This Kikuyu Story Could Just Be The Most Translated African Short Story

A Kikuyu fable story now holds the record of being the most translated African short story.

The short story written by Kenya’s most celebrated author Ngugi Wa Thiong’o is the first in Jalada Africa’s new series of translating African works. It is titled Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ: Kana Kĩrĩa Gĩtũmaga Andũ Mathiĩ, meaning The Upright Revolution OR Why Humans Walk Upright.

Ituĩka Rĩa Mũrũngarũ is a previously unreleased fable by the revered scholar and author and serves as Jalada Africa’s Translation Issue: Volume 1. It is a vast body of collaborative work by professional and amateur translators plus language enthusiasts from 14 African countries.

The story is available at www.jalada.org in Kikuyu, Ahmharic, Dholuo, Kikamba, Lwisukha-Lwidakho, Ikinyarwada, Arabic, Luganda, Kiswahili, Afrikaans, Hausa, Meru, Lingala, IsiZulu, Igbo, Ibibio, Somali, isiNdebele, XiTsonga, Nandi, Rukiga, Lugbarati, Shona, Lubukusu, Kimaragoli, Giriama, Sheng, Ewe, Naija Languej, Marakwet plus French and English.

The aim of this unique four-month-long project was to generate renewed interest in publishing in local languages and increase access to locally relevant content. It comes hot on the heels of Jalada Africa’s September 2015 anthology, The Language Issue, which celebrates language through fiction, poetry, spoken word, visual art and essays, in 23 African languages as well as English, French, Polish and Mandarin.