Dakar, September 30 (APS) – The president of the Senegalese Translation Association (ASTRA), Daouda Gassama, hoped, Monday, in Dakar, the development of a bill establishing the status of the translator in Senegal, in the aim of regulating this profession and putting its actors in good working conditions.
”The profession of translator has no status. It’s a legal vacuum,” said Mr. Gassama, inviting the Senegalese state to provide the translator with a status allowing him to enjoy the ”consideration” that he requires.
He participated in the celebration, under the aegis of ASTRA, of International Translation Day, on the theme: ”Translating, an entire art to be protected”.
September 30, a day dedicated to translation, is an opportunity to “celebrate an ancient art, but more essential than ever”, an art which, “through the centuries, has been a bridge between cultures, languages and peoples”, underlined Daouda Gassama.
Translation makes it possible to ”transmit ideas, values and knowledge, beyond geographical and linguistic borders,” said Mr. Gassama.
”With the rise of technology and artificial intelligence, automatic translation has taken an important place,” he noted.
Even if ”these tools are undeniably useful”, they cannot ”replace human expertise, which is capable of grasping the cultural nuances, the puns and the emotion underlying a text, which makes of translation an art, and of the translator an artist of languages”, analyzed the president of ASTRA.
”This art deserves to be protected, because human translation remains irreplaceable,” he argued.
Mr. Gassama is of the opinion that, for the survival of their profession, ”literary translators, technical translators and translators specializing in local languages must speak with one voice”.
”As for the State, it has the duty to recruit qualified translators and not just resort to independent translators or linguists who have not learned translation,” he added, recalling that the State of Senegal has not recruited translators since the 1990s.
The State must also ensure the quality of training in its higher education institutes and have training programs certified by ANAQ-Sup, the National Quality Assurance Authority for Higher Education, research and innovation.
”He must also [créer] professional translator positions in certain institutions, at the Ministry responsible for Cooperation, diplomatic representations, and above all strengthening the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which takes care of almost all institutional and official translation requests,” he added.
MK/ASG/ESF
