Kopano Matlwa’s award-winning, internationally published and globally translated Coconut is now available in isiZulu for preorder as Umlungu Omnyama, translated by Dr Celimpilo Dladla.
Ofilwe and Fikile’s story is ready to connect with both new and returning readers through South Africa’s most widely spoken African language. The protagonists’ complex struggle to reconcile their different backgrounds, traditions and heritages with Western influences gains new layers of interpretation and significance thanks to this translation.
Reading this story in isiZulu offers readers a deeper emotional and cultural connection to a novel that explicitly confronts the contradictions of its characters’ identities. African languages are worthy of prizewinning, contemporary storytelling – as this translation affirms. Dr Dladla’s highly sophisticated translation work is credit to the craft; a creative, expressive, deeply idiomatic translation of an equally creative, expressive, deeply idiomatic novel.
PRAISE FOR UMLUNGU OMNYAMA
'The translation of Kopano Matlwa's book, Coconut into isiZulu is an incredible effort to repatriate literature written by African authors to their languages. It is an act of empowering indigenous languages with popular literature reflecting out times. It is also an act of ukuzilanda (fetching ourselves), a political act of resisting erasure of indigenous languages.' – Dr Xolisa Guzula, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Studies, University of Cape Town
‘Siwushayela elikhulu ihlombe umsebenzi owenziwe wokuyihumushela esiZulwini indaba esihloko sithi Coconut. Silokhu sikhona isikhalo sokuthi ubucikomazwi obuningi bababhali baseNingizimu Afrika obusezingeni lezincwadi ezingasoze zabuna bugcina baziwa kakhulu kwamanye amazwe kunakuleli ngoba buhunyushelwe ezilimini eziningi zalawo mazwe. Noma kuvela miphi imibono ngoMlungu Omnyama, sikholwa ukuthi uyoliphonsa itshe esivavane sezincwadi ngezilimi zomdabu eNingizimu Afrika. Sethemba ukuthi uyobuye elanywe ngezinye ezifana naye.’ – Professor DBZ Bhekinkosi Ntuli, prominent South African author and translator
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