A critical analysis of the translation strategies used by SM Serudu in his translation of Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom into seSotho sa Leboa

Abstract

This study examines and discovers the translation strategies as employed in the Sesotho sa Leboa translation of Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom was published in 1995 and was translated into Sesotho sa Leboa by S M Serudu in 2001. The Sesotho sa Leboa translation of the life history of Mandela, Leetotelele go ya Tokologong (Long Walk to Freedom) is one of the four completed translations to date that form part of the assignment to translate the original text into the official languages of South Africa. The aim of this study is to investigate the translation strategies used to transfer linguistic and cultural items in the translation of Mandela's autobiography. The study is mainly qualitative and examines the strategies employed by Serudu. For data collection, the source and target texts of Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom as well as the semi-structured face-to-face interviews with four translators into Sesotho sa Leboa, isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans were used. The study is based on the Descriptive Translation Studies Theory, Bassnett and Lefevere's "cultural turn" as well as the domestication and foreignization strategies. In this case, it investigates if Serudu has domesticated and/or foreignized his translation. The findings revealed that Serudu domesticated his translation by using metaphors, similes, personification, euphemism, hyperbole, proverbs, idioms and the use of descriptive words. Foreignization was also found when the translator dealt with the borrowing and loaning of words where most of the concepts were transferred, Sotholised, retained and transferred, as they were, especially culture specific items.