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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Translations as Sources for African History
Author:Heintze, BeatrixISNI
Year:1984
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:11
Pages:131-161
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:translation
historiography
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171632
Abstract:If the increasing dependence of African historical research on translations, regretable though it is, cannot be halted or denied, it seems urgently necessary to grapple with this problem in a comprehensive way. This paper is intended to encourage such work, by drawing attention above all to some problems associated with the use of translation as sources. The paper is not intended to offer a comprehensive analysis or anything like a complete list of the problems involved. Drawing from her experience in ethnography and history of southwestern central Africa, the author argues that translations are a kind of source with which, were it possible, one would prefer to dispense. Nevertheless, the author believes that careful and appropriate translations are more fruitful for research and can do less damage than those original works which a scholar with only a superficial command of a language understands only partially or quite wrongly. This happens far more often than we realize or wish to believe. Notes.
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