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In:Translation Studies between Disciplines and Practices
Edited by Luc van Doorslaer and Yves Gambier
[Benjamins Translation Library 174] 2026
► pp. 46–68

Chapter 3
African studies and translation studies

Bordering and language-related human differentiation

 | Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
 | Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
African studies and translation studies both revolve around language and language-related practices as objects of study, but from two very different perspectives, with different methodologies and research histories. This chapter seeks to discuss each discipline’s approach to translation in the form of a transdisciplinary dialogue between African studies and translation studies. It suggests that to build the grounds for mutual understanding and exchange between the two disciplines it is necessary to go back to preconceived notions which have been effective both in conceptualizations of translation and research methods scrutinizing translational phenomena. For this purpose, the chapter concentrates on notions of language, more specifically language boundaries which prove to be constitutive in most conceptualizations of translation. For this it discusses concepts of border, bordering, and border thinking and suggests to switch the perspective from language to the people and their categorization as speakers of a given language. To focus on the self-assignment and external assignment of speakers to “their languages”, thus on the processes and agents involved in a constant negotiation of language boundaries, the paper introduces the concept of language-related human differentiation. At the same time, the negotiation process itself is conceptualized as translational, which implies that translation is constitutive of language boundaries both in theory and in practice. The discussion draws on field work conducted in two research projects in African studies and translation studies respectively.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.On translation and language(s)
  • 3.Conceptualizing borders across the disciplines
  • 4.Empirical insights: Language-related human differentiation in two research contexts
    • 4.1Insights into empirical data: African studies
    • 4.2Empirical insights from translation studies
  • 5.Concluding remarks
  • Author queries
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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