Final Report Name: Dr. Jeanne Garane, Dept. of Languages
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Final Report Name: Dr. Jeanne Garane, Dept. of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Grant Program: Provost's Humanities Grant Grant Title: 'Native' African Interpreters in/and the French Colonial Archives Amount of Award: $4,525.95 Summary of expenditures and activities Of my award monies, $1962.80 were spent on a round-trip ticket from Columbia, SC with stopovers in Dakar, Senegal, and Paris, France. The summer research trip began on May 3, 2012 and ended on June 10, 2012. The remaining $2563.15 was spent on food, lodging, and travel in Dakar and Paris. May 3-May 30, 2012 I spent approximately one month in Dakar. I became a member of the West African Research Center (WARC) where I was given a small private office where I could write and work on my research. While in Dakar, I revised an essay on indigenous African interpreters entitled, "What is New About Amadou Hampâté Bâ?: Translation, Interpretation, and Literary History," which had previously been accepted for publication and which is now forthcoming in Francophone Cultures and Geographies of Identity Eds. H. Adlai Murdoch and Zsuszanna Faygal, Cambridge Scholars Press. A more developed version of this essay now forms part of chapter one in my book, Literatures that Travel: Translation and the Poetics of Transnational Relation. In fact, Chapter One of my book is entitled "The Invisibility of the African Interpreter: Translation and Trickery in Amadou Hampaté Bâ and Ahmadou Kourouma." This chapter argues that because of his role as an indispensable intermediary who constantly manipulated the imperialist wish for transparency and control, the indigenous interpreter can serve as an ironic model for the agency not only of the intercultural interpreter- translator but also of the postcolonial African writer, who, like the interpreter, often performs a paradoxical balancing act involving personal, national, and international interests. Indeed, a study of the indigenous African interpreter as a historical and figurative entity in certain key works by Amadou Hampâté Bâ(L’Etrange destin de Wangrin, ou les roueries d'un interprète africain [The Fortunes of Wangrin]; Vie et enseignment de Tierno Bokar [A Spirit of Tolerance. The Inspiring Life of Tierno Bokar], and Bâ's memoirs Amkoullel l'enfant peul; Oui mon commandant!), and Ahmadou Kourouma (Monnè, Outrages, et défis [Monew]) is useful because these works each interrogate and revise the conventional image of the interpreter as colonized subaltern, since in these works, the interpreter is never entirely beholden to other Africans nor to the colonizer. While in Dakar, I was able to visit the National Archives of Senegal, the IFAN, the Institut fondamental d'Afrique noire, and a prominent Dakar bookstore. I was also able to speak to a local historian and travel guide regarding the role and importance of indigenous interpreters. I finally came across the personnel file of one important interpreter named Tété Diedhou. Contrary to my expectations that the interpreter would be viewed as a positive if somewhat ambiguous cultural intermediary, this particular interpreter's lawlessness is documented in an original hand-written letter signed by notables from Ziginchor, Senegal and dated 1932. They complain that he "spreads misery and misfortune everywhere. Sometimes he is more lugubrious than death" (My translation. Dossier de Tété Diadhiou. Archives nationales du Sénégal. 1C 14552.) This interpreter also played a major role in the capture and execution of Aline Sitoe Diatta, a 22-year old rebel priestess from Casamance in Southern Senegal who resisted French colonialism. Among Tété Diadhiou's misdeeds, local notables accuse him of plotting against the local chief and setting the colonial administration against him so that his position is revoked. Diédiou is also accused of plotting against another interpreter. Worst of all, he is shown to have kidnapped two married women, one of whom bore one of his children and apparently died while in captivity. In response to these allegations, the colonial authorities undertake an inquest, and when, in punishment for his misdeeds the administration had decided to send him away, Diadhiou revolts and begins to undermine French political authority by fomenting an opposition movement against the administrator himself. In spite of his actions, the French authorities decorated Tété Diadhiou with several medals including that of Chevalier de la légion d'honneur (1946). In 1948, he was given French citizenship, probably for having helped to capture Aline Sitoe Diatta in 1943, and later working with colonial officials in Dakar although the personnel file does not contain any information about this. (See Aline Sitoe Diatta: Addressing Histoircal Silences Through Senegalese Culture. Stanford: Stanford U Press, 1999). Nevertheless, I am currently using these findings to complete my book chapter as well as to write an essay entitled "The Invisibility of the African Interpreter," to be published in a special issue of the prestigious journal, Translation Studies, dedicated to the topic, "Translation and Orality," and guest edited by Paul Bandia, author of the groundbreaking Translation as Reparation. Writing and Translation in Postcolonial Africa. I will also be presenting these findings in a lecture to African Studies Program members in September, 2013. May 30-June 10, 2013 was spent in Paris. My time in Paris was spent in four distinct ways: First, I scoured bookstores famous for their wealth of information on topics dealing with African history and literature (Librairie L'Harmattan, Présence Africaine, and Gibert Jeune) for information on indigenous African interpreters. I was able to locate and purchase a rare and important two-volume work dealing with colonial education in French West Africa and the schools in which interpreters were educated. Second, I visited the French Académie des Sciences d'Outre-Mer, one of the "headquarters" of the French colonial enterprise. I went there seeking more information on indigenous African interpreters. The almost complete lack of information held in their library further confirms the status of indigenous African interpreters as "invisible." The only piece I was able to unearth was a short pamphlet about the life of an indigenous interpreter in Cameroun named Isaac Moumé-Etia. I concluded from this experience that while the French colonial enterprise could not have been successful without them, indigenous interpreters are rarely acknowledged by French colonial authorities. This is why Amadou Hampâté Bâ's work is so important: his memoirs provide some of the only documentation available about these important actors in the French colonial project. While not directly related to indigenous interpreters in West Africa, additional research activities were related to a book that I am currently translating, entitled L'Enfant léopard (Leopard Boy). The University of Virginia Press has accepted this project for publication and is currently in negotiations with the French publisher, Grasset, for a contract deal. Because the book is about the presence of Blacks in 18th century Paris, I visited a number of venues in Paris that are mentioned in the book. In addition, I was able to secure an interview with the author Daniel Picouly. Elements of this interview have been included in an essay that has been accepted for publication. The essay, entitled, "Playing With the Past: How and Why Daniel Picouly Rewrites Chester Himes," will be included in a collective volume dedicated to the idea of "Afropeanness" (what it means to be a person of African or Euro-African descent but residing in Europe). The volume is edited by Dr. Dominc Thomas of UCLA and will be published in 2014 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. In sum, I am thankful that the funds of my award have led to extremely valuable discoveries that I have been able to incorporate in my current research and to publish in respected venues. In the future, I anticipate additional research trips to the National Archives of Mali and to the Fonds Amadou Hampâté Bâ in Ivory Coast since these archives could also be highly beneficial to my research, given that these venues are also reputed to hold a wealth of information about indigenous African interpreters. .