Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in Xitsonga: Translation, Transculturation and Transformation

Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into various languages around the world and have become a part of global literary and theatrical culture. South Africa, with its rich history of cultural and political struggle, has had a particularly interesting relationship with Shakespeare’s works in translation. In this article, we review the literature on the translation of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar into the Xitsonga language. We identify patterns in the translation, point out problems thereof and link translation work to transformation efforts. While the dominant view is that the translation of Shakespeare’s plays into African languages participates in the colonial projects of cultural appropriation, exploitation and domination, we argue in this article that such translation can also engender a process of transculturation in literary texts and the transformation of the field of African language literature in South Africa.