Translation as a Cultural Act: An Africological Analysis of Medew Netcher from a Jamaican Perspective

Abstract

This study provides a foundational framework for Afrocentric translation. Afrocentric translation in which Afrikan languages and their Pan-Afrikan cultural context, transgenerationally and transcontinentally, are central in the interpretation of Afrikan texts (written or oral) and, thus, ensuring that Afrikan people are the subjects in the episteme of the translation process. The two languages of focus in this study are Medew Netcher, the Kemetic language, and the Jamaican language. The basic grammatical features of Medew Netcher will be explained from an Afrocentric perspective through Jamaican translations. More specifically, the analysis shows that the equational juxtaposition system reflects the Afrikan notion of ontological unity, the verbal paradigm is reflective of the Afrikan notion of time, and it also shows how Afrikan existential concepts of existence and knowledge manifest in the grammar of Medew Netcher and Jamaican. In addition, this study includes the first translation of a Kemetic text in an Ebonics language as an exemplar for large-scale Afrocentric translation of a text. Overall, this study provides a foundational framework for the Africological study of Afrikan language.