US-based Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o (pictured) and a translation expert linked to such celebrities as US President Donald Trump and Barcelona football ace Lionel Messi are expected in the country next month for major language and literary events.
Prof Ngugi and Chicago-based Tony Rosado will be part of the team of translators, interpreters and people of letters expected to converge in Nairobi for the First African International Translation Conference, which runs from February 8-9 at Azure Hotel in Westlands.
Mr Rosado, an interpreter, translator, blogger and author, has worked in the US, Mexico, Canada, South America and Asia. His Spanish-English translation career spanning 20 years has seen him carry out assignments linked to top-level clients, including football star Messi and President Trump.
Besides being a federal court interpreter, Rosado is a certified interpreter for local courts in Colorado and New Mexico. The author of The New Professional Court Interpreter, he has been an instructor at the US Defence Language Institute, Western State College of Colorado, and “a regular conference presenter at the American Translators Association, National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators”.
Rosado, whose presentation at the conference is titled ‘Interpreting for Trump’, is later expected to give a public lecture at Kenyatta University. He is expected to speak on wide-ranging issues, including enlightening language students on how to use translation and interpretation skills for self-employment and other modern trends in the profession.
The conference, organised by East African Interpreters and Translators Association (EAITA), aims to boost African languages by helping translators from Africa to create ties and tap into skills of global peers from Europe and the Americas.
Prof Ngugi, who is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine, was chosen as the keynote speaker for his pro-African decision in the 70s to write his fiction books first in Gikuyu, before translating them into English.
This resolve has been seen with several of Ngugi’s works, including Murogi wa Kagoogo, which was written in Gikuyu and later translated to English as Wizard of the Crow. It was also the case with his earlier work, Caitaani Mutharabaini, whose English translation is Devil on the Cross. His latest book, Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi (2019), a Gikuyu epic, is also expected to be translated into English.
Other key figures expected to present papers include Kenya’s Prof Ken Walibora of Riara University, journalist-writer Hezekiah Gikambi and Moi University translation scholar Vincent Magugu.
Other Kenyan speakers include scholars Sarah Ngechi, Rachael Ndichu, Fred Otiato and Lillian Oloo.
There will also be presentations by Obi Udearily, a legal translator from Lagos, Nigeria, Dr Stephanie Engola from the University of Yaunde, Cameroon, Gandu Sabastian of the University Buea in Cameroon, freelance translator Joelle Ntoutoume from Senegal, Nteuma Joselyne from Cameroon as well as Kyle Wohlmut from Switzerland.
Kyle was the translator of Safari to Hell, a book by Bob Van Der Goethe, which is set in Kenya.
“Also on the speakers’ list are experienced Computer Aided Translation (CAT) tools experts Marek Pawelec and Sameh Ragab. They will be training our attendees on Memoq and SDL Trados, the two most popular tools translators use in their daily work,” said EAITA Chairman Alfred Mtawali in an email.
“This is the first international translation conference in Africa and we are excited to have Ngugi and many other speakers from around the world coming. We have speakers coming from Brazil, Netherlands, Poland, USA, Cameroon, Senegal and Switzerland, among other nations of the world,” said Mr Mtawali, an English-Swahili and English-Giriama translator.
Prof Ngugi is also expected to launch Kenda Muiyuru: Rugano rwa Gikuyu na Mumbi in a verse released by his Nairobi publisher slightly over a month ago.
Ngugi is also expected to be a guest at the launch of books written in Kenyan ethnic languages in various parts of the country.
Books written in dholuo will be launched in Kisumu, Ekegusii books in Kisii, Giriama books in Kilifi while books in Gikuyu language are expected to be launched in Murang’a.
According to the East African Educational Publishers Ltd, the launches aim at encouraging Kenyans from all ethnic communities to be proud of their heritage, which is carried in their indigenous languages.
