The article engages with tendencies in the last decade that has witnessed a growing interest in the identity-forming power of translation. It points to various theoretical and political approaches to how the identities constructed by translation are determined by the dynamics of social and political forces, ranging from ethnicity and race to gender, class and nation. A special emphasis is given to analysing the position of English as lingua franca in its relation to languages of minor circulation: the power it exerts over other languages is weighed up against the intrusions of multilingual diversity upon English. Thiarticle also serves as an introduction to the same-titled special issue of the South African scholarly journal, Current Writing. Although Current Writing is usually concerned with texts and reception in southern Africa, this special issue presents a comparative approach, North/ South, in which both global and local dimensions encompass the recent ‘power turn’ in Translation Studies.