In the first part of the article the author examines the English translation of two Congolese novels, Le pleurer-rire by Henri Lopes (1982) and L'anté-peuple by Sony Lob Tansi (1988), providing a critical assessment of the ways in which the translators deal with the vernacular elements of the novels and of the implications of these strategies; In the second part of the paper, the aim is to discover whether there might be any more positive solutions open to the translator seeking to neutralize or attenuate the negative effects associated with the translation of vernaculars.