The relationship between Masters and Servants has become a literary genre in Western literature, with a tendency on the part of the Masters to grant Servants a language which is not their own (Cervantès, Molière or Shakespeare). Colonial literature reproduces this tradition (H.B.Stowe, Mark Twain, Joyce Cary & Alan Paton). Contrariwise, in some cases, another language is constructed, that of the Noble Warrior (Rider Haggard, John Buchan). In the case of African literature (Wole Soyinka, Ken Saro Wiwa), Servants assume at last a language of their own. Through such examples, one can see the translator is confronted with insuperable difficulties, as in most cases he has to turn into his language a non existent idiom teeming with linguistic stereotypes.