Bona, barometer of the decades.

Khuzwayo, Thokozani

Bona magazine usually receives a bad press in relation to Drum. In the 1950s Drum was seen to be independent of apartheid-State interference; Bona was depicted as subservient to the State's ideology. Drum was regarded as opposing the then prime minister Verwoerd's retribalising policies by depicting the new urban African voice; Bona was seen as less challenging, or defiant, in its city depictions. Such stark oppositions are a simplification. Both magazines turned to what can be summarised as soccer, sex and sin. Political observation was neither the main concern of Bona nor Drum. It is undeniable, nevertheless, that Drum was the bolder magazine. (See Chapman, 1989, for an overview ofthe 'Drum' decade.) What I argue is that Bona--more so than Drum--captured the 'reality' of its decade: the suppressions as well as the fragile opportunities. Bona may be allowed to speak as a barometer of the decades from the 1950s of apartheid, through the 1980s and the 1990s, to us today. I argue, further, that such an analysis may be conducted within the framework of descriptive translation studies (DTS).

Unlike traditional theories of translation, which prescribe what should be done, descriptive translation is concerned primarily with how translations have been done in a practice. Whereas prescriptive approaches are heavily indebted to the linguistic sciences, the DTS model is more attuned to the cultural scene. I am implying congruence, therefore, between the linguistic and the literary pursuit. Two key elements of DTS are omission and substitution: that is, what gets left out, what gets changed. I apply this to the translation from the English-language versions to the isiZulu versions of Bona, a magazine which, like Drum, appears in both English and African languages. The broad argument is that while devices of omission and substitution allowed for kinds of self-censorship, particularly in apartheid times, the strategies adapted themselves to changing political circumstances, signalling what we sometimes wish to ignore in our dealings with Drum: that the weekly or monthly magazine usually was and has remained less innovative, more confirming of, or even conforming to, popular-conservative opinion. (See Baker 1992, for discussions of DTS)

Bona was, and continues to be, read largely by black South Africans. According to a Bona spokesperson the aim of the magazine has always been to "inform, educate and entertain" (Bona 2009). The magazine includes health issues, a few socio-political observations, sports issues, adverts, issues about celebrities, etc. Its readership comprises people of all ages, but the greatest percentage is between the years of 16 and 24. (The rival magazine Move!--published by Media24--aims at an older, more traditional reader.) Bona is a magazine for all people, once mainly for those from rural areas, but now like Drum also surveying the city scene. Published today by the giant media group Caxton, Bona was first published in 1956 in isiZulu. In 1964 the magazine appeared in English and was translated back into isiZulu. It has been a monthly publication with the exception of a particular time in 1976, in which the months of June and July were combined into a single issue: an issue that excluded mention of the June 16 Soweto Uprising where black school children were killed by the police and prominent political leaders were detained. Instead, the June-July issue focused on political events in other African countries: South West Africa (now Namibia), Angola, Mozambique. There was also a focus on events outside of Africa, for example, in Russia. Such 'political' articles, however, were not translated into isiZulu.

To take an example from Bona between 1956 and 1974, a period in which apartheid censorship was predominant: only one article during these years addressed a sensitive socio-political issue, and the article was translated in a superficial manner with important information being distorted. The article in question appeared in the August issue of 1964 and is entitled "African, and Proud of It", which was translated as "Onsundu-futhi ngiyaziqhenya ngakho", back translated by me as "I am an African, and I am proud of it":

'African, and proud of it,' wrote Mr M T Moerane, editor of a Johannesburg African newspaper, and then went on to say, 'We thought things Europeans were doing were intrinsically good, and we strove to assimilate them. We prized the tinsel of white-ism more than the gold of the culture of our own fathers.... That illusion is gone and today we are proud to be Africans.'

The idiomatic "tinsel" and "gold" were omitted, probably wisely so, as such words would have struck the Zulu reader as foreign-derived, even what we might now call Eurocentric in ambition. To go beyond detail, whereas the English version records the observation that Africans are no longer intimidated by European culture, the isiZulu version truncates the gist of Moerane's observation. The following sentence is entirely omitted: "but experience brought them to the realisation that things of their own culture were not inferior but merely different from those of whites." Instead, the reader of the isiZulu text is given a bald declaration: there is no nation that is superior to any other nation. All qualification is omitted; a kind of dumbing down of the argument has occurred. As Kussmaul writes more generally: "By inserting bits here and there in the process of translation, also by leaving out information, the original function of the source text can be modified or completely changed" (1995:71). Such are the dangers of practices of omission and substitution.

1975-1979

This was the period of the Soweto uprising. According to a Bona spokesperson the magazine distanced itself from writing about South African politics (Bona 2009); nevertheless, one finds South African political texts incorporated into certain issues in the magazine. In the May 1976 issue--that is, the issue a month before Soweto--we encounter "From Mine Labour to Big Business". The feature-article in the English-language edition is about a man who has improved his own life: from a mine labourer to a prosperous businessman. The English version reads:

   His incomparable efficiency and enthusiasm in organising won him a
   position with the popular African National Congress Youth League.
   This new position with such a well-organised body was so demanding
   and challenging that Mr Khumalo found it imperative to resign his
   position of full-time organising secretary of the ERMWU. But Mr
   Khumalo had to earn a living, ANC were not paying him for his
   services, and that's when he thought of hawking. Even here, Mr
   Khumalo was elected a member of the Advisory Board of Payneville
   Township. Mr Khumalo was now deeply involved with two organisations,
   ANC Youth League and the Payneville Advisory Board. This doesn't at
   all mean that he had nothing to do with the East Rand Municipal
   Workers Union, he was still there to advise on many issues, though
   not deeply involved. After a year or so, he formed the East Rand
   branch of ASSECA, which he has presided over ever since. 'In 1959
   I opened my first and my only business, a butcher in KwaThema
   Township. The good support I got from the residents was due to my
   popularity in politics,' said Mr Khumalo.

English version

"Mr Khumalo was now deeply involved with two organisations, the ANC Youth League and the Payneville Advisory Board."

isiZulu version

"Kulesi sikhathi uMnz Khumalo wabe engene egamenxe kulezi zinhlangano zombili, eye ZNC Youth League ne-Advisory Board."

Back translation into English

[This time Mr Khumalo was deeply involved in these two organisations, ZNC Youth League and Advisory Board.]

The translator has substituted ZNC for ANC. It is impossible to find the actual translator of this article, but during the period people were presumably afraid to talk about the ANC. The publishers of Bona would have been cautious. As Nelson Mandela said of apartheid times, "[P]eople who mention the name of the ANC were put in jail" (1994: 577). Whenever the translator referred to the position that Mr Khumalo occupied in the ANC, he simply referred to "this position", as in the following sentences:

English version

"But Mr Khumalo had to earn a living; ANC was not paying for services ..."

isiZulu version

"kodwa lesi sikhundla esisha sasingamkhokheli lutho ..."

Back translation into English

[But this new position was not paying anything ...]

Another sentence in the same article reads:

English version

"This new position with such a well-organised body was demanding ..."

isiZulu version

"Lesi sikhundla esisha sadisinga isikhathi sakhe sonke."

Back translation into English

[This new position needed all his time ...]

The phrase, "with such a well-organised body", is omitted, for it is a statement that reveals the positive side of the ANC. According to the apartheid government nothing could be positive about the ANC. People had to believe that the ANC was a terrorist organisation. Self-censorship is a kind of barometer of the times.

As I have said, Bona combined into a single issue the crucial months of June and July 1976. Instead of news of the Soweto uprising readers of the English version received articles on other African countries, especially white-ruled Rhodesia, an article not translated into isiZulu. The article, "Terror Comes to Rhodesia", opens as follows:

   The average African in Rhodesia does not like the minority white
   government. But fears the kind of brutal change being offered by
   terrorists. Terrorists are subverting not only government
   authority, but also that of the traditional tribal chiefs. It is
   interesting that these leaders have been the first to go in Marxist
   Mozambique. Terror--often vicious, most times inhuman and always
   terrifying--has come to Rhodesia.

      Introduced by the newest band of Freedom Fighters operating from
   Marxist Mozambique, the concept of violent intimidation, which has
   resulted one way or another in the deaths of 400 black civilians
   has not yet run its full course. More civilians will die in the
   immediate future, some murdered by black terrorists, others
   tortured by these people to whom barbarity has become a way of
   life. One needs to look at some of these deeds committed by these
   gun-toting 'liberators'.

The 'apartheid' justificatory slant is obvious--terrorists, barbarity issuing from Marxism, subversion of traditional tribal chiefs, etc. Despite the ideological slant the article, as I have said, was not considered to be suitable fare for the isiZulu reader.

Similarly slanted reporting prevailed during the years of the states of emergency in the 1980s. What then after the unbannings of 1990? A new political dispensation is reflected in a change of cultural barometer.

1990-1999

These were the last years of National Party rule; Mandela was released. Political issues in Bona were now translated into isiZulu. Serious omissions were no longer necessary. Minor omissions, additions, substitutions, and paraphrases continued to characterise the translation process, but to a different purpose: no longer self-censorship of political events, but enhancement of African pride. An article in the issue of March 1990 focuses on the release of Nelson Mandela:

   South Africa Enters a New Age

   Sunday, February 11, 1990, was no ordinary day. The previous
   evening State President F W de Klerk had announced that Nelson
   Rolihlahla Mandela would be released from the Victor Verster Prison
   near Paarl on the Sunday afternoon.

      And it truly happened. Press, police and excited members of the
   public gathered expectantly outside the prison gate, waiting to see
   the man whose release the world had demanded. Some of the people
   outside the prison had been there since dawn, others arrived later,
   and all of them spent many hours in the sun, jostling for
   positions--all waiting wanting to be the first to see him. The
   first to spot Nelson Mandela.

      Although he was due to leave the prison at 3pm, Mr Mandela
   actually left an hour later. The expectant crowd passed the time
   singing, chanting 'Viva Mandela!'

      Then, at last the man I had waited for so long to see appeared. He
   walked a short way to the crowd, which surged forward eagerly; Mr
   Mandela then returned to the car which was to take him into Cape
   Town. The car was surrounded by dancing, cheering, jubilant people
   who crowded forward to catch a glimpse of their hero.

      Mandela was free!

      Thousands upon thousands of people crammed into the Grand Parade
   in Cape Town where Mr Mandela addressed them, and the nation, just
   before 8pm.

English version

"South Africa enters a new age."

isiZulu version

"Zishintshile izinto eNingizimu Afrika."

Back translation into English

[Things have changed in South Africa.]

The translator has paraphrased (re-worded) the title. The paraphrase carries more weight; it is more appealing to the target readership.

The isiZulu translation of the following lines from the same article shows minor omissions and substitutions:

English version

"Then, at last the man I had waited for so long to see appeared."

isiZulu version

"Ekugcineni waqhamuka uMnuz Mandela."

Back translation into English

[Eventually Mr Mandela appeared.]

The general word "man" is changed to the specific address, "Mnuz Mandela" (Mr Mandela). The substitution emphasises that the story is not about any ordinary person, but about the respected Mr Mandela.

From the same article:

English version

"Press, police, and excited members of the public gathered expectantly outside the prison gate, waiting to see the man whose release the world has demanded."

isiZulu version

"Kwakucinene utshumo, izintatheli abakwasidlodlo nenqwaba yabantu bonke babebuthene ngaphandle kwamasango asejele belindele ukubona le simanga sendoda umhlaba wonke obufuna ukuba ikhululwe."

Back translation into English

[The straw was full, journalists, police, and a lot of people all gathered outside the prison gates waiting to see this wonderful man the whole world wanted to be released.]

The translator has added the idiomatic isiZulu expression "kwakucinene utshumo" [the straw was full, meaning the place was full], thus repeating in a different way that there were large numbers of people present. The translator has also added the adjective "isimanga" [wonderful], thus lending emphasis to the character portrayal of Nelson Mandela. Whereas the English version is restrained in its descriptions, the isiZulu version pictured a man of wonders.

The translator also added the following piece of text:

isiZulu

"... wayedamane eshaya isaluthi ekanye nomkakhe bebingelela izihlwele zabantu."

Translation

"... he was often waving his hand together with his wife, greeting the multitudes of people."

This additional sentence provides the target isiZulu readership with a picture not only of Mandela the individual, but also of Mandela the family man--an overture perhaps to an African communal ethos.

After Mandela

In 1999 Thabo Mbeki became the second president of a free South Africa. When he took over from Mandela, he recognised the importance of women in leadership roles. Many women now occupy positions in parliamentary structures. An article in the October 1999 issue of Bona looks at women ministers who in the future might become the President of South Africa: "Madam President". The English version states that "some of our current deputies are women to watch"; the isiZulu version has "Nampa abanye babo abangaguqula amatafula babe ngomongameli", the back translation reading, "Here are the others of them who can turn the tables and become presidents". The translator has paraphrased the sentence and added an idiomatic expression, "ukuguqula amatafula" (in English, to turn the tables). He wishes to highlight a possible event--a woman in the highest office--that has never happened before in Zulu history.

Bona 2010

The magazine scene in South Africa today is significantly different from what it was in the 1950s, not only in that journalism is not constrained by politics, but also that the diversity of the society has witnessed a growth of a diverse magazine culture. Drum and Bona occupy overlapping niches: those of an aspiring black middle class (if middle class is defined, sociologically, as those inhabiting households with running water, flushing toilets, and electricity). If the intention of Bona was never political, the magazine is now no different from a kind of international entertainment print-output, in which political events are peripheral to celebrities, fashion, cookery, domestic advice, agony columns, self-help, etc. I take a random example from the year 2010 (January), in which the cover story is "Fabulous Woman, Fabulous Weddings". Minor translation strategies from the English to the isiZulu version reveal no 'ideological' significance in substitution or the use of loanwords: "house-warming" becomes (in isiZulu) "ukuvulwa kwekhaya (home-opening), the idiomatic "warming" being not easily transferable, while English words (e.g. restaurant, microphone, engagement party) remain in English in the isiZulu version, signalling perhaps the increasing internationalisation of African culture.

Here some might fear the loss of indigenous language or tradition (the wedding described in the article is upwardly mobile, flashy, westernised). Others might see here a welcome cultural mobility, the barometer of black South African society in modernity. Whatever the case, Bona offers scope for valuable congruence of linguistic and cultural interpretation.

References

Baker, Mona. 1992. In Other Words. London: Routledge.

Bona spokesperson. 2009. Interview (February).

Chapman, Michael. 1989. The 'Drum' Decade. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

Kussmaul, P. 1995. Training the Translator. Amsterdam: Benjamin.

Mandela, Nelson R. 1994. Long Walk to Freedom. Johannesburg: Macdonald Purnell.