Opportunities and Challenges Facing the Profession of Translator in Africa

Abstract

In many African countries, for historical reasons, European languages including English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are used in schools, churches, public and private institutions. Therefore, translation from and into these languages is frequently done during international conferences as well as for international organisations and projects located in the African region. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the opportunities and challenges of this linguistic situation for translators across Africa. So far, translation has played a major role in the progress of humanity and should continue to do so, especially in Africa, a continent that heavily depends on the wealth of knowledge and information available, especially, in English and in a few other languages. History reveals that medicine, which was originally practiced by the Arabs, was introduced through translation into Western universities in the 8th century. Nowadays, thanks to the globalisation process, translations are increasingly done by multinationals into many languages even in Africa.