The politics of 'translation' in African postcolonial literature: Olaudah Equiano, Ayi Kwei Armah, Toni Morrison, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tayeb Salih and Leila Aboulela

The essay examines the discourse of African self-rehabilitation and African self-translation by focusing on the politics of translation within African postcolonial literature. It begins by expounding on different aspects of the concept of translation within cultural studies. It then proceeds to elucidate its argument with selected examples from the work of African writers Olaudah Equiano, Ayi Kwei Armah, Toni Morrison, Ama Ata Aidoo, Tayeb Salih and Leila Aboulela. It argues that each of these writers has taken up the ideological responsibility of African reclamation and self-representation by producing narratives and characters that affirm an ongoing desire for African self-reconstruction. It concludes by arguing that the project of African self-translation which is discussed in the work of the selected writers is part of a general discourse of African cultural and political re-presentation, which has been articulated forcibly particularly from the historical moment of African independence.