A Study Of The History Of Translation In Democratic Republic Of Congo

Translation has always been playing an important role in human civilization with a great impact on Africans' life.In Africa,translation is deeply involved with religion,especially in the spread of the Bible and the Qur'an.As for foreign affairs,colonization,anti-colonization,international trades,internal and external wars,translation is also particularly irreplaceable.However,research concerning African translation history and its translation practice does not go smoothly due to a lack of systematic literature collection and documentation.On this account,this paper aims to present Congo's translation history based on the development of translation activities,focusing on certain aspects of the translation history of the Bible,and describe the relationship between colonizers and aboriginals in colonial and postcolonial context by examining related translation practices.The religious translation practices in Congo put much emphasis on original text.However,the context in which the translation was produced is also important.The paper tends to explore the variables of translation context and their potential effects by constructing the history of translation in Congo.The paper has six chapters.Chapter 1 introduces the research background in order to clarify the significance of studying Congo's translation history.Chapter 2 summarizes previous research on African translation history and its contributions and limitations.Chapter 3 is the theoretical framework,based on Jakobson's Three Types of Translation,and delivers a historical translation study from the perspective of intralingual translation,interlingual translation,and intersemiotic translation.Based on considerable literature,Chapter 4 aims to construct the translation history of the Democratic Republic of Congo,and stresses the special role of translation practices in colonial period.Chapter 5 introduces the translation and representative work during colonial period,including the translation of the Bible in the Democratic Republic of Congo,and clarifies how translation was processed during that time.In the concluding chapter 6,the writer summarizes this study of the history of translation in Democratic Republic of Congo and presents a thorough review of the whole thesis and some reflections on further academic research.Nowadays,especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo,many people are supposed to deepen and improve their understandings of the translation activities.This paper can provide further information and references for them to understand better the translation history of the Democratic Republic of Congo or even the whole Africa.