Intimate Enemies: Translation in Francophone Contexts Edited by Kathryn Batchelor and Claire Bisdorff (review)

This volume focuses on the question of postcolonial translation, especially the relationship between author, text, and translator, notably the (in)visible nature of translating postcolonial literary texts. Moradewun Adejunmobi considers how literary translations might advance linguistic diversity in Africa and calls for publications to be made in more than one language, including an African vernacular. Peter Hawkins surveys literary production in the Indian Ocean and notes the significance of both bilingual and parallel editions of texts where the texts vary (sometimes strikingly) between languages. Ruth Bush provides a case study of Cheikh Hamidou Kane’s L’Aventure ambiguëin order to explore the relationship between anglophone and francophone African publishing, focusing on translations by five different publishing houses. Taking Patrice Lumumba as her subject, Audrey Small grapples with the challenges of translation in reaching an accurate historical record, concentrating on notably different translations of Aimé Césaire’s play Une saison au Congo. In conversation with her translator-husband Richard Philcox, Maryse Condé argues that the translations of her novels are more a product of the translator than the author, but they both agree that translation is a necessary evil. Kathryn Batchelor then interviews Véronique Tadjo, who picks up the theme of the need for more translations between African languages, and emphasizes the positive possibilities that translations provide in terms of creating a new text. Marjolijn de Jager addresses those interested in translation and confirms that she perceives translation as political activism. Julia Waters’s conversation with author and translator Ananda Devi highlights Devi’s attitudes to the languages in which she writes; while French has, to her mind, a poetic potential, the Creoles convey concepts and images. Kathleen Gyseels and Christine Pagnoulle provide a close analysis of their translating of Léon-Gontran Damas’s Black-Labeland discuss the challenges faced in conveying non-standard French in translation, and in the reproduction of the unconventional layout. Christine Raguet outlines the difficulties in promoting what she calls the ‘creative Creolization’ (p. 155) of Olive Senior’s Balladinto French. Carol Gilogley extends her critique of Linda Coverdale’s 1994 translation of Patrick Chamoiseau’s Au temps de l’antanto target trends in translation more widely, drawing the reader’s attention to the ‘domesticating, standardizing tendencies’ (p. 169) that translation can impose. Claire Bisdorff critiques a handful of translations of Édouard Glissant’s poetry and fiction, concluding that the act of translation both perpetuates his creativity and invites a rethinking of the author’s work. Batchelor explores intertextuality as translated from Alain Mabanckou’s writings, in particular Verre cassé, highlighting the erasure of African allusions in translations of the novel. Waters returns to Devi’s role as a transcolonial translator and argues that Devi’s identity and background permit her both to foreignize and domesticate her translation of David Dabydeen’s The Counting House. Paul F. Banda closes the volume with a discussion of literary heteroglossia in postcolonial Africa, with particular emphasis on humour, power relations, and social class. Broad in geographical coverage, this volume offers the reader a succinct consideration of trends in postcolonial translation while highlighting the tensions in this field.