Understanding the process and the dynamics involved in news translation, as well as the challenges news translators face in my country of origin - The Gambia- has been a long-held goal, considering my background and experience as a former bilingual editor for Kuwait Oil Company and a senior news translator for Al-Watan Daily in Kuwait. The quest to unravel the enigmas surrounding news translation practices has always been a subject of great interest to me. With the intent of proffering pragmatic solutions to the attendant challenges of news translation in the Gambia, my focus is on providing well-researched recommendations. The study specifically seeks to answer questions regarding news translation processes and practices and how they have evolved over time in the Gambia. Furthermore, this study sheds light on the manifold professional and technical obstacles that confront news translators in the Gambia as they endeavour to render news content originally produced in English into Mandinka, which is one of the prominent Indigenous languages. It also delves into the broader linguistic landscape in the Gambia and other colonized territories from an indigenous perspective. Colonialism looms large over my study, considering the fact that news is translated from English, a minority colonial language imposed on the majority speakers of indigenous languages. The legacy of colonialism still lingers, with the news still being read in English first before it gets rendered in indigenous languages.
Using qualitative methodology, my research explores the evolution and importance of news translation in the Gambia and the underlying factors behind the professional and technical challenges that Gambia’s news translators continue to wrestle with. Dowling, Lloyd, and Suchet-Pearson (2016) posit that this methodology is employed to comprehend the spatialities, interpretations, and experiences of social life. The undertaken field study has availed me of the opportunity to have a deeper understanding of some of those challenges and come up with recommendations that might hopefully address them, including language planning, the development of a monolingual Mandinka dictionary, translator training, the development of unique Mandinka writing systems, among others.
My research participants were enthused to participate in the study, affirming that it was the first time ever a researcher approached them to have an idea about the dynamics of their work and include their findings in a thesis—an assertion that sustained the momentum throughout the journey.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/45866 |
| Date | 19 January 2024 |
| Creators | Drammeh, Basidia |
| Contributors | Basalamah, Salah |
| Publisher | Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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