海角大神

When Zimbabwean novelist Petina Gappah first read George Orwell鈥檚 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥� as a lonely 13-year-old at boarding school, she was transfixed. The story of a group of animals who overthrow an unjust regime only to be betrayed by their leader 鈥渕ade me sob,鈥� she remembers.聽

Years later, she revisited the novel as a university student and learned that the book had been written as an allegory for the Russian Revolution. 鈥淚 respected it on a new level,鈥� she says.

But it was only when she read the book a third time many years later, with her teenage son, that she realized that the book鈥檚 cycles of revolution and betrayal were 鈥渟uch a Zimbabwean story.鈥� That thought prompted another: The book should be translated into Shona 鈥� one of Zimbabwe鈥檚 dominant languages.聽

Over the next several years, Ms. Gappah and Tinashe Muchuri, a poet, led a team of Zimbabwean writers to transform 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥� into 鈥淐himurenga Chemhuka鈥� 鈥� literally, 鈥淎nimal Revolution鈥� 鈥� which was published earlier this year. The goal, they say, is to reach a new generation of Zimbabwean readers with the classic story, but also to upend the way African languages are often seen in literature.聽

鈥淛apan developed in Japanese. China developed in Chinese. But there鈥檚 a dissonance in Zimbabwe 鈥� and a lot of other African countries 鈥� where we feel English is the language of modernity and our mother tongue is the language of the ancestors,鈥� Ms. Gappah says. 鈥淲e wanted to show that you can read the classics in Shona, and nothing is lost because this is a modern language too.鈥澛�

This is far from the first foreign work of literature to be translated into Shona, of course. When Zimbabwe achieved independence from its brutal white-minority government in 1980, its writers clamored to join 鈥渢he pan-African intellectual circuit,鈥� says Tinashe Mushakavanhu, a scholar of African and comparative literature at the University of Oxford.聽

Encouraged by their bookish new head of state, a schoolteacher-turned-revolutionary named Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwean writers began translating works of African literature 鈥� like Kenyan writer Ng农g末 wa Thiong鈥檕鈥檚 鈥淎 Grain of Wheat鈥� 鈥� into Shona. 鈥淭hese translation projects were part of a much bigger political project鈥� to open Zimbabwe to the world, Dr. Mushakavanhu says. 鈥淚t was a way of collapsing borders.鈥澛�

But as Mr. Mugabe鈥檚 politics 鈥� like those of porcine dictator Napoleon in 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥� 鈥� grew increasingly paranoid and parochial, the country鈥檚 literary space shriveled. Although not specifically harassed and imprisoned in the same way as journalists, fiction writers also fell victim to the country鈥檚 increasing isolation 鈥� and economic collapse 鈥� in the 1990s and early 2000s. By the time Mr. Mugabe entered his third decade in power at the turn of the 21st century, most major Zimbabwean writers were publishing 鈥� and often living 鈥� outside the country.聽

Among them was Ms. Gappah, who was working as a lawyer in Geneva when she published her first collection of short stories, 鈥淎n Elegy for Easterly鈥澛�(which was later shortlisted, fittingly, for the Orwell Prize).聽

In 2015, she dashed off a post on Facebook about her idea to translate 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥� into Shona.聽

鈥淎 group of friends and I thought it would be fun to bring the novel to new readers in all the languages spoken in Zimbabwe,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淭his is important to us because Zimbabwe has been isolated so much in recent years, and translation is one way to bring other cultures and peoples closer to your own.鈥�

Two dozen writers put their hands up, and the group began experimenting. But ultimately, it was Ms. Gappah and Mr. Muchuri, who writes in Shona, who took over the project.聽

The translation appealed to him, Mr. Muchuri says, because Orwell鈥檚 brand of allegory had so many parallels in Zimbabwean storytelling.聽

鈥淥ur culture often uses animals to tell stories about people and society,鈥� he says. One modern example is writer NoViolet Bulawayo鈥檚 2022 novel 鈥淕lory,鈥� an 鈥淎nimal Farm鈥�-inspired satire about the fall of a dictator named Old Horse 鈥� an equine stand-in for Mr. Mugabe. The novel was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.聽

To give 鈥淐himurenga Chemhuka鈥� its own Zimbabwean flair, the translators made creative use of Shona dialects. While the book鈥檚 text was narrated in a standard form of the language, the characters have different regional accents.聽

Old Major, the boar whose stirring speech inspires the animals of the farm to rebel against their human master, speaks in Karanga, the same dialect as Zimbabwe鈥檚 current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa.聽

Squealer, the spin doctor who serves as Napoleon鈥檚 propaganda minister, speaks a form of Shona from eastern Zimbabwe that is flecked with English terms, 鈥渂ecause this character loves fancy words and spinning stories,鈥� Ms. Gappah says. The sheep, meanwhile, speak in slang.聽

The result, says Dr. Mushakavanhu, is a translation that draws out the book鈥檚 dark comedy.聽

鈥淥ne of the results of the closing of Zimbabwe in the last 25 years is that our writers have been forced to become political, to always explain the evils of our political system,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e lost that space to be playful in language and find humor.鈥澛�

Now that 鈥淐himurenga Chemhuka鈥� is finished, Mr. Muchuri says the writers are turning their attention to other translations that will be equally relevant for Zimbabweans.聽

鈥淧eople learn better in their own language, and we want people to know that there is nothing lost or missing when they read in Shona,鈥� he says.聽鈥淣ext, we would like to do 鈥楯ulius Caesar.鈥欌�澛犅�