalignment. Rather than rely on the ideas of
Adam Smith, or of Karl Marx, or of Mao Tse-tung, some African countries
attempted to draw on the wisdom of African and African Diaspora thinkers
about the way forward and how to avoid its pitfalls. This is how the Library
Services of Tanzania came to sponsor the translations of several biographies
of African leaders deemed visionary and revolutionary at that time, includ-
ing Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Eduardo Mondlane, and Julius
Nyerere. As is made evident in Chapter Three, the Swahili translation of
Frantz Fanon’s Les Damnés de la Terre can be considered to belong to this
same tradition of seeking to define an African modernity within a revolu-
tionary, if socialistic, frame of reference.
If the USA did not experience the kinds of internal politicoeconomic chal-
lenges and upheavals that influenced the direction of translation in Russia
and China, it had to contend with a new “external” force in the aftermath
of the Cold War: international terrorism. The so-called War on Terror has
also led the USA to some new explorations in matters of language and trans-
lation. The nation’s concern with language is partly linked to the need for
translation and interpretation in spaces of war, be they in Iraq or Afghani-
stan, in New York prisons or Guantanamo Bay. The release of the short-
lived magazine Maisha Amerika/Uislamu Amerika, which is part of the
Introduction 13
subject matter of Chapter Four, is an example of its new response to matters
of language and translation in a contemporary time of war.
One of the most recent modernist projects discussed in the book is the
revision of the Kenyan constitution in response to local pressures arising
from the emergence of a new national political sensibility. That same sen-
sibility is also the one that gave the imperative of a Swahili translation of
the constitution an unprecedented momentum. This imperative is linked
to one of the oldest modernist quests in postcolonial Africa: the one for
the linguistic modernization of Swahili. Historically, Swahili has contrib-

uted to the modernization of East African societies in a number of ways,
including weakening ethnic loyalties, enabling the urbanization of individu-
als, expanding social horizons through new class formations, and fostering
greater political participation or involvement of the people in public affairs
at different levels. All of these contributions occurred more or less spontane-
ously. However, in the context of the colonial linguistic legacy, the modern-
ization of the Swahili language itself to make it more compatible with the
current state of human knowledge has often required more conscious and
deliberate intervention of state and non-state actors. As we see in Chapter
Five, these two groups can sometimes work in tandem toward a shared
goal and at other times in competition when their political interests do not
converge.
Finally, a word about the term “Swahili.” Writing about a society in a
language that is foreign to its people sometimes poses a problem of choice
between a terminology of authenticity and one of intelligibility. Within Swa-
hili studies, the tradition of terminological authenticity has sought to main-
tain a distinction between the following derivations:
Kiswahili = Swahili language

Mswahili = Swahili person
Waswahili = Swahili people
Uswahili = Swahili culture and ways of life
Uswahilini = land of the Swahili-speaking people
The tradition of terminological intelligibility shows greater sensitivity to

the linguistic rules of the medium of discourse—in this case, the English lan-
guage. The English-speaking people refer to their language as “English,” but
in Swahili, forced to conform to the structural rules of the Bantu language,
it is known as “Kiingereza.” Similarly, the French refer to their language as
Français. Intelligibility is likely to suffer if we retain the French term in an Eng-
lish sentence, such as, “Français is spoken in over twenty African countries.”
The same logic applies to Swahili. Observing the different derivations of
the term would be in accord with the morphological rules of the Swahili lan-
guage, but not of English—the medium used in this book. To do so would
be to maintain authenticity at the expense of intelligibility.
14 Introduction
Many African nationalists are strong advocates of terminological authen-
ticity and may consider a departure from this tradition as a kind of lin-
guistic betrayal. But because my readers may include those who are not
familiar with the Swahili language, I have opted to not follow the common
Swahili nationalist terminological practice in the interest of intelligibility.
Throughout the text, then, “Swahili” appears independently, without the
usual affixes that distinguish between the language, the culture, the people,
and their homeland.
1 Language, Identity, and
Translation
Between the Bible and the Qur’an
Swahili translators of sacred texts have generally been more preoccupied

with the issue of language—of which African language or language variety
is more suitable for translation—than have translators of secular literature.
In their Swahili edition of Brecht’s The Good Woman of Szechwan, the
translators raise the issue of which dialect is best placed to make world
literature accessible to the Swahili-speaking peoples of East Africa, but such
discussions in the secular domain are more an exception than a rule, and the
reasons are essentially ethnonationalist. In the translation of sacred litera-
ture, however, the linguistic concern is both recurrent and textual even as the
question of ethnonationalism continues to be an accompanying attribute.
By its very nature, sacred literature forces upon the mediator of religious
meaning a grave concern about the ability of translation, and of a language
or a particular language variety, to adequately transmit the word of God. In
this chapter, then, I hope to present a comparative perspective of the linguis-
tic politics of Swahili translation of both the Bible and the Qur’an.
It is possible that, on average, translators of the Bible have been more
concerned than translators of the Qur’an about the question of language.
There is certainly a good amount of literature on Bible translators grappling
with problems of conveying meaning in the Swahili translation, including
the important volume The Bible in Africa: Transactions, Trajectories and
Trends, edited by Gerald O. West and Musa W. Dube. Nothing compa-
rable exists in the scholarship about the Swahili translation of the Qur’an.
One possible reason for this disparity is the sacred value placed on these
translated holy books by the communities of their respective faiths. In
Christianity, a Bible translated into any language has the same value as the
“original,” depending on the quality of the translation. The English Bible
is no less sacred than the Aramaic Bible on which it may be based, as long
as they are “equivalent” in meaning and have no “errors” in translation.
The same cannot be said about translations of the Qur’an from the Ara-
bic “original.” Indeed, the translation of the Qur’an is not considered the
Qur’an at all, irrespective of the quality of the translation, to the extent that
the translated text is always a stage removed in sacredness. Therefore, the
16 Language, Identity, and Translation
linguistic anxieties that punctuate the religious sensibilities of Bible translators
(Tanner, “East”) may be less pronounced among translators of the Qur’an.
THE BIBLE AND THE SWAHILI LANGUAGE
Some of the earliest recorded views on Swahili translation relate to bibli-

cal materials. Christianity is fundamentally a religion of translation. The
Bible is by far the most widely read book in translation in the history of the
written word. Even the original four gospels of the New Testament (Mark,
Matthew, Luke, and John) were written primarily in the Greek language,
with only a smattering of Aramaic phrases. By about 1450, a decade after
the introduction of the printing press, there were already thirty-three trans-
lations of the Bible. By the end of the twentieth century, the Bible was avail-
able either in part or in whole in hundreds of languages.
Within East Africa, translated biblical materials had virtually dominated
the Swahili publishing scene in the early period of European colonial rule.
In the words of Jack D. Rollins:
In terms of literary influence, one set of figures alone will explain more
than several paragraphs. Between the years 1900–1950, there were
approximately 359 works of prose published in Swahili; 346 of these
were written by Europeans and published mainly in England and Ger-
many. Many of these were translations: Swift, Bunyan, Moliere, Shake-
speare, but none more pervasive, in more abundance, and having more
effect than the Bible. The British and Foreign Bible Archives in London
show that thousands of copies of either books from the Bible, or the
entire Bible itself had been distributed in East Africa by the turn of
the century. A common yearly run was between 5–10,000 copies. This
is not to mention the many editions of individual hymn books, cat-
echisms, prayer books, lives of saints and so on that also quickly found
their way into Swahili by the beginning of the 20th century. (51)
Underlying this phenomenal outpouring of biblical material in Swahili,

however, was an intense missionary debate about the suitability of the lan-
guage in conveying the Christian message.
Throughout much of the colonial period, Swahili was considered an
Afro-Islamic language—a medium of East African Islam—by many Chris-
tian functionaries. After all, Swahili is partly a product of the interaction
between Bantu languages in East Africa and Arabic. However, the impact
of Arabic upon the development of Swahili is itself part of the wider impact
of Islam. The Islamic origins of Swahili lie partly in its readiness to borrow
concepts, words, and idioms from the Arabic language and from Islamic
civilization, and partly from the fact that embedded in many aspects of the
civilization of the Swahili people has been the influence of Islam. In other
Language, Identity, and Translation 17
words, Swahili’s Islamicity derives both from the language’s history of sus-
tained interaction with Islam and from the fact that the great majority of the
native speakers are historically Muslim.
As the language of the Qur’an and Islamic ritual, Arabic is very sus-
ceptible to Islamic imagery and connotation. This helped enrich Swahili
alongside borrowings from Bantu and other languages. The word for God
in Swahili (Mngu), for example, comes from Bantu, whereas the word for
angels (malaika) comes from Arabic. The word for heavens (mbingu) is of
Bantu origin, while the word for earth (ardhi), especially when used reli-
giously, comes from Arabic. The word for prophet (mtume) is from Bantu,
whereas the word for devil (shetani) comes from Arabic. A wider range of
illustrations could be added to these, showing an important interplay of
meaning and symbolism between the universes of religious experience in the
traditions of Bantu-speaking peoples and the legacy of Islam (Mazrui and
Mazrui, Power 169–70).
Of course, Arabic was a language of Christianity on the Arabian Penin-
sula long before it became the language of Islam. The earliest Arabic transla-
tion of biblical texts goes back to the ninth century. Since then, many other
versions of the Arabic Bible have come into existence, especially in Lebanon
and Egypt; significantly, the standard Protestant version of the Arabic trans-
lation of the Bible is in the Classical Arabic variety usually associated with
the Qur’an (Persson 10). But it is not the Arabic language per se that matters
in the development of Swahili: It is the fact that in East Africa, the Arabic
language came as part of the Islamic civilization. As Canon Godfrey Dale
observed, even
the dominant ideas of the Koran found their way into the intellectual
atmosphere in which the Swahili lived; and many words and phrases,
especially the words and phrases constantly repeated in the Koran and
in prayers, found their way into the everyday speech of the Swahili
people, affecting it much as the ideas and languages of the Bible have
affected the speech of Christians. (5)
To the extent that Islam was built into the very life and fabric of the Swahili
language and culture, Dale concluded that the task of translating the Qur’an
into Swahili must be a relatively easy one.
The original alphabet used in writing Swahili also added to its Islamic
image. It has been a written language for hundreds of years. Until the twen-
tieth century, the Swahili script, also known as Ajami, was based entirely on
the Arabic alphabet,1 with such modifications as were necessitated by the
phonological peculiarities of this East African lingua franca.2 The acquisi-
tion of that script was almost invariably tied to early training in reading the
Qur’an.
This presumed Islamicity of Swahili became an issue of great concern
when the language began its entry into the mainstream of Western formal
18 Language, Identity, and Translation
education. A colonial debate then got under way about the media of
instruction for Africans, the comparative merits of Swahili against what
were called “vernacular languages,” and the comparative merits of Swahili
against the European languages of the colonizers. This debate, especially
when it touched upon the fundamental issues of educational policy, became
quite often an issue between church and state in a colonial situation.
There were, of course, differences of opinion between German and British
colonizers of East Africa on the implications of Swahili’s Islamicity for Afri-
can education. Prior to the war of resistance against colonialism on the Ger-
man side of East Africa, an important section of the colonial establishment
regarded Swahili as a reservoir of Islamic spirit and was openly opposed to
its use in the translation of the Bible. According to Marcia Wright:
In Germany, Director Buchner proved to be an unrelenting foe of Swa-

hili, going so far in a speech before the Kolonialrat in 1905 as to declare
that it was irredeemably mixed with Islam that every expedient ought
to be employed to obstruct their joint penetration . . . Buchner’s opposi-
tion to Swahili was adopted and expanded by Julius Richter, a member
of the Berlin Committee. Richter delivered a diatribe during the Kolo-
nial Kongress in 1905 against the pernicious influence of Islam every-
where in Africa. Isolating East Africa as the scene of the worst danger,
he envisaged a mosque alongside every coastman’s hut, and took the
official support for Swahili to be blatantly pro-Islamic. (113)
According to another colonial ideologue of the time, H. Hansen, Islam

and Swahili together constituted not only mortal adversaries in the trans-
mission of the Christian message, “but also, in Africa, the unrepentant ene-
mies of colonial politics” (qtd. in Pike 231). The existence of An-Najah,3 a
Swahili journalistic venture using the Ajami script to openly agitate against
German colonial rule, was seen as a vindication of Hansen’s position.
On the other hand, Carl Meinhof, a prominent German linguist of that
time who saw the adoption of Swahili as a very practical aid to German
administration in its East African colony, suggested that the language could
be purged of its Islamicity. To this end, he proposed the replacement of the
Arabic-based script with Roman letters and Arabo-Islamic loan words with
Germanic ones (Pike 224).4 Through this process, Christian missionaries
were thus assured that the Islamicity of Swahili would no longer be in the
way of conveying the good Word of God.
Dr. Karl Roehl, a missionary of the German Lutheran Church, was par-
ticularly attracted to this idea of dis-Arabizing the Swahili of Christianity.
He made deliberate attempts to reduce to the very minimum the use of
Arabic-derived words in his Swahili translation of the Bible. Roehl argued
that “the Arab expressions are linked up with Moslem ideas, which are very
often strongly divergent from the corresponding Christian ones . . .” (197).
Noting that in its natural spread into the interior, the language was already
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Kaikki nauroivat. Mutta Philin lähtiessä ulos pysähdytti rouva
Baldwin hänet ovella sanoen vakavasti: »Lupaathan olla varovainen
tänään, lupaatko? Sinähän tiedät, kuinka toisen Philin kävi —» Hän
vaikeni ja kääntyi poispäin.
Nuori mies tunsi jutun — varsin tavallisen tässä maassa, missä

niin moni mies on saanut antaa henkensä uhrina elämälle, jonka
moniin vaaroihin he joka päivä saavat uskaltautua.
»Älkää surko, äiti», hän vastasi hilpeästi. »Kyllä pidän huolen

itsestäni.» Sitten hän lisäsi hilpeämmin aurinkoisen hymyn levitessä
hänen kasvoilleen. »Jos se suuri ori koettaa tehdä pahaa minulle,
niin minä kiipeän laitumen aidalle.»
Tyynenä kuten mies, joka tietää ankaran päivän olevan edessään,

meni
Phil ajokaluvajaan ja puki siellä ylleen nahkasäärykset ja kannukset.
Tarkastettuaan huolellisesti suitset, satulan ja jalustimen hihnat hän
lähti raskas satula kainalossaan kulkemaan aitausta kohden.
Satuloituaan hevosensa Curly ja Bob huvittivat pikku Billyä

olemalla hänen maalitaulunaan. Poika istui vanhan ja lauhkean
Sheepinsä selässä ja yritti vangita paimenia pienen lassonsa
silmukkaan. Nähdessään päällysmiehensä miehet jättivät leikkimisen
ja tarttuivat lassoihinsa.
»Minkä otat ensimmäiseksi, Phil?» kysyi Curly heidän

ratsastaessaan suurelta laitumelta pieneen aitaukseen vievää
veräjää kohden.
»Kimon, jolla on valkoinen tähti otsassa», vastasi Phil tyynesti.

Sitten hän kääntyi Billyn puoleen. »Sinun on parasta pysytellä
syrjässä. Kimo saattaa hypätä sinun ja Sheepin yli, jos se pälkähtää
sen päähän.»
»Mene sinä aitauksen ulkopuolelle, poika», lisäsi Rovasti, joka oli

tullut laitumelle katsomaan työn alkamista.
»Ei, ei — enkö minä saa olla täällä, Will-setä?» pyysi poika. »Niin
kauan kuin olen Sheepin selässä, eivät ne voi tehdä minulle
mitään.»
Phil ja Rovasti nauroivat.
»Minä pidän hänestä huolta», virkkoi nuori mies. »Mutta sinun

täytyy pysyä poissa tieltä», hän lisäsi pojalle.
Sillä välin oli aitauksien välinen veräjä avattu, ja Bobin vartioidessa

aukkoa ratsasti Curly hevoslaumaan tuodakseen sieltä Philin
haluaman hevosen. Aitauksessa hiekka pölysi pilvenä satojen
kavioiden alla, ja yhä uudelleen pelästyneet eläimet heittäytyivät
aitausta vasten paetakseen, mutta se oli rakennettu paksuista
setripuu-paaluista kyllin vahvaksi kestämään voimakkaimmankin
härkälauman painoa. Keskellä hyppiviä, juoksevia ja hirnuvia eläimiä
näkyi rauhallisen ratsastajan korkea hahmo hänen taitavasti ja
varmasti ajaessaan täpläotsaista kimoa veräjää kohden. Bobin
hevonen väistyi aukolta. Curlyn hevonen oli kimon ja sen tovereiden
välissä, ja ennen kuin eläin ennätti tointua pelästyksestään, oli se
suuremmassa aitauksessa. Päivän työ oli alkanut.
Äkkiä kimo hypähti notkeasti syrjään ja Curlyn lasso viuhui sen

ohitse.
»Sinun olisi parasta lainata silmäsi lassoksi», huomautti Phil
väistäessään hevosen hurjia liikkeitä.
Tulistunut paimen vastasi jotakin niin matalalla äänellä, ettei pikku

Billy saattanut sitä kuulla.
Rovasti nauroi.
Bobin lasso vinkui ilmassa, lensi eteenpäin koko mittansa, ja

hänen hyvin koulutettu hevosensa hypähti samassa
silmänräpäyksessä taaksepäin vastustaakseen kimon painoa.
Tehtyään muutamia epätoivoisia yrityksiä päästäkseen irti yhä
tiukkenevasta köydestä se alistui kohtaloonsa, ja Phil astui
rauhallisesti pelosta värisevän eläimen luokse.
Kukaan ei liikahtanut eikä puhunut. Phil kosketti kädellään kimon

päätä. Samassa silmänräpäyksessä kimo nousi takajaloilleen Philin
väistyessä sen tieltä hyväntuulisesti nauraen. Ja uudelleen hän
ojensi hyväillen kätensä kimon päätä kohden, ja ennen kuin se
huomasikaan, laskeutui sen pelästyneiden silmien yli nahkasilmikko.
Sitten Phil hellitti lasson, kiinnitti vaieten, hellästi ja joka hetki varoen
sen nuolennopeita kavioita, satulan sen värisevään selkään ja veti
satulavyön kireälle. Aitauksesta avoimelle laitumelle johtava veräjä
avattiin. Kevyesti, mutta nopeasti ja varmasti Phil hyppäsi kimon
selkään. Hän viivähti hetkisen tarkastaakseen, että kaikki oli
kunnossa, ja poisti sitten nahkasilmikon sen silmiltä. Eläin seisoi
hetkisen liikahtamatta, kallistui sitten eteenpäin ja kannuksien
koskettaessa sen kylkiä se lähti hurjaa vauhtia porhaltamaan
avoimelle laitumelle Curlyn, Bobin ja pikku Billyn seuratessa sen
kintereillä.
Rovasti viipyi hetkisen aitauksen toisella puolen tarkastellen
tuntijan katsein hevoslaumaa. Sitten hän lähti kotiinpäin, kävi
katsomassa tuulipumppua, pistäytyi keittiön puolella tervehtimässä
Stellaa ja satuloi sitten lempihevosensa Brownyn lähteäkseen
hoitamaan asioitaan.
Kimon juostua itsensä väsyksiin ja yrittäessä päästä irti

taakastaan, ohjasi Phil sen takaisin aitaukseen ja päästi sen
vapaaksi. Vaahtoisena, vapisevin jäsenin ja lihaksin se yhtyi jälleen
overeihinsa saatuaan ensimmäisen oppituntinsa ja menetettyään
ainaiseksi vapauden ihanat päivät.
»Minkä otat tällä kertaa?» kysyi Curly.
»Tuon kauriinvärisen», vastasi Phil.
Siten lyö sujui tunti tunnilta. Philin käskystä erotettiin laumasta

hevonen toisensa jälkeen taltutettavaksi ja koulutettavaksi, ja
jokainen hevonen oli rakenteeltaan, voimiltaan ja luonteeltaan
erilainen. Mutta kaikille Phil oli yhtä hyväntahtoinen, luja ja
lempeäsanainen. Kun pelästynyt hevonen ymmärtämättä hänen
tarkoitustaan yritti heittää hänet maahan, piti hän sitä luonnollisena
vapauteen tottuneen mielen ilmaisuna ja koetti herttaisesti hymyillen
saada oppilaansa ymmärtämään, että tämän tuli olla kunnon
hevonen eikä tehdä hullutuksia.
Hevoset ovat tosiaan monessa suhteessa ihmisten kaltaisia, kuten

Rovasti aamiaispöydässä oli sanonut.
Iltapäivä oli jo pitkälle kulunut, kun Risti-Kolmion isäntä palasi

aitauksen luo. Phil apulaisineen, pikku Billy heidän joukossaan,
hävisi juuri vastakkaiseen suuntaan Tailholt Mountainia kohden
Rovastin saapuessa aitaukselle kartanon puolelta. Rovasti seurasi
katseillaan ratsastajia, mutta vielä senkin jälkeen, kun nämä olivat jo
hävinneet näkyvistä, ei hän saattanut irroittaa katsettaan sinertävistä
selänteistä. Ja hänen katsoessaan muuttui hänen ilmeensä
synkäksi, ja hänen suunsa, joka tavallisesti oli valmis hymyilemään,
vetäytyi uhkaaviin ryppyihin. Rovastin elämässä oli Tailholt Mountain
ainoa synkeä kohta. Siksipä hän ei sallinutkaan ajatustensa kauan
viipyä näissä seikoissa, vaan kääntäen äkkiä selkänsä maisemalle
meni takaisin aitaukseen hevostensa luo.
Jollei Rovasti olisi niin nopeasti kääntänyt katsettaan maisemasta,

olisi hän huomannut erään miehen verkkaan lähestyvän Simmonsilta
Risti-Kolmio-Kartanoon johtavaa tietä.
Samalla ratsastajat palasivat, ja Phil irroitti satulan vaahtoavan

hevosen selästä ja istuutui isäntänsä viereen vesialtaan reunalle.
»Näen, ettet vielä ole käynyt käsiksi suureen mustaan oriiseen»,

huomautti vanhempi miehistä.
»Ajattelin, että annan sen ensiksi hiukan katsella muita, niin se

ehkä ymmärtää olevan viisaampaa alistua», vastasi Phil hymyillen.
»Se on varmasti erinomainen hevonen», hän jatkoi ihaillen. Sitten
hän kääntyi apulaistensa puoleen: »Otan Iällä kertaa mustan oriin,
jolla on valkoiset etujalat, Curly.»
Juuri kun ori tuotiin suurempaan aitaukseen, ilmestyi tielle

jalankulkija ja Phil tunsi hänet ensi silmäyksellä samaksi mieheksi,
jonka oli tavannut Metsärajalla.
Mies näytti ymmärtävän, että nyt ei ollut aikaa tervehtimiseen, ja

kiipesi istumaan hajareisin aitauksen veräjälle katsellen
innostuneena ympärilleen.
Mustan oriin hyppäykset toivat Philin tälle puolelle aitausta, ja

ohjatessaan jäntevällä kädellään vauhkoa hevosia hän katsahti
muukalaiseen poikamaisesti hymyillen ja tervehtien häntä
päännyökkäyksellä. Muukalainen hymyili vastaukseksi, mutta ei
puhunut mitään.
»Hyvää päivää! Kaunis ilma tänään!» kuuli muukalainen

sydämellisen äänen takaapäin. Rovasti oli astunut hänen luokseen
tervehtiäkseen vierasta sillä välin, kun tämä oli syventynyt
katselemaan ratsastajia.
Mies käännähti nopeasti ja hänen kasvojaan kirkasti vilpitön

ihastus.
»Kautta Luojan!» huudahti hän, »osaapa tuo mies ratsastaa!»
»Niin, Phil tekee sen hyvin», vastasi Rovasti tyynesti. »Hän voitti
hiljan mestaruuden Prescottissa.» Sitten hän jatkoi
sydämellisemmin: »Hän on kelpo poika — pystyy mihin hyvänsä.»
Puhuessaan karjanomistaja silmäili muukalaista arvostelevin

katsein, niinkuin olisi tarkastellut härkää tai- hevosta, pannen
merkille pitkät jäsenet, sopusuhtaisen vartalon, jäntevät kasvot ja
kirkkaat, tummat silmät. Miehen puku ilmaisi hänet kaupunkilaiseksi.
Hänen ryhtinsä herätti vanhemman miehen kunnioituksen.
Muukalaisen seuraava ele hänen luodessaan katseensa
harjanteiden, metsän ja niittyjen yli, sai Rovastin vakuuttuneeksi
hänen arvostelukyvystään.
»Arizona on ihana maa, herra — ihana!»

»Kaunein maailmassa», vastasi Rovasti viivyttelemättä.
»Parempaa ei voi olla. Meillä on paras ilmasto, paras maa ja parhaat
miehet.»
Muukalainen katsahti nopeasti Rovastiin tämän sanoessa

»miehet».
»Se on totta», vastasi hän lämpimästi. »En ole milloinkaan nähnyt

tuollaisia miehiä.»
»Sen uskon», sanoi Rovasti. »Sanon teille, että muualla ei

sellaisia olo. Vain tämä maa voi kasvattaa heidänlaisiaan. Täällä
täytyy miehen olla mies. Vaikka tietenkään emme osaakaan juuri
muuta kuin ratsastaa ja heittää lasson ja kenties hiukan ampua
tarpeen tullen.»
Ratsastajat palasivat, ja Rovasti lähti muukalaisen seuraamana

aitaukseen päin.
»Teillä on suurenmoinen karjakartano, herra Baldwin», huomautti

muukalainen jälleen.
Rovasti katsahti tiukasti häneen. Monet olivat yrittäneet ostaa

Risti-Kolmion. Tämä mies tosin ei näyttänyt siltä, kuin olisi liikkunut
niissä asioissa, mutta kaupunkilaisiin ei milloinkaan ollut luottamista.
»Käyhän se laatuun», myönsi Rovasti, »niin että hyvin tulee

toimeen.»
Muukalainen hymyili hiukan hämillään ja virkahti: »Tarvitsetteko

kenties apua?»
»Apua?» Rovasti katsahti häneen huvittuneena.

»Tarkoitan — ottaisin kernaasti paikan — työtä teidän luonanne.»
Rovasti seisoi sanattomana. Jälleen hän loi muukalaiseen tiukan,

arvostelevan katseen. »Te ette ole milloinkaan tehnyt työtä», hän
sanoi rauhallisesti.
Muukalainen seisoi suorana hänen edessään ja vastasi miltei

vihamielisesti: »Ei, en ole, mutta estääkö se minua yrittämästä?»
Rovasti vilkutti silmää niinkuin hänen tapansa oli kuullessaan

jotakin mieluista.
Sitten hän virkkoi Philille, joka päästettyään irti oriin oli tullut
heidän luokseen.
»Phil, tämä mies haluaa työtä. Luuletko, että voimme käyttää

häntä?»
Nuori mies katsahti muukalaiseen ilmeisesti hämmästyneenä,

mutta ilmaisematta pienimmälläkään eleellä, että jo aikaisemmin oli
nähnyt hänet. Sama hienotunteisuus kuin Metsärajalla pidätti häntä
sanomasta sanaakaan heidän kohtauksestaan, ja se herätti
muukalaisessa kunnioituksen ja kiitollisuuden tunteen.
»Voimme käyttää häntä, jos hän osaa ratsastaa», vastasi hän

veitikkamaisesti katsahtaen kysyjään.
Muukalainen hymyili vastatessaan kujeilevalla äänellä: »Eiköhän

hyvinkin voisi oppia. Onhan minulla pitkät sääret.»
Phil nauroi.
Rovastia hämmästytti silminnähtävä yhteisymmärrys näiden
kahden miehen välillä, jotka hänen nähdäkseen ensi kertaa tapasivat
toisensa. Sitten hän kysyi kääntyen muukalaisen puoleen: »Mistä
syystä haluatte työtä? Ette näytä siltä, kuin olisitte sen tarpeessa.
Jonkinlaista kesälomanviettoa, vai mitä?»
Miehen vastauksessa oli terästä: »Tahdon työtä samasta syystä

kuin kaikki miehet. Jollette te voi käyttää minua, täytyy minun koettaa
jossakin muualla.»
»Tulitte varmaan postivaunuissa Prescottista Simmonsille, vai

mitä?»
»Ei, kävelin.»
»Kävelitte! Jopa jotakin! Yrititte siis saada työtä muualta?»
»En.»
»Kuka käski teidän tulla tänne?»
Muukalainen hymyili. »Näin herra Actonin ratsastavan kilpailussa.

Kuulin hänen olevan Risti-Kolmio-Karlanosta. Ajattelin, että
kernaimmin olisin työssä siellä missä hänkin, jos se vain kävisi
laatuun.»
Rovasti katsahti Philiin. Phil katsahti Rovastiin. Yhdessä he

katsahtivat muukalaiseen. Kaksi paimenta, jotka istuivat hevostensa
selässä niin lähellä, että saattoivat kuulla keskustelun, nauroivat
iloisesti.
»Ja mikä on nimenne?» kysyi Rovasti kohteliaasti.

Ensi kertaa muukalainen epäröi ja näytti tulevan hämilleen. Hän
katsahti ympärilleen silmissään avuton ilme.
»No, ei väliä nimellä, jos olette sen unohtanut», virkkoi Rovasti

kuivasti.
Muukalaisen etsivä katse kiinnittyi Philin vanhoihin

nahkasääryksiin, joiden repeämät ja naarmut ja reiät niin
kaunopuheisesti todistivat käyttäjänsä työtä, ja hänen kasvoillaan
häilähti jälleen itsehalveksunnan ivallinen hymy. Sitten hän kohotti
päänsä, ja katsoen Rovastia suoraan silmiin sanoi rohkeasti,
äänessään veikeä sointu: »Nimeni on Patches, herra, Honourable
Patches.» [Patches = ryysymekko.]
Rovastin silmissä syttyi vallaton väike, mutta hänen kasvonsa

olivat vakavat. Phil punastui: hän oli huomannut, mikä oli antanut
muukalaiselle aiheen hänen keksimäänsä nimeen. Mutta ennen kuin
Rovasti tai Phil ehti lausua sanaakaan, purskahti Curly Elson
nauruun, ja muukalainen käännähti häneen päin.
»Jokin näyttää huvittavan teitä», hän lausui rauhallisesti hevosen

selässä istuvalle miehelle, ja Rovasti ja Phil vaihtoivat merkitsevän
katseen hänen äänensävynsä johdosta.
Naurava paimen katsahti halveksien muukalaiseen. »Patches»,

matki hän.
»Honourable Patches! Sepä vasta pirunmoinen nimi, totta vie!»
Muukalainen astui pari askelta ilkkuvaa miestä kohden ja virkkoi

rauhallisesti, mutta ponnekkaasti, josta ei saattanut erehtyä:
»Koetan tehdä sen teille siedettäväksi, jos suvaitsette astua alas
hevosenne selästä.»
Virnistelevä paimen noudatti toverinsa kehoituksesta miehen

käskyä.
Curly Elsonia pidettiin koko Yavapai Countyn parhaana nyrkkeilijänä.
Hän ei saattanut vastustaa näin loistavaa tilaisuutta maineensa
lujittamiseksi.
Viittä minuuttia myöhemmin Curly kohottautui vaivoin

kyynärpäänsä varaan aitauksen hiekassa ja katsoi kunnioittavan
ihailevasti muukalaiseen, joka tyynenä odotti hänen nousevan
jaloilleen. Curlyn huulesta vuoti verta, toinen puoli kasvoista oli kuin
poissa sijoillaan ja hänen oli mahdoton pitää auki vasenta silmäänsä.
»Nouskaa», sanoi kookas mies rauhallisesti. »Saatte enemmän

samaa lajia, jos haluatte.»
Paimen irvisti tuskasta. »Tahdon kernaammin tyytyä tähän»,

mumisi hän sivellen hellävaroen kasvojaan.
»Sanoin nimeni olevan Patches», muistutti muukalainen.
»Niin, herra Patches, en usko kenenkään sitä epäilevän.»
»Honourable Patches», teroitti muukalainen jälleen.
»Niin, herra, Honourable Patches», myönteli Curly ponnekkaasti.

Nousten vaivoin jaloilleen hän ojensi kätensä pakottaen ruhjotut
kasvonsa irvistykseen, joka oli kuvaavinaan hymyä. »Puristaisitteko
kättäni, herra Honourable Patches, osoittaaksenne, ettette kanna
kaunaa?»
Patches vastasi viipymättä ja tavalla, joka valloitti Curlyn sydämen.
»Hyvä!» hän sanoi. »Tiesin, että tekisitte sen käsitettyänne asian,
muuten en olisi esittänytkään teille todistuskappaleitani.»
Curly hyppäsi vaivalloisesti, mutta tyytyväisenä jälleen hevosensa

selkään, ja Patches palasi Rovastin luo kuin pyytäen anteeksi
keskeytystä.
»Anteeksi, herra, mutta miten on työn laita?»
Rovasti, joka oli tottunut tällaisissa asioissa turvautumaan

päällysmieheensä, vastasi: »Se on Philin asia. Hän on Risti-Kolmio-
Kartanon päällysmies. Jos hän tahtoo ottaa teidät palvelukseemme,
on asia selvä minun puolestani.»
Hänen näin sanoessaan katsoivat molemmat nuoret miehet jälleen

toisiinsa, ja kummankin kasvoilla väikkyi puolittain kysyvä, puolittain
huvittunut ilme. Muukalainen näytti sanovan: »Minä tiedän olevani
teidän armoillanne, enkä luule teidän luottavan minuun
kohtauksemme jälkeen Metsärajalla, mutta pyydän teitä antamaan
minulle tilaisuuden koettaa.»
Ja jos Phil olisi puhunut, olisi hän varmaankin sanonut: »Tunsin

ensi kerran tavatessani teidät, että teissä piili kelpo mies. Tiedän
teidän itsenne olevan uteliaan näkemään, mihin pystytte, jos panen
teidät koetukselle. Minä olen myös utelias. Annan teille tilaisuuden
koettaa.» Ääneen hän toisti aikaisemmin sanomansa sanat:
»Sanoin, että voimme käyttää teitä, jos osaatte ratsastaa.»
Patches hymyili jälleen halveksivaa hymyään. »Ja minä sanoin»,

hän vastasi, »että uskon oppivani.»
Phil kääntyi nauravien, mutta kunnioittavien apulaistensa puoleen.
»Tuokaa tänne se suuri ori, jolla on tähti otsassa.»
»Laupias taivas!» huudahti Curly ratsastaessaan Bobin

seuraamana veräjästä aitaukseen. »Hänen nimensä on Patches, se
on totta, mutta hän on riekaleina, jos uskaltautuu tuon pirunmoisen
oriin selkään osaamatta ratsastaa loistavasti. Luuletkos sinä hänen
osaavan?»
»En tiedä», vastasi Bob avatessaan veräjän. »Luulin, ettei hän

osaisi tapollakaan.»
»Niin minäkin luulin», vastasi Curly hieroen turvonneita kasvojaan.

»Sinä saat ajaa hevosen aitauksesta; minä en näe mitään
vasemmalla silmälläni.»
Ei ollutkaan vaikeata saada mustaa oriita lähtemään. Se näkyi

ymmärtävän aikansa tulleen. Bobin ratsastaessa sitä kohden se
seisoi hetkisen liikkumattomana kuin pronssihevonen; sitten se
syöksähti niin hurjalla vauhdilla suuremmalle kentälle, että Curly
tuskin ennätti väistyä sen tieltä.
Phil tarkasti muukalaista suuren oriin juostessa esiin. Mies ei

liikahtanutkaan, mutta hänen silmissään hehkui tumma tuli, hänen
kasvoilleen oli leimahtanut heleä puna, ja hän hymyili jälleen
omituista hymyään kuin huvittuneena ajatellessaan, mitä hänelle
tulisi tapahtumaan. Rovasti katseli myöskin Patchesia, ja jälleen
nuori päällysmies ja hänen isäntänsä vaihtoivat merkitsevän katseen
Philin kääntyessä ja mennessä nopeasti pikku Billyn luo. Nostaen
pojan satulasta aidalle pitkän vesialtaan viereen hän sanoi: »Siinä on
sinulle erinomainen paikka, kumppani. Älä kapua alas, jollei sinun
ole pakko, ja mene silloin aidan ulkopuolelle. Ymmärrätkö?»
Samassa silmänräpäyksessä kohottivat Rovasti, Curly ja Bob
kimakan varoiltshuudon: »Katso eteesi, Phil!»
Tämä katsahti nopeasti olkapäänsä yli ja näki suuren oriin

hehkuvin silmin, korvat luimussa ja hampaat irvissä hyökkäävän
kohti. Oli vain yksi pelastuskeino, eikä Phil epäröinyt käyttää sitä.
Voimakkaalla, joustavalla hypyllä hän sijoittautui pikku Billyn viereen
aidalle vesialtaan yläpuolelle.
»Onni, että varasin itsellenikin lehteripaikan, kumppani!» hymyili

hän pojalle.
Bobin lasso lennähti eläimen kaulaan ja hevosraukan tempoessa

päästäkseen irti satimestaan Phil hyppäsi alas aidalla.
»Mihin olit menossa, Phil?» nauroi Rovasti.
»Taisipa tulla kiire», lisäsi Curly vallattomasti.
Ja irroittamatta katsettaan työstään jatkoi Bob puolestaan:

»Vannonpa, ettet tee toistamiseen sitä hyppyä ottamatta vauhtia.»
»Mieleni teki vain pitää hiukan seuraa pikku Billylle», hymyili Phil.
»Hänen näytti olevan niin ikävä yksinään.»
Muukalainen, joka näytti hämmästyvän huolettomuutta, millä

miehet puhuivat tapauksesta, jolla olisi voinut olla varsin onnettomat
seuraukset, puhkesi äkkiä äänekkääseen nauruun — hilpeään,
helakkaan nauruun, joka sai Philin tiukasti katsahtamaan häneen.
»Pyydän anteeksi, herra Acton», sanoi Patches lauhkeasti, mutta

äänessään veitikkamainen sointu, joka sai päällysmiehen
hymyilemään ja Rovastin naurahtamaan ääneen.
»Voitte ottaa minun satulani», sanoi Phil empimättä. »Se on
vesialtaan päässä. Toivottavasti jalustimet ovat kunnossa — minä
pidän ne tavallisesti verraten pitkinä.»
Muukalainen katsoi häntä kotvan aikaa suoraan silmiin ja lähti

sitten noutamaan satulaa. Hän oli puolitiessä, kun Phil saavutti
hänet.
»Kenties sentään itse satuloin sen», selitti paimen hilpeästi

hymyillen. »Nähkääs, opetan niille hiukan järkeä, ennen kuin suuret
karjakierrokset alkavat, ja olen hieman arka opetuksen suhteen.»
»Niin tietenkin», vastasi Patches. »Se on varsin luonnollista. Tämä

junkkari näkyy olevan erityisen hellän kohtelun tarpeessa, vai mitä?»
Phil nauroi. »Teidän ei tarvitse osoittaa erikoista hellyyttä sitä

kohtaan, kunhan olette päässyt satulaan», hän sanoi.
Sen sijaan, että suuri ori olisi päivän kokemuksista tullut

järkeväksi, kuten Phil oli sanonut toivovansa, näytti sen rohkeus ja
hurjuus saaneen uutta virikettä. Philin lähestyminen sai sen
hypähtämään syrjään hurjana taisteluinnosta, ja Bobin hyvin
koulutetulla hevosella oli täysi työ pitää sitä paikoillaan. Useampia
kertoja Phil yritti lähestyä hevosta, ja yhä uudelleen se karkasi
raisuna pystyyn. Sen nähdessään Phil nousi Curlyn hevosen
selkään, heitti lassonsa oriin kaulaan ja onnistui siten nuoraa
lyhentämällä pääsemään sen viereen ja asettamaan nahkasilmikon
säkenöivien silmien yli.
Kun suitset ja satula viimein olivat paikoillaan ja ori seisoi märkänä

ja vavisten, pyyhki Phil hien otsaltaan ja kääntyi muukalaisen
puoleen.
»Hevosenne odottaa, herra.»
Miehen kasvot olivat kenties hiukan kalpeammat kuin tavallisesti,

mutta hänen silmänsä hehkuivat ja hänen hymyilevillä huulillaan
väikkyi päättäväinen piirre, joka sai ympärillä seisovat miehet
mieltymään häneen. Epäilemättä hetkeäkään hän otti askelen
hevosta kohden.
»Laupias taivas!» mumisi Curly Bobille, »siinä on rohkea mies.»
Rovastikin astui eteenpäin. »Odottakaahan hetkinen, herra

Patches», hän sanoi.
Muukalainen kääntyi häneen päin.
»Osaatteko ratsastaa tuolla hevosella?» kysyi Rovasti tiukasti.
»Aion koettaa», vastasi Patches. »Mutta», hän lisäsi ilkamoivaan

sävyyn, »en osaa sanoa, miten menestyksellisesti.»
»Ettekö tiedä, että se tappaa teidät, jos suinkin voi?» kysyi Rovasti
uteliaana, mutta tyytyväisenä muukalaisen äskeiseen vastaukseen.
»Se aikomus sillä näyttää olevan», myönsi Patches.
»Luopukaa yrityksestä», sanoi Rovasti. »Teidän ei tarvitse tappaa

itseänne saadaksenne työtä minun talossani.»
»Olette ystävällinen, herra», vastasi muukalainen kiitollisena.

»Olen tosiaan iloinen sanoistanne. Mutta aion koettaa joka
tapauksessa.»
Kaikki katsoivat häneen ällistyneinä, sillä nyt heille oli

päivänselvää, ettei hän osannut ratsastaa.
Rovasti kysyi ystävällisesti: »Mistä syystä?»
»Siitä syystä», vastasi Patches verkalleen, »että olen utelias

näkemään, mihin pystyn. Ellen nyt uskalla yrittää, niin tuskinpa
uskallan tuonnempanakaan.» Päättäväisesti hän astui hevosta
kohden.
Phil juoksi Curlyn luo ja päällysmiehensä viittauksesta tämä

luovutti hänelle hevosensa. Phil nousi satulaan ja irroittaen nopealla
liikkeellä lasson satulannupista hän pujotti sen valmiiksi silmukaksi.
Muukalainen seisoi oriin oikealla puolen.
»Toiselta puolen, Patches», neuvoi Phil hyväntuulisena. »Sillä

tavoin pääsette parempaan alkuun.»
Ei kukaan nauranut — paitsi muukalainen.
»Kiitos», hän sanoi ja vaihtoi puolta.
»Olkaa rauhallinen», neuvoi Phil jälleen. »Seisokaa sen lavan

luona ja pitäkää silmällä sen kavioita. Ottakaa jalustin oikeaan
käteenne ja sovittakaa jalkanne siihen. Pysykää paikallanne siksi,
kunnes olette valmis hyppäämään satulaan.»
»Olen heti valmis», vastasi Patches hypätessään satulaan.
Phil ratsasti lähemmäksi aitauksen keskustaa ja kehitti hiukan

enemmän köyttä lassostaan.
»Kun olette valmis, niin nostakaa silmikko», hän huusi.
Oriin selässä istuva mies ei epäröinyt hetkeäkään. Jännittäen

äärimmilleen jokaisen ruumiinsa lihaksen ja jänteen syöksyi hurja
hevonen ilmaan tullen maahan jäykin etujaloin ja pää polvien välissä,
mutta mies pysyi satulassa. Mutta toinen yhtä hurja ilmahyppy heitti
miehen selästä kuin jättiläismäiseltä ponnahduslaudalta, niin että
hän jäi liikkumatta makaamaan aitauksen hiekkaan. Kuormastaan
vapautunut hevonen teki taas mahtavan hypyn ja hyökkäsi sitten
notkeana ja tulta iskevin silmin maassa makaavaa avutonta miestä
kohden.
Kirkaisten Bob kannusti hevostaan asettuakseen oriin ja uhrin

väliin, mutta ori oli häntä nopeampi. Se nousi takajaloilleen, valmiina
murskaamaan vihollisensa raskailla kavioillaan, kun nuora äkkiä
lensi sen etujalkojen ympärille ja se kaatui maahan. Jättäen hevosen
huoleksi lasson kiristämisen Phil hyppäsi satulasta ja juoksi
pudonneen miehen luo. Rovasti juoksi noutamaan hatullaan vettä
altaasta, ja muukalainen avasi pian silmänsä. Hetkisen hän tuijotti
heitä kasvoihin kuin ihmetellen, missä oli ja mitä oli tapahtunut.
»Oletteko pahasti loukkaantunut?» kysyi Rovasti.
Se palautti miehen tajuihinsa, hän nousi jaloilleen, vaikkakin

hiukan horjuen, ja alkoi pudistaa tomua vaatteistaan. Sitten hän
katsahti hevoseen, jota Curly piteli paikallaan istumalla sen pään
päällä. »Luulin, että sääreni olisivat tarpeeksi pitkät ulottumaan sen
ympäri», hän sanoi miettiväisesti. »Kuinka ihmeessä se teki sen?
Minusta tuntui kuin olisin pudonnut kokonaisen viikon.»
Phil ulvoi riemusta, ja Rovasti nauroi niin, että kyynelet tippuivat

hänen poskiaan myöten. Bobin ja Curlyn yhtyessä heidän
hilpeyteensä.
Patches astui hevosen luo ja käveli miettiväisen näköisenä sen

ympäri.
Sitten hau virkkoi Curlylle: »Päästäkää se jaloilleen.»
Paimen katsahti Philiin, joka nyökkäsi vastaukseksi.
Oriin noustua otti Patches askeleen sitä kohden.
»Kuulkaapa», sanoi Rovasti käskevällä äänellä. »Tulkaa pois

sieltä.»
»Koetan, voiko se uudestaan tehdä sen», selitti Patches

päättäväisesti.
»Sitä ette ainakaan tänään tee», vastasi Rovasti. »Te olette nyt
minun työssäni ja olette liian hyvä mies uhrattavaksi moisiin
mielettömiin yrityksiin.»
Rovastin näin sanoessa syttyi miehen silmiin miltei intohimoisen

kiitollinen katse.
»Onko tosiaan niin», hän sanoi niin hiljaa, että vain Rovasti ja Phil
sen kuulivat.
»Mitä tarkoitatte?» kysyi Rovasti hämmästyneenä hänen

ilmeestään.
»Olenko minkään arvoinen — miehenä — ymmärrättehän», kuului

omituinen vastaus.
Rovasti naurahti. »Teissä ei ole mitään vikaa, kunhan vain totutte

maan tapoihin. Tulkaa nyt tänne siksi aikaa, kun Phil hiukan kesyttää
tuota hurjaa hevosta.»
Yhdessä he katselivat, kuinka Phil karautti pois oriilla ja toi sen

takaisin uupuneena, mutta tottelevaisena. Patchesin jäädessä
katselemaan miesten hommia Rovasti lahti kotiin kertomaan Stellalle
päivän tapahtumia.
»Ja mikä luulet tuon miehen olevan?» kysyi tämä pitkän kysymys-
ja selityssarjan lopuksi.
Rovasti pudisti päätään. »Sitä en tosiaan tiedä. Hänenlaisensa

mies pystyy mihin hyvänsä.» Sitten hän lisäsi tavalliseen filosofiseen
sävyynsä: »Mutta hän käyttäytyy aivan kuin puhdasrotuinen ori, jota
on pahoinpidelty ja joka juuri on huomannut sen.»
Kun päivän työ oli lopussa ja illallinen syöty, yllätti pikku Billy
Patchesin katselemassa laaksoon Granite Mountainille päin, joka
uljaana kohosi iltataivasta vasten. Mies tervehti poikaa kömpelösti
kuin olisi ollut lapsiin tottumaton. Mutta pikku Billy ei antanut tämän
säikäyttää itseään, vaan yritti parhaansa mukaan opastaa
muukalaista maailmassa, jonka tunsi monta vertaa paremmin kuin
iso mies.
Hän aloitti tuhlaamatta turhaa aikaa esivalmisteluihin.
»Näettekö tuon vuoren tuolla? Se on Granite Mountain. Siellä elää

villihevosia ja joskus saamme niistä jonkin kiinni. Mutta te ette
tiedäkään, että Philin nimi on 'Villihevos-Phil'?»
Patches hymyili. »Se nimi sopii hänelle.»
»Sen saatte uskoa.» Poika käännähti ja viittasi länttä kohden.

»Tuolla on toinen vuori, jonka nimeä ette tiedä.»
»Mitä niistä tarkoitat? Minä näen useampia.»
»Tuo pitkä, mustalta näyttävä. Tiedättekö mitään siitä?»

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Textbook Cultural Politics of Translation East Africa in A Global Context Alamin M Mazrui Ebook All Chapter PDF

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Cultural Politics of Translation East

Africa in a Global Context Alamin M.

Resurgent Islam and the Politics of Identity Ali A.

Reading Cultural Representations of the Double Diaspora

Didactics of Translation Text in Context 1st Edition

World Politics in Translation Power Relationality and

The Politics of Technology in Africa Iginio Gagliardone

The Near East A Cultural History Arthur Cotterell

Advancing Rule of Law in a Global Context 1st Edition

Politics of Translation in International Relations

Alamin M. Mazrui is a Professor in the Department of African, Middle

1 Applying Luhmann to 8 The Dao of Translation

7 Translation and Linguistic

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1 Language, Identity, and Translation:

2 Translation and Foreign Relations: Between Tradition and

3 Translating Fanon in Socialist Tanzania: Between the

5 Translating the Law: Reflections of a Linguistic Activist 114

Appendix: Linking Text and Context: Ali Mazrui and

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This collection of essays is a continuation of my earlier work on language

Translation has often been deeply implicated in political projects of one

responses to the translations discussed here vary from incorporation to out-

with local traders.

Deogratias Simba’s Swahili translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s Al-Tariq, based

The translator presents Alice as a Swahili-speaking African girl! A Swahili-

Along similar lines, Samuel S. Mushi reminds us in the introduction of his

collection of conference proceedings under the title Problems of Translation

origin in the wake of his move to socialism.

cal, Maisha Amerika/Uislamu Amerika (Life in America/Islam in America),

In the domain of international politics discussed in Chapter Two, we

the linguistic modernization of Swahili. Historically, Swahili has contrib-

Kiswahili = Swahili language

The tradition of terminological intelligibility shows greater sensitivity to

Swahili translators of sacred texts have generally been more preoccupied

THE BIBLE AND THE SWAHILI LANGUAGE

Some of the earliest recorded views on Swahili translation relate to bibli-

Underlying this phenomenal outpouring of biblical material in Swahili,

In Germany, Director Buchner proved to be an unrelenting foe of Swa-

According to another colonial ideologue of the time, H. Hansen, Islam

Nuori mies tunsi jutun — varsin tavallisen tässä maassa, missä

»Älkää surko, äiti», hän vastasi hilpeästi. »Kyllä pidän huolen

Tyynenä kuten mies, joka tietää ankaran päivän olevan edessään,

Satuloituaan hevosensa Curly ja Bob huvittivat pikku Billyä

»Minkä otat ensimmäiseksi, Phil?» kysyi Curly heidän

»Kimon, jolla on valkoinen tähti otsassa», vastasi Phil tyynesti.

»Mene sinä aitauksen ulkopuolelle, poika», lisäsi Rovasti, joka oli

Phil ja Rovasti nauroivat.

»Minä pidän hänestä huolta», virkkoi nuori mies. »Mutta sinun

Sillä välin oli aitauksien välinen veräjä avattu, ja Bobin vartioidessa

Äkkiä kimo hypähti notkeasti syrjään ja Curlyn lasso viuhui sen

Tulistunut paimen vastasi jotakin niin matalalla äänellä, ettei pikku

Bobin lasso vinkui ilmassa, lensi eteenpäin koko mittansa, ja

Kukaan ei liikahtanut eikä puhunut. Phil kosketti kädellään kimon

Kimon juostua itsensä väsyksiin ja yrittäessä päästä irti

»Minkä otat tällä kertaa?» kysyi Curly.

»Tuon kauriinvärisen», vastasi Phil.

Siten lyö sujui tunti tunnilta. Philin käskystä erotettiin laumasta

Hevoset ovat tosiaan monessa suhteessa ihmisten kaltaisia, kuten

Iltapäivä oli jo pitkälle kulunut, kun Risti-Kolmion isäntä palasi

Jollei Rovasti olisi niin nopeasti kääntänyt katsettaan maisemasta,

Samalla ratsastajat palasivat, ja Phil irroitti satulan vaahtoavan

»Näen, ettet vielä ole käynyt käsiksi suureen mustaan oriiseen»,

5 Translating the Law: Reflections of a Linguistic Activist 114