What is a South African Folktale? Reshaping Traditional Tales through Translation and Adaptation

Authors

  • Judith Inggs

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2004vol14no1art1273

Keywords:

South African folktales, translation, adaptation, censorship

Abstract

In lieu of abstract, here is the first paragraph of the article:

He arrived at home and it said, 'No! Let me go! I’m a bird that shits amasi!''  

He said, "Please shit, that we may see!'  

It produced some amasi. Oh, the man tasted it,he tasted it. He ate it.  

(Scheub 1977.p.47)  

'Kethani. Don’t harm me If you spare my life, I’II make milk for you.' … And Kethani watched as the weeds became uprooted and then ordered the bird to make milk for him. He took out a calabash and the bird filled it with thick warm milk.  

Kethani savoured the milk as it slithered down his dry throat. It had been a very long time since he had tasted milk.  

(Heale & Stewart 2001, p.18)  

 

The first extract is taken from a Xhosa tale recorded in 1967, and transcribed and translated by a Wisconsin researcher. Harold Scheub (1977). The second is taken from a recently published collection entitled African Myths and Legends, and was written by Dianne Stewart in 1994 (Heale & Stewart 2001). The sinking discrepancies between these two accounts of the same title were the motivation for an examination of the ways in which traditional South African titles have been the object of rewriting and appropriation by English writers and translators over a period of one hundred and fifty years, initially in a colonial context, and more recently in a postcolonial context.  

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Baker, Mona (1992) In Other Words. New York, Routledge.

Beckett, Sandra (2002) Recycling Red Riding Hood. New York, Routledge.

Beier, H.U. (1966) The Origin of Life and Death: African Creation Myths. London, [s.n.].

Bettelheim, Bruno (1976) The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York, Knopf.

Bleek, W.H.I. (1864) Reynard the Fox in South Africa, or, Hottentot Fables and Tales. London, Trubner.

Bleek. W.H.I (1923) The Mantis and His Friends: Bushman Folklore. Collected by the late Dr W.H.I Bleek and the late Dr Lucy C. Lloyd. Cape Town, Masker Miller.

Bottigheimer, Ruth (1987) Grimm’s Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales. New Haven, Yale University Press.

Bukenya, A., Kabiri, W., Okombo, O. (eds) (1994) Understanding Oral Literature. Nairobi, Nairobi University Press.

Calloway, Henry (1868) Nursery Tales, Traditions and Histories of the Zulus, in their own Words, with a Translation into English, and Notes Vol.1. Springvale, Natal, J.A. Blair.

Canonici, N. (1990) ‘The folktale tradition today and yesterday’, in Groenewald, HC. (ed) Oral Studies in Southern Africa,. Pretoria, Human Sciences Research Council, pp 128-153.

du Toit, B. (1976) Content and Context of Zulu Folk-narratives. Florida, University Presses

of Florida. (University of Florida Monographs. Social Sciences; no.58).

Finnegan, Ruth (1970) Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford, Clarendon.

Godwin, D. (compiler)(2000) Folktales from the Rainbow Nation. [n.p.], Van Schaik.

Groenwald, H.C. (1990) Oral Studies in Southern Africa. Pretoria, Human Sciences Research Council.

Heale, Jay & Stewart, Dianne (2001) African Myths and Legends. Cape Town, Struik Publishers.

Horsburgh, Susan (1991) The Translation of Zulu Folktales for English-speaking Children in South Africa. Unpublished MA Research Project. University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Jenkins, Elwyn (1988) ‘The presentation of African folktales in some South African English versions’, in Sienart, E.R. & Bell, A.N. (eds) Catching Winged Words: Oral Tradition and Education. Durban, Natal UniversityPress, pp. 191-202.

Jenkins, Elwyn (1993). Children of the Sun. Johannesburg, Ravan Press.

Joelson, Annette (1926). How The Ostrich Got His Name And Other South African Stories For Children. Cape Town, Juta.

Lefevere, André (1992) Translation, Rewriting, and the Manipulation of Literary Fame. London, Routledge.

Lefevere, André. (1999) ‘Composing the Other’ in S. Bassnett & Harish Trivedi (eds) Post-Colonial Translation. London, Routledge, pp.75-94.

Lindfors B. (ed.) (1977) Forms of Folklore in Africa: Narrative, Poetic, Gnomic, Dramatic. Austin & London, University of Texas Press.

Msimang, C. (1987) Kwesukasukela. Pretoria, Sigma Press.

Mutahi, Karega (1994) ‘Translation problems in oral literature’, in Bukenya, A, Kabiri, W.,

and Okombo, O. (eds) Understanding Oral Literature. Nairobi, Nairobi University Press, pp.26-35.

Ngcongwane, S.D. (1988) ‘Some serious evaluation of the oral literature in the African languages’, in Sienart, E.R., and Bell, A.N. (eds) Catching Winged Words: Oral Tradition and Education. Durban, Natal University Press, pp.182-190.

Niranjana, T. (1992) Siting Translation: History, Post-Structuralism, and the Colonial Context. Berkeley & Los Angeles, University of California Press.

Poland. Margeurite (1987) [1983] The Wood-ash Stars. Cape Town, David Philip.

Robinson, Doug (1997) Translation and Empire: Postcolonial Theories Explained. Manches- ter, St Jerome Publishing.

Robinson, D. (2001) Who Translates? Translator Subjectivities beyond Reason. Albany, State University of New York Press.

Savory, P. (1974) Bantu Folk Tales from Southern Africa. Cape Town, Howard Timmins.

Scheub, Harold (1971) ‘Translation of African oral narrative-performance to the written word’, in Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature 20: 28-36.

Scheub, Harold (1977) ‘The technique of the expansible image in Xhosa Ntsomi-performances’, in Lindfors, B. (ed.) Forms of Folklore in Africa: Narrative Poetic, Gnomic, Dramatic. Austin & London, University of Texas Press, pp.37-63.

Seed, Jenny (1975) The Bushman's Dream: African Tales of the Creation. London, Hamish

Hamilton.

Soko, B.J. (1986) ‘Translating oral literature into European languages’, in Whitaker, R.A., and Sienaert, E. R. (eds) Oral Tradition and Literacy: Changing Visions of th eWorld. Durban, Natal University Oral Documentation and Research Centre, pp.113-121.

Tötemeyer, Andree-Jeanne (1989) ‘Impact of African mythology on South African juvenile literature’. South African Journal of Library and Information Science 57, 4: 393-401.

Venuti, Lawrence (1992) Rethinking Translation: Discourse, Subjectivity, Ideology. London and New York, Routledge.

Vilakazi, A. (1976) Foreword in du Toit, B. (ed.) Content and Context of Zulu Folk-narratives. Florida, University Presses of Florida. (University of Florida Monographs, Social Sciences; no. 58.), pp ix-xiv.

Whitaker, R.A. & Sienaert E.R. (eds) (1986) Oral Tradition and Literacy: Changing Visions of the World. Durban, Natal University Oral Documentation and Research Centre.

Wolfson, M.O. (2001) [1996]. Marriage of the Rain Goddess: a South African Myth. 2nd ed. Bath, Barefoot Books.

Zipes, Jack (1979) Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales. Austin, University of Texas Press.

Zipes, Jack (1982) Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion: The Classical Genre for Children and the Process of Civilisation. London, Heinemann.

Downloads

Published

2004-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“ What is a South African Folktale? Reshaping Traditional Tales through Translation and Adaptation” (2004) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 14(1), pp. 15–23. doi:10.21153/pecl2004vol14no1art1273.