(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Doha: The Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding (SHATIU) recently held its fourth virtual symposium for the sixth round of the award under the theme 'The Reality and Prospects of Translation in Nigeria from/to Arabic.
The discussion brought together a number of Nigerian academics and translators. During the symposium, the translator and academic, Dr. Mohamed Awal Omar, spoke about the history of translation in Nigeria, noting that the Hausa language is the dominant language in Northern Nigeria, where majority is of Muslims.
'At the beginning of Islam's entry into the region, Muslim scholars taught Arabic and Islam using Arabic sources, and this led them to translate religious books to make it easier for Muslims to learn the acts of worship, Dr. Mohammed Awal said, adding that a number of specialised Nigerian Muslim scholars appeared and due to the exposure to Arab 40 percent of the Hausa vocabulary is from the Arabic origin.
He pointed out that the impact of the entry of English in the 19th century to the country, education language and system had changed focus from Arabic to English and despite the influence of English, Muslim scholars continued to translate from Arabic to Hausa without receiving institutional support.
For his part, Dr. Yahuza Suleiman Imam, presented 'a statistical reading about the female translators to and from Arabic in the Hausa language, noting that 80 percent of the Arabic translations into Hausa are religious translations of the Holy Qur'an, jurisprudence, interpretations and acts of worship.
He added that according to statistics, 20 percent of the translation works are related to literary, history, and others further saying that this was because most of the translators were religious scholars. In his discussion, translator Saleh Abu Bakr Koura, narrated his personal experience, pointing out that the beginnings of the Nigerian translators (he is one of them), brought up under traditional Qur'anic schools.
Most of the translation works were literal and difficult to call matured translations and were not taking into account the particularity, nature and structure of the Hausa language. Koura explained that he developed his translation skills through intensive readings of distinctive translations, and he presented several examples that showed the need for accuracy during translation taking into account the characteristics of the Arabic and Hausa languages.
Professor Al Khader Abdelbaqi Mohammed talked about 'the obstacles facing translation efforts to and from Arabic in Nigeria. He elaborated, in details, the material and moral obstacles, including insufficient awareness and awareness of self-identity, absence of the intellectual and cultural dimension among entities involved in translation works, and the impact of colonial views on the heritage.
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