Ideology in the English translation of isiZulu praise poems

Abstract

James Stuart, who collected and transcribed 258 isiZulu praise poems, demonstrated the significance of reducing isiZulu oral art such as praise poems to writing. Daniel Malcolm who translated them into English made their accessibility to the rest of the world possible. Later, Trevor Cope selected 26 from the 258 poems with their isiZulu versions, which he edited, annotated and published. The purpose of the present study is to explore the reflection of Trevor Cope’s ideology in his selection, which he entitled Izibongo – Zulu praise-poems, by using mainly paratextual elements. The exploration of extratexts is an attempt to link selected items to Cope’s ideology, which reveal conformity to the dominant ideology of the time.