Abstract
A widespread and renewed emphasis on women’s rights, feminism and the effects of systemic oppression on marginalised groups has been seen in recent years. This international trend can be ascribed to feminist movements on social media such as #TimesUp and #MeToo. These movements, known as “hashtag feminism”, which can be categorised as part of the broader movement of fourth-wave feminism, aim to ensure that previously marginalised women now have the opportunity to tell their stories from their own perspectives. Social media is therefore used as a platform where the personal narrative becomes a political narrative. The goal is to move away from dominant Western and patriarchal perspectives in order to acknowledge and respect the diversity, legitimacy and complexity of women. Intersectional feminists thus argue that the concept of feminism should be broadened and diversified for the movement to be truly inclusive.
An increasing insistence on the importance of women’s rights and intersectional feminism, mainly due to the escalation of gender-based violence in South Africa, is also detected in local social media activism with feminist movements such as #AmINext. With these movements, South African women questioned their safety and lack of power in not only the country, but society, and protested the normalisation of, among others, sexual assault, murder, transphobia and homophobia. Women now have access to platforms aiding them in making their voices heard and having the means to demand equality and justice. The role of feminist researchers, activists and writers are therefore significant in this sociopolitical movement.
Strong women voices are not only prevalent on social media and in protests in South Africa, but recently also in Afrikaans poetry. Previously marginalised women poets are now recreating the official spheres of literature, the media and academics through their writing, and are highlighting the injustices and challenges Black women face daily in the South African context. This contributed to establishing unheard of readers and stories in South African literature. It is thus noteworthy that since 2008, Coloured Afrikaans women have also increasingly been published by well-known publishers, such as Kwela, Human & Rousseau and Protea Boekhuis, and the Coloured women poets are, among others, Veronique Jephtas, Lynthia Julius, Ronelda Kamfer, Jolyn Phillips and Shirmoney Rhode. Before Kamfer’s debut poetry book Noudat slapende honde (2008), Diana Ferrus was the only previously marginalised Afrikaans woman who has published an Afrikaans book of poetry, Ons komvandaan (2006). She was, however, self-published. Ferrus can be deemed a significant forerunner to these recently published poets.
With the renewed emphasis on the intersectional inclusion of previously marginalised voices in official spheres such as the media, academics and literature, the decolonisation of translation theory and praxis is also necessary. Feminist translation studies focus especially on the perspectives and theories from the Global South since the Global North has historically been portrayed as the norm for and origin of significant theories, concepts, and sociopolitical movements. The concept of transnational discourses and the intellectual activism regarding sociopolitical issues are made possible through translation. People from different linguistic and cultural contexts would never be able to hear, understand, and investigate each other’s stories and perspectives if it had not been for translation.
Although various attempts have been made to address issues regarding power and inequality in feminist translation studies, and to offer marginalised voices the opportunity to share their perspectives on a global scale, these contributions were still limited mainly to research in the Global North. In three of the most recent publications on feminist translation studies, in only seven out of the seventy articles, African countries and languages were examined. These studies focused mainly on feminist issues in the Maghreb countries and the translation between English and Arabic in predominantly Muslim contexts. There is a clear lack of diverse voices from peripheral languages and contexts, especially African contexts, that can contribute to a less homogenous global feminist and translation discourse.
It is therefore suggested that the various Coloured Afrikaans women voices of Veronique Jephtas, Lynthia Julius and Jolyn Phillips in their respective books of poetry namely Soe rond ommie bos (2021), Uit die kroes (2020) and radbraak (2017) are translated into English. The goal is for their perspectives and stories to become part of the current transnational feminist discourse. It is argued that these poets’ work can contribute to a more inclusive field of feminist theory and translation theory and practice outside Western contexts. Furthermore, it is claimed that each poet addresses postcolonial feminist issues in the South African context in a unique and individual voice, which is a significant step towards the process of the decolonisation of Afrikaans literature as Black women were excluded from dominant publishers and the official academic and media spheres due to South Africa’s imperial and apartheid history.
In order to determine suitable translation strategies for these poets and their voices, selected poems will be translated and the translation solutions are discussed in annotations. The focus will be on two types of translation problems per poetry book. This qualitative study has a modern feminist translation studies approach. The focus is mainly on translation strategies that are suggested by feminist translation studies scholars such as Von Flotow, Castro, Ergun, Pas, Zaborowska and Spivak who aim to highlight the significance and diversity of women’s voices from marginalised backgrounds. Pym’s model for translation solutions for many languages (2016) is used to establish possible solutions to the expected translation problems. Translation strategies that would not completely homogenise Jephtas, Julius and Phillips’ unique voices and language varieties are prioritised in order to highlight their diverse sociocultural backgrounds, as well as the diversity of Afrikaans-speaking people it emphasises.
In the article, an overview of the connection between feminist protest and intersectional feminist translation theory will be provided. The focus is specifically on the critique of the predominantly West-to-the-Rest narratives and how this notion often excludes diverse women’s perspectives by portraying perspectives from the Global North as the norm. The critique on the binary ideas regarding gender and race as identity categories will also be discussed while simultaneously, although often deemed problematic, pointing out the importance of the use of these categories in academia as a means to decolonise feminist theory as well as translation theory and praxis. Furthermore, the goals of modern feminist translation scholars will be pointed out, as well as the specific translation strategies that are suggested in order to undermine the dominant binary and patriarchal social, economic and political systems still seen in today’s society. The contribution of marginalised voices, cultures and languages to translation theory and praxis are assessed with reference to Venuti’s theory that that they could offer heterogeneity and inclusive representation to often homogenous translated Western texts.
Jephtas, Julius and Phillips’ marginalised position as Coloured Afrikaans women in the South African context, as well as the Afrikaans context, is examined. Their background as writers and selected poems will be discussed in order to further highlight the significance of their voices and why they can be classified as postcolonial feminist writers. It is emphasised that, although the themes in their poems occasionally overlap and they are classified as “Coloured women poets” in this article, they represent diverse Afrikaans voices with unique perspectives on intersectional feminist issues in the South African context, which implicitly highlights the heterogeneity of the Afrikaans-speaking community.
It is mainly found that the use of foreignising strategies – such as the copying of distinctive lexical markers and unique sentence structure in the Afrikaans poems – is the most effective way to avoid a homogenous representation of the poets in the target texts. A possible addition to Pym’s model for translation solutions is suggested. In conclusion, it is the argument of this article that the intellectually activist translation of marginalised women voices, especially originating from the Global South, is a good step towards the decolonisation of modern feminism, feminist translation theory and praxis, as well as the Afrikaans literary canon.
Keywords: feminism in Afrikaans poetry; feminist Afrikaans poets; feminist translation strategies; feminist translation theory; fourth-wave feminism; Jolyn Phillips; Lynthia Julius; poetry translation; postcolonial feminism; radbraak; Soe rond ommie bos; Uit die kroes; Veronique Jephtas
- This article’s featured image consists of a background image (obtained from Canva) and the book covers of radbraak by Jolyn Phillips (Human & Rousseau, 2017), Soe rond ommie bos by Veronique Jephtas (Protea Boekhuis, 2021) and Uit die kroes by Lynthia Julius (Kwela, 2020).
Lees die volledige artikel in Afrikaans
Die vertaling van diverse Coloured vrouestemme in die Afrikaanse poësie: ’n feministiese benadering