A Critical Evaluation of New Challenges Pertaining to the Activities of Translation and Interpretation in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author(s):  
Milburga ATCERO

Cette contribution vise à évaluer de façon critique les nouveaux défis liés à la traduction et à l’interprétation (TI) dans une Afrique subsaharienne caractérisée par sa grande diversité linguistique. L’auteur espère identifier et suggérer des méthodologies pouvant être appliquées pour rapprocher cette région du reste du monde. Il identifie, en outre, la nécessité pour l’Afrique subsaharienne de mettre en œuvre des politiques et pratiques qui favorisent le multilinguisme. Elles sont principalement basées sur la pluralité des langues, avec un espace adéquat pour les langues internationales, étant donnée le rôle crucial des parcours scolaires sur ce continent. Dans l’environnement de travail dynamique d’aujourd’hui, différentes institutions reconnaissent le rôle important joué par la TI dans la recherche et le renforcement de l’efficacité des individus comme des organisations. L’auteur s’appuie sur un cadre logique illustrant l’importance de la traduction dans les sphères socioculturelles et linguistiques, pour la production de connaissances sur l’Afrique. Il soutient que la traduction devrait être considérée comme une occasion d’explorer la diversité des possibles dans la littérature africaine. Il conclut en décrivant les méthodes envisageables et les nouvelles orientations.

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. e0008857
Author(s):  
Oluwatosin Adekeye ◽  
Kim Ozano ◽  
Ruth Dixon ◽  
Elisabeth Osim Elhassan ◽  
Luret Lar ◽  
...  

Nigeria has the highest burden of NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. Commitments to reach the control and elimination of many Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), particularly those amenable to preventive chemotherapy (onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil transmitted helminths, lymphatic filariasis and trachoma) by 2020 are detailed in the London declaration. Strategies to reach targets build on existing approaches, one of which is the use of community directed intervention (CDI) methods to deliver the mass administration of medicines (MAM). However, treatment using this approach has been inconsistent and there are questions about the acceptability and adaptability of these interventions during periods of programmatic, social, and political change. This paper explores the current strengths and weaknesses of CDI approaches in MAM delivery. We consider the acceptability and adaptability of existing MAM approaches to ensure equity in access to essential treatments. Using qualitative methods, we explore implementer perspectives of MAM delivery. We purposively selected programme implementers to ensure good programmatic knowledge and representation from the different levels of health governance in Nigeria. Data collection took place across two States (Kaduna and Ogun). Our results indicate that CDI approaches have underpinned many historic successes in NTD programme acceptance in Nigeria, specifically in Kaduna and Ogun State. However, our results also show that in some contexts, factors that underpin the success of CDI have become disrupted presenting new challenges for programme implementers. Capturing the tacit knowledge of health implementers at varying levels of the health system, we present the current and changing context of MAM delivery in Kaduna and Ogun States and consolidate a platform of evidence to guide future programme delivery and research studies. We situate our findings within the broader NTD literature, specifically, in identifying how our findings align to existing reviews focused on factors that shape individual acceptance of MAM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 1678-1697
Author(s):  
Espérance Zossou ◽  
Seth Graham-Acquaah ◽  
John Manful ◽  
Simplice D. Vodouhe ◽  
Rigobert C. Tossou

En Afrique subsaharienne, les petits exploitants agricoles ruraux ont difficilement accès aux connaissances et informations actualisées afin d’améliorer leur revenu. Pour renforcer l’apprentissage collectif au sein des acteurs des chaînes de valeur du riz local blanc et étuvé, la vidéo et la radio ont été utilisées de façon participative. La présente étude visait à comprendre l’influence de cet apprentissage collectif sur (i) le changement des pratiques des transformations et (ii) la qualité du riz local. Des interviews et suivis hebdomadaires ont été réalisés entre 2009 et 2018 au sud et nord du Bénin auprès de 240 transformateurs choisis aléatoirement. Des échantillons de riz ont été également collectés pour des analyses de qualité au laboratoire. L’analyse des données a été faite avec les tests t de Student, Wilcoxon, ANOVA, et le modèle de régression de Poisson. Les résultats ont montré une amélioration des pratiques de 14% ; 23% et 58% respectivement dans les villages contrôles, radio et vidéo. Dans le processus d’amélioration des pratiques, les transformateurs ont renforcé leur créativité en développant des technologies appropriées à leur environnement ; ce qui a eu un impact positif sur les qualités physiques et de cuisson du riz. Dans un contexte de pauvreté, d’insécurité alimentaire, de ruralité et d’analphabétisme, l’apprentissage collectif par la vidéo et la radio locale se révèle être une opportunité pour le renforcement du système d’innovation agricole.   English title: Smallholder farmers at inclusive school: Lessons learnt from collective  learning through video and radio on local rice processing in Benin In sub-Saharan Africa, rural smallholder farmers have limited access to timely and up-to-date knowledge and information to improve their incomes. To strengthen collective learning among rice sector’ stakeholders, videos and radio were participatory used. This study aims to assess the impact of this collective learning on (i) changing rice processors practices and (ii) the quality of local rice. Interviews and weekly follow-ups were conducted between 2009 and 2018 in southern and northern Benin with 240 randomly selected rice processors. Rice samples were also collected for quality analysis in the laboratory. Data analysis was done with Student's t-tests, Wilcoxon, one-way ANOVA, and the Poisson regression model. The results showed an improvement in rice processors practices of 14%; 23% and 58% respectively in control, video and radio villages. During the improvement of their practices, rice processors have increased their creativity by developing appropriate technologies to their environment; and this has positively impact on the physical and cooking qualities of the rice. In a context of poverty, food insecurity, rurality and illiteracy, collective learning through video and radio seems to be an opportunity to strengthen the agricultural innovation system, and a booster for change through adoption and adaptation of innovation.


Author(s):  
Louise Iles

Gender is frequently invoked as a core explanatory factor for many aspects of past African metallurgy, including conceptualizations of the technological process by its practitioners, the organization of—and participation in—metallurgical production activity, and the acquisition of power and wealth that is associated with it. If a study of technology is to contribute to our understanding of the African past, an exploration of the socioeconomic framework of a production activity is as important as understanding the materiality of a technology; gender is an essential part of that framework. Ethnographies offer an unparalleled opportunity to consider concepts such as technological style, symbolic expression, and gender in relation to technological activity and materiality—structuring principles that can be of limited visibility in the archaeological record. It is through ethnographic and historical documentation that gender has been made highly and dramatically visible in African smelting and metalworking processes. A stark focus has tended to rest on the cosmologies of fertility and human reproduction that permeate many (though certainly not all) iron smelting technologies across the continent. Metal production is positioned as a form of social reproduction, enabling the continuation of cultural activity through technological production. Metaphors of transformation are reproduced through the design and decoration of technological artifacts, through taboos and prohibitions, and through the symbolic songs, words, and actions of the metal workers, and have been closely tied with narratives of female exclusion from (and conversely male access to) metallurgical activities. Insights from the ethnographic and historical records of sub-Saharan Africa have been used to inform archaeological interpretations, both implicitly and explicitly, within and far beyond the continent. Yet the insights they provide need to be tempered by a critical evaluation of the ways in which such analogies are selected from a vast bank of historic and ethnographic data and how they can be most appropriately utilized. Importantly, the variability that is present within the ethnographic record cautions against the construction and promulgation of overgeneralizations, and strongly suggests that gender and gendered work roles within African metallurgy, past and present, are not yet fully understood.


2021 ◽  

Cet ouvrage collectif rassemble quatorze contributions scientifiques consacrées à La traduction et l’interprétation en Afrique subsaharienne. Le sous-titre Les nouveaux défis d’un espace multilingue se situe au cœur des préoccupations des auteurs, qui allient souvent une expérience professionnelle indéniable à leur statut universitaire. Rédigées en français et en anglais, leurs analyses couvrent au moins sept pays différents, lorsqu’elles ne décrivent pas des réalités et des défis qui transcendent largement les frontières. Les problématiques abordées sont nombreuses et étroitement imbriquées : enseignement multilingue, formation professionnelle des interprètes et des traducteurs, interprétation communautaire, besoins des administrations et des organisations internationales, création de ressources lexicales, ingénierie linguistique… This collective work contains fourteen scientific contributions related to Translation and Interpretation in Sub-Saharan Africa. The subtitle ‘The New Challenges in a Multilingual Space’ is at the heart of the concerns of the authors, who often blend their undeniable professional experience with their university status. Their analyses, written in French and English, cover at least seven different countries, and sometimes describe realities and challenges that largely transcend borders. Numerous issues that are closely intertwined are addressed including multilingual education, professional training of interpreters and translators, community interpreting, the needs of governments and international organizations, the development of lexical resources, language engineering, etc.


Author(s):  
Marina A. Kukartseva (Glaser) ◽  
◽  
Vitaly Yu. Ivlev ◽  
Nikolay N. Novik ◽  
◽  
...  

The research aims at explicating two discourses that are most important for solv­ing global problems of humanity: biopolitics and human security. The similarity of the studied concepts is revealed. According to the authors, it consists in the sameness of their object, and the differences – in its interpretation. Biopolitics sees its interest in finding ways to control the impersonal “man in General”, and human security – in its individuation. The measure of correlation of these con­cepts and their relation to the philosophical discourse about freedom is revealed. The author traces the dialectics of biopolitics and human security, the moments when the biopolitical discourse of “insured” and “uninsured” life intersects with the “colonizing” discourse. It is concluded that the conflict of interests of the studied discourses is inevitable, none of them is able to “rise above the fray”, having the opportunity to answer complex questions of human security. The mea­sure of their effectiveness as an intellectual tool and practical mechanism for solving problems is illustrated by “fragile States” (the case of sub-Saharan Africa) and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dirk Kohnert

ABSTRACT & RÉSUMÉ : Discrimination against the approximately 500,000 African (mostly irregular) immigrants has recently spread in China. During the corona pandemic, it degenerates into a true Afrophobia. Shortly before, five Nigerians in Guangzhou had reportedly tested positive for Covid-19. Africans are widely accused as drug traffickers and criminals. Also, they would endanger China's global competitiveness for Africa's resources through media baiting abroad. Current reports testify the displacement of African migrants from homes and hotels in Guangzhou (Canton), where most of the Africans live. They are dependent on informal, mostly illegal networks in order to be able to stay in the country. In online social networks Afrophobia as cyber racism is particularly pronounced. Thereby, racism is more deeply rooted in the mentality of many Chinese than is commonly assumed. According to a traditional Chinese proverb, the greatest evil to be avoided is ‘the destroyed nation and the annihilated race’. In addition, since 2005 land-grabbing by Chinese entrepreneurs in sub-Saharan Africa arose international attention. Its main purpose is to ensure food security in China and to profit from international grain speculation. It was racially legitimized from the start, with slogans such as, only Chinese investments could save Africans from their traditional ‘laziness’. This repeats deeply rooted neo-colonial European prejudices of a ‘wild, ahistoric and uncivilized Africa’. The prejudices are still associated with a feeling of racial superiority. The social fabric of China has always embodied essential characteristics of the exclusion of ‘foreigners’, focused on ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation and gender. The African Union, various African governments and even the United States have sharply criticized Beijing for mistreating migrants, particularly those from Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Racist attacks on Africans in China have an oppressively long tradition, associated with the expansion of bilateral Chinese petty trade in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 2000s and the subsequent influx of African petty traders into China. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RÉSUMÉ : La discrimination à l'encontre des quelque 500 000 immigrés africains (pour la plupart irréguliers) s'est récemment répandue en Chine. Pendant la pandémie de corona, cela dégénère en une véritable afrophobie. Peu de temps auparavant, cinq Nigérians de Guangzhou auraient été testés positifs pour Covid-19. Les Africains sont largement accusés d'être des trafiquants de drogue et des criminels. En outre, ils mettraient en danger la compétitivité mondiale de la Chine pour les ressources de l'Afrique par le biais du dénigrement médiatiques à l'étranger. Les rapports actuels témoignent du déplacement des migrants africains des maisons et des hôtels de Guangzhou (Canton), où vivent la plupart des Africains. Ils dépendent de réseaux informels, pour la plupart illégaux, pour pouvoir rester dans le pays. Dans les réseaux sociaux en ligne, l'afrophobie et le cyber-racisme sont particulièrement prononcés. Ainsi, le racisme est plus profondément enraciné dans la mentalité de nombreux Chinois qu'on ne le pense généralement. Selon un proverbe chinois traditionnel, le plus grand mal à éviter est « la nation détruite et la race anéantie ». En outre, depuis 2005, l'accaparement des terres par des entrepreneurs chinois en Afrique subsaharienne a attiré l'attention de la communauté internationale. Son objectif principal est d'assurer la sécurité alimentaire en Chine et de profiter de la spéculation céréalière internationale. Il a été légitimé racialement dès le départ, avec des slogans tels que, seuls les investissements chinois pouvaient sauver les Africains de leur « paresse » traditionnelle.


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