Challenges of translating folk stories from Runyankore-Rukiga to English Zabajungu Boniface Kerere

242 Pages·2014·1.34 MB·English

Challenges of translating folk stories
from Runyankore-Rukiga to English

BY
Zabajungu Boniface Kerere (Rev. Fr.)
2005/HD03/1634U

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfiment
of the requirements for the award of
the degree of master of arts
in african languages
of Makerere University

JULY 2007
DECLARATION

I, Zabajungu Boniface Kerere, hereby declare that this dissertation
is my original work, which has not been submitted before for any
award of a degree at Makerere or any other University.

Signed .................................................................

ZABAJUNGU BONIFACE KERERE

Date.......................................................................

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APPROVAL

Signed ...............................................................................

ASSOC. PROF. MANUEL J.K. MURANGA
Supervisor
Date……………………………………………………..

Signed...............................................................................

Dr. SUSAN NALUGWA KIGULI
Supervisor

Date.................................................................................

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DEDICATION
To the memory of the late Benedikito Mubangizi, a philologist,
to-date the most profound writer in Runyankore-Rukiga language,
literature and music, though most of his work is still unpublished.

To the loving memory of my late father, Luke Kerere;
and that of my youngest sister, the late Dr. Dona Asiimwe.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I acknowledge with gratitude the guidance of my supervisors, Dr. Manuel Muranga and
Dr. Susan Nalugwa Kiguli. I appreciate the learning I got from the coursework year: in
the areas of phonetics and phonology, morpho-syntax, semantics, lexicology,
pragmatics, translation/interpretation studies and research methods. These were taught
by: Professors Ruth Mukama, Oswald Ndoleriire, Geoffrey Rugege, and by Associate
Professor Manuel Muranga, Doctors Kalema, Kiyingi, Basaalilwa and Mr. Austin
Bukenya. In particular, I thank Professor Ndoleriire for teaching me how to apply
linguistics to Runyakitara; and Dr. Muranga for stimulating my interest in translation
and interpretation. I am grateful to my classmates for their active participation during
seminars and our supplementary study group.
I sincerely thank Mr. and Mrs. Aloysius and Stella Barugahare for offering me
three month‟s residence at their hostel near Makerere University. I am grateful to the
Warden and Chief Custodian of Dag Hammarskjold Hall for the one year I resided
there. I appreciate the residence accorded to me by Mbarara Archdiocesan
Administration House for seven months of the research year. My thanks are due to Mr
James Tumusiime, the Managing Director of Fountain Publishers, for giving me some
part-time to compile and edit Runyankore-Rukiga proverbs and idioms.
My profound gratitude is due to His Grace Paul Bakyenga, Archbishop of
Mbarara for letting me pursue this valuable course of study and for substantially
contributing to its cost. I thank Bishop Lambert Bainomugisha for assisting me to buy a
desktop computer. I am grateful to the administrators of Omuhanda gw‟Okumanya for
giving a substantial financial contribution to the cost of my studies. To the following
friends, I am sincerely grateful for their encouragement and support: Messrs Alphonse
Nkusi and Eusebio Kahooza, the late Dr. Remigius Munyoonyo, to Frs John Baptist
Bashobora, Protase Rutaremwa, Pontiano Betunguura, Charlie Berne, Kennedy Oziga,
Christopher Besigye and Saverinus Ndugwa. In particular, I appreciate the careful
proof-reading of this work by Protase Rutaremwa. I am grateful to the headteachers,
teachers and students of the schools where I tested the translation for this study:
Namirembe Hillside High School in Kampala, Mary Hill High School, St Bridget Girls
High School, St Joseph‟s Vocational Secondary School and Ntare School in Mbarara.

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OF CONTENTS
Eby‟okucondooza oku omu Runyankore-Rukiga omu bugufu
(Executive summary in Runyankore-Rukiga)…………………..……………..xi

CHAPTER ONE
1.1 Background to this study……………………………….….................................1
1.2 Statement of the research problem……………………….…….………….…… 5
1.3 Scope of the study………………………………....…….……...………............ 6
1.4 Definition of key terms……………………………........………......................... 8
1.5. Objectives of the study………………………….……………..………….….. .11
1.6 Major research questions and assumptions……………….…...….....................12
1.7 Review of literature………………………..……………...………………...... .14
1.8 Significance of the study………………………..….......................................... 17
1.9 Theoretical framework of the study………………………………................... 19
1.10 Research methodology……………………………...........……………….…....19
1.12 Conclusion...……………………………………………….…..………..,..……22

CHAPTER TWO
BACKGROUND TO THE FIVE STORIES
2.1 Introduction…………………..………………………………………….……..23
2.2 Summaries of the five stories for this study…………………………..….…….25
2.3 Major themes and related sub-themes …………………..………………......…29
Monogamous marriage…………….….…………………….............................33
Marriage by siege…………..……………….………………………….….…. .34
Marriage by elopement………………………………………………………....34
Widow inheritance……………………………………………………………...35
Polygamy……………………………………………………………………….36
Cultural process leading to marriage………….....………..…………....…........38
Pre-marriage scrutiny……………………….…………………....……….....…38
Significance of courtship visits………………..………...………................…..39
Significance of bridewealth…………....……………..…….……..............……40
Labour instead of bridewealth…………………………….……...………..…...42
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Getting a wife without giving bridewealth………………………..….....……...42
Bridewealth is a social and not an economic exchange……...………….…..…43
Endowing the bride with dowry and giving her away…….......................….....46
Conceptions about a witch doctor‟s role…………………………………….…46

LINGUISTIC & LITERARY CHALLENGES TO TRANSLATION
2.4 Idioms and idiomatic phrases…………………………………………….….…50
2.5 Proverbs and proverbial language………………………...……………...…….51
2.6 Ideophones and onomatopoeia…....................................................................…52
2.7 Names bear meaning………………………………………………………...…53
2.8 Discourse by persons in joking relationships………………….............…….…53
2.9 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...55

CHAPTER THREE
TRANSLATION OF FIVE FOLK STORIES
3.1 Muhuuba and the Monster………………………………………………..……56
3.2 Kaanyonza‟s Daughter…………………………………………………………63
3.3 The Untrapping Trapper………………………………………….………..…...70
3.4 Maguru the Out runner of Rain and Wind…………………………...............…82
3.5 Kaaremeera Son of the Witch Doctor………………………….………………97

CHAPTER FOUR
CHALLENGES OF TRANSLATING LITERTURE
ACROSS CULTURALLY UNRELATED LANGUAGES
WITH REFERENCE THE FIVE STORIES IN THIS STUDY
4.1 Introduction…………………………………………...…………………........120
4.2 Linguistic challenges to translation….…………………..................................121
Challenge of translating Runyankore-Rukiga names…………………...…….121
4.3 The problem of translating gender markers……………………..…………….129
4.4 Challenge of translating idiomatic phrases……………………………………130
4.5 Challenge of translating proverbs and proverbial language………………..…132
4.6 Challenge of translating ideophones and onomatopoeia…………..……...…..153
4.7 Choosing an appropriate narrative tense…………………………………...…138
The today past/historical present tense……………………………………......138
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The far-past plus the today past/historical present………………………..…..139
Another use of the today past/historical present……………………………...142
The event-time plus the habitual present……………………………………...143
The future narrative tense……………………………………………………..143
Mixing tenses………………………………………………………………….145
4.8 Literature should be pleasurable………………………………...…………….146
4.9 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….........158

CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………...148
5.2 Cultural challenges to translation………………………………………….….149
Hard to translate culture-specific expressions………………………………...150
5.3 Language-related challenges to translation………...........................................152
Need for a formal knowledge of the source language………………………...152
Need for a formal knowledge of the receptor language……………………....153
Challenge of translating proverbs and proverbial phrases...........................….154
Challenge of translating ideophones/prosodic expressions…………………...156
5.4 Ending folk stories…………………...……………………………………..…156
A happy ending for a good folk story character……………………..…..……156
A contrived happy ending for a bad folk story character……………..………158
Au unhappy ending for a bad folk story character…………………..………..159

5.5 Appropriate folk story narrative tense…………………………………….......161
The far-past plus the today-past/historical present tense……………………...162
The today past/historical present tense for an event about to happen………...162
The far-past plus the habitual/universal present tense…...................................163
The future narrative tense for what will happen...................………………….164
5.6 Conclusion………………………………………………………………….....164

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5.7 RECOMMENDATIONS
Culture related and need for interdisciplinary study…………………….……165
Language related recommendations………………………………………......165
Promoting writing, translation and dissemination of literature……………….168

REFERENCES………………………………………………………..………...…...170
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Translation testing on students: questionnaire and data……………......176
Appendix B: Questions for interview with language& literature teachers …………...202
Appendix C: List of respondents……………………………………………………...203
Appendix D: Uganda Ministry of Education policy on native language use………....205

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ABSTRACT
Translation requires assessing and interpreting the meaning of a source language text
and expressing the same meaning faithfully and idiomatically in the receptor language.
This study has examined the cultural and linguistic challenges of carrying out literary
translation between two unrelated languages, on the basis of a sample of five folk
stories from Runyankore-Rukiga to English. The former has agglutinating features,
which make it semantically and syntactically versatile through the use of derived
affixes. English uses inflectional grammatical categories, such as tense, case, gender,
number and mood. Where there have been no near equivalents in the receptor language,
descriptive phrases have been used to convey the source text‟s intended meaning. The
“today past/historical present tense, marked with a long vowel, mostly “–aa-/-ee-,” is
popularly used in Runyankore-Rukiga to narrate folk stories. This tense makes the
narrated succession of events seem to be closer and more appealing to listeners and
readers. The English simple past tense, mostly marked by the suffix “-ed,” has been
used to translate the narrative clauses of the source today past/historical present tense.
The challenges encountered have been noted and applicable generic abstractions drawn
out from them. Recommendations have been made towards promoting further literary
translations and disseminating literature. Folk stories and literature in general creatively
deal with themes about human life.
The five folk stories for this study depict the cultural view of the Banyankore
and Bakiga about marriage for promoting, not only the nuclear family, but also the
extended family through collateral kinship. The fifth story seriously challenges the
traditional regard for a witch doctor‟s claimed supernatural power of emandwa, i.e.
idols, and talismans/amulets to provide divination, healing and protection to life; or
negatively to harm a client‟s adversaries. Through oral re-telling, radio and television
broadcasting as well as through publishing of folk stories as books their didactic and
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