By Edith Mutethya in Nairobi, Kenya | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2024-08-11 18:29
A Chinese institute is collaborating with a Kenyan publishing house to translate a number of Kenyan literary works into Chinese, a major contribution to cultural exchange and mutual understanding between the two countries.
The Foreign Literature Research Center of Shanghai Normal University aims to collaborate with the Kenya Literature Bureau to translate famous Kenyan literary works into English, thereby enabling the Chinese community to gain a deeper understanding of Kenya’s rich cultural and literary heritage.
The cooperation will also focus on the translation of representative works of Kenyan English literary studies, the translation of the latest research results of Chinese African literary studies, and mutual visits for the purpose of literary and cultural exchange and mutual learning.
Both parties hope that through the cooperation, Chinese literature will also be translated into English and Kiswahili in the near future so that Kenyans can learn more about Chinese civilization.
Kenneth Jumba, publishing director at the Kenya Literature Bureau, thanked them for their cooperation and pointed out that this would bring Kenyan authors and culture closer to the Far East.
He said that making Kenyan literature available to the Chinese market and vice versa, as well as teaching Chinese language and culture through Confucius Institutes in Kenyan universities and schools, would promote understanding between the people of both countries and thus strengthen trade cooperation.
“For the Kenya Literature Bureau, this partnership opens up the opportunity to offer our books on the global market and promote cultural exchange,” said Jumba.
Zhu Zhenwu, director of the Foreign Literature Research Center at Shanghai Normal University, said Kenya is recognized as a major nation contributing to English-language literature.
He said his institution had published a ten-volume series of Studies on African Literature, the first major national project on African literature entitled “History of African-English Literature” in China, supported by the National Publishing Fund.
While the series focuses on English-language literature, it also includes literature in French, Portuguese and Arabic.
It divides African literature into four regions: South African literature, West African literature, Central African literature, and East and North African literature, which in turn are divided into “classical” and “selected” sections.
The two literary fields complement each other and seek to restore the original face of African literature to enable readers and researchers in different countries to have a more comprehensive understanding and study of African literature.
The study of African English literature fundamentally examines the impact of colonization on the development of modern African nations.
It deals with intellectual debates about the thematic and artistic representation as well as the theoretical critique of specific African literary works.
It presents the current state of theoretical engagement with Chinese research on African literature in English and offers a deep understanding of the clash and fusion between traditional African and Western culture.
“The Chinese know some of the African literature. We cannot compare it with the literature in the US and Britain. That is why I have been working on it for years,” he said.
Zhu said his institution’s intention is to rewrite the history of literature on the African continent to promote civilization between countries and peoples.
“World literature is essentially the literature written by Western scholars – from the US, Britain, Germany, France and Japan. African literature is largely excluded from this. Africa has a wealth of literature, but most Western scholars ignore it,” he said, adding that they plan to write the literary history of every African country.
