Traducture in Philanthropy

In this interview, Wangui wa Goro, is a feminist, translator, and academic who has both researched and worked in the world of “development”. She provides an innovative perspective on the translatability of concepts like “philanthropy” and “charity”. In this interview with Akosua Adomako Ampofo, she reflects on gendered, racialized, class-based, and other hierarchies in humanitarianism through tajuk chu/traducture which she defines as deep translation. Key to her perspective is the necessity of a deeper understanding of the lingering mechanisms established by former colonial powers who restructured practices in ways that did not, and still often do not make sense in African contexts. These practices were justified by discourses and terms that frequently do not exist in African societies where African concepts of “philanthropy” are not considered in those wider discourses. Her trenchant questions probe the tensions that become evident in Wangui’s experience of translation in both a wider and a narrower sense of the word. Wangui wa Goro is an Honorary Professor of Translation Practice at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a Visiting Academic at King’s College London. She is the founder of SIDENSI, which promotes translation and traducture. She has worked relentlessly to encourage scholars and others to take translation seriously.