While over the years stakeholders such as publishers and academics have taken a keen interest in research into writing and publishing, they have been less concerned about research into indigenous children‟s literature. In this thesis a comprehensive examination of children‟s literature in the indigenous African languages of South Africa and in Zulu in particular, is presented. Qualitative research methods have been applied, using questionnaires and interviews to gain first-hand knowledge of problems and possible solutions to the dearth of original children‟s literature in the indigenous languages. The data obtained in this regard has proved invaluable to the researcher and, hopefully, will be so to others in the future. Oral folktales narrated before the influence of the missionaries qualify as children‟s literature. The transition from the oral performance of these folktales to the reading of written children‟s texts is discussed in detail. This is achieved by considering the milieu, themes, content, functions and values of this children‟s literature. The discussion of imilolozelo (lullabies) and izilandelo/izidlaliso (game songs) presents the genre of children‟s traditional oral poetry as a form of performance based not only on narrative but also on songs and/or chants interspersed with rhythmical movements to relay their message. Zulu school readers as modern literature for children are also examined by tracing their background and the development of original Zulu children‟s written literature since it was first recorded by the missionaries. Contents and themes of these early readers, dating from the 1800s, are examined and compared with a series of graded readers published in 1962 by C.L.S. Nyembezi. The sixth chapter of the thesis investigates Zulu children‟s picture books as contemporary literature. Various types of picture books and their functions are discussed. Research findings point to an urgent need for the training of African authors in the writing of age-appropriate books in indigenous African languages. Lastly, the study proves that it is feasible to regard traditional oral and modern indigenous texts as children‟s literature. / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

While over the years stakeholders such as publishers and academics have taken a keen interest in research into writing and publishing, they have been less concerned about research into indigenous children‟s literature. In this thesis a comprehensive examination of children‟s literature in the indigenous African languages of South Africa and in Zulu in particular, is presented. Qualitative research methods have been applied, using questionnaires and interviews to gain first-hand knowledge of problems and possible solutions to the dearth of original children‟s literature in the indigenous languages. The data obtained in this regard has proved invaluable to the researcher and, hopefully, will be so to others in the future. Oral folktales narrated before the influence of the missionaries qualify as children‟s literature. The transition from the oral performance of these folktales to the reading of written children‟s texts is discussed in detail. This is achieved by considering the milieu, themes, content, functions and values of this children‟s literature. The discussion of imilolozelo (lullabies) and izilandelo/izidlaliso (game songs) presents the genre of children‟s traditional oral poetry as a form of performance based not only on narrative but also on songs and/or chants interspersed with rhythmical movements to relay their message. Zulu school readers as modern literature for children are also examined by tracing their background and the development of original Zulu children‟s written literature since it was first recorded by the missionaries. Contents and themes of these early readers, dating from the 1800s, are examined and compared with a series of graded readers published in 1962 by C.L.S. Nyembezi. The sixth chapter of the thesis investigates Zulu children‟s picture books as contemporary literature. Various types of picture books and their functions are discussed. Research findings point to an urgent need for the training of African authors in the writing of age-appropriate books in indigenous African languages. Lastly, the study proves that it is feasible to regard traditional oral and modern indigenous texts as children‟s literature. / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar ao leitor brasileiro a tradução do romance Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), de Alain Mabanckou. Para chegarmos à tradução, fez-se necessário entender alguns elementos centrais de sua poética e da estrutura narrativa do romance, assim como sua trajetória de vida e obra. Para tanto, discorremos, num primeiro momento, sobre sua visão de mundo e sobre as principais dimensões de sua poética, relacionando-os, sobretudo, ao pensamento rizomático proposto por Édouard Glissant. Em seguida, analisamos o romance em questão atentando para elementos macroestruturais, relacionados à literatura oral tradicional de algumas sociedades africanas de expressão francesa, nos baseando, majoritariamente, nos estudos feitos por Jacques Chevrier, e em elementos microestruturais, concernentes ao uso de repetições, paralelismos, interjeições, léxico africano, provérbios, responsáveis por criar o que Mabanckou chama de ritmo congolês da narrativa. Por fim, destinamos o terceiro capítulo à discussão tradutória, no qual apresentamos nosso projeto de tradução, baseado na abordagem de viés não etnocêntrico proposta, entre outros, por Antoine Berman; e nossa concepção sobre as notas de tradução, levando em consideração, primordialmente, o pensamento de Ana Cristina Cesar em relação ao ritmo na prosa. Apresentamos as notas de tradução divididas em dois blocos, o semântico e o sintático, ambos em diálogo com o que entendemos ser o ritmo da narrativa. A tradução completa é vista no anexo. / The aim of this work is to present to the Brazilian public the translation of Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), a novel by Alain Mabanckou. In order to arrive at the translation, it seemed necessary to have a more in-depth understanding of some of the central elements of the poetic and narrative structure of the novel, as well as the authors life and work. Therefore, we at first discuss his worldview and the main dimensions of his poetics; relating them, especially, to the concept of rhizome proposed by philosopher Édouard Glissant. Then, we analyze the novel in question, with attention to the macrostructural elements related to traditional oral literature in some African societies of French expression, drawing mainly on studies by Jacques Chevrier, as well as microstructural elements concerning the use of repetitions, parallelisms, interjections, African vocabulary and proverbs, responsible for creating the Congolese rhythm of the narrative. Finally, the third chapter discusses the translation and presents the translation project, drawing upon the non-ethnocentric approach proposed, among others, by Antoine Berman, and our conception of the translation notes, taking into account primarily the thoughts of Ana Cristina Cesar regarding rhythm in prose. The translation notes are divided into two blocks, semantic and syntactic, which are both in dialogue with what we understand to be the rhythm of the narrative. The full translation is located in the Annex.

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar ao leitor brasileiro a tradução do romance Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), de Alain Mabanckou. Para chegarmos à tradução, fez-se necessário entender alguns elementos centrais de sua poética e da estrutura narrativa do romance, assim como sua trajetória de vida e obra. Para tanto, discorremos, num primeiro momento, sobre sua visão de mundo e sobre as principais dimensões de sua poética, relacionando-os, sobretudo, ao pensamento rizomático proposto por Édouard Glissant. Em seguida, analisamos o romance em questão atentando para elementos macroestruturais, relacionados à literatura oral tradicional de algumas sociedades africanas de expressão francesa, nos baseando, majoritariamente, nos estudos feitos por Jacques Chevrier, e em elementos microestruturais, concernentes ao uso de repetições, paralelismos, interjeições, léxico africano, provérbios, responsáveis por criar o que Mabanckou chama de ritmo congolês da narrativa. Por fim, destinamos o terceiro capítulo à discussão tradutória, no qual apresentamos nosso projeto de tradução, baseado na abordagem de viés não etnocêntrico proposta, entre outros, por Antoine Berman; e nossa concepção sobre as notas de tradução, levando em consideração, primordialmente, o pensamento de Ana Cristina Cesar em relação ao ritmo na prosa. Apresentamos as notas de tradução divididas em dois blocos, o semântico e o sintático, ambos em diálogo com o que entendemos ser o ritmo da narrativa. A tradução completa é vista no anexo. / The aim of this work is to present to the Brazilian public the translation of Mémoires de porc-épic (2006), a novel by Alain Mabanckou. In order to arrive at the translation, it seemed necessary to have a more in-depth understanding of some of the central elements of the poetic and narrative structure of the novel, as well as the authors life and work. Therefore, we at first discuss his worldview and the main dimensions of his poetics; relating them, especially, to the concept of rhizome proposed by philosopher Édouard Glissant. Then, we analyze the novel in question, with attention to the macrostructural elements related to traditional oral literature in some African societies of French expression, drawing mainly on studies by Jacques Chevrier, as well as microstructural elements concerning the use of repetitions, parallelisms, interjections, African vocabulary and proverbs, responsible for creating the Congolese rhythm of the narrative. Finally, the third chapter discusses the translation and presents the translation project, drawing upon the non-ethnocentric approach proposed, among others, by Antoine Berman, and our conception of the translation notes, taking into account primarily the thoughts of Ana Cristina Cesar regarding rhythm in prose. The translation notes are divided into two blocks, semantic and syntactic, which are both in dialogue with what we understand to be the rhythm of the narrative. The full translation is located in the Annex.