Translation as a purveyor of the Igbo worldview: The Igbo oral artiste

Abstract

This paper is centered on translation as a purveyor of the Igbo worldview through the Igbo oral artiste and the extent to which the  people‟s worldview through his songs in music is disseminated to non-Igbo speaking regions in the world. The researchers of this work  are bewildered by the fact that the society has not yet realized the benefits derivable from the Igbo Oral Artiste as music makers. This is  because in the past, the oral artistes and musicians in general had been regarded as mere entertainers of people with music. The music- maker was seen by some people (in the society) as a foolish, lazy, useless person and a never-do-well in the society. To such misfortune  people, musicians have no meaningful or positive contribution to the society they live and beyond. This paper sets out in the academic circle, to counter the above stated negative thought or view about music and musicians, as it portrays the Igbo Oral Artiste as one  endowed with wisdom which he endeavours to share with others through music art. It is against this backdrop that this work has been  proposed to further add newer impetus to how translation can aid in the transmission of Igbo oral literature out of its immediate  environment. The main objective of this work is to show how the Igbo oral artiste worldview can be extended beyond the Igbo world  through songs, translated into the French language with the help of the theory in translation. For the purpose of this work, one of “Show Promoter‟s songs (The Igbo Oral Artiste), “Ihe Akpụ hụrụ zaa Gari” has been selected, translated and analyzed from Igbo to French  Language. The conclusion showed that, the Igbo worldview portrayed by the Igbo Oral Artiste could to a larger extent; establish the fact  that the Igbo Oral Artiste has a message, information and something significant to put across to his audience beyond the Igboland.  Findings in translation studies have shown that, translation could serve as a purveyor of the Igbo worldview through songs of the Igbo  Oral Artistes.