The adaptation of colonial-era texts for modern African audiences is not merely a linguistic exercise; it is an act of restorative justice. Colonial literature was produced during an era characterized by a profound asymmetry of power. As noted by Walter Rodney (1972), the mechanisms of colonialism ensured that the history of Africa was written almost exclusively by the colonizers.
To understand the scale of this issue, one must look at the archival imbalance. In the early 20th century, the vast majority of published texts available globally regarding Northern Nigeria and the Hausa people were authored by British administrators, missionaries, or travellers. For instance, between 1900 and 1960, the curriculums in colonial schools were dominated by texts that centered European perspectives, while indigenous Ajami manuscripts were often sidelined in formal administration. Consequently, modern Hausa readers are often heirs to a written history that views them through a distorted lens (Said, 1978).
Adapting these texts today requires a “translator-advocate” approach (Tymoczko, 2007). The adapter must navigate the tension between preserving the historical record and preventing the perpetuation of “epistemic violence”—the harm caused by knowledge systems that silence or dehumanise a people.
This article outlines five critical ethical pillars for adapting these texts, ensuring they serve as tools for education rather than instruments of continued subjugation.
1. Restoration of Human Dignity
Colonial literature often utilized the trope of the “noble savage” or the “lazy native” to justify administrative control. In the context of Hausa society, colonial writers frequently mischaracterized the population. For example, early British reports often described the Hausa peasantry as “fatalistic” or “lacking initiative,” a gross misinterpretation of a society with complex agricultural and trade systems that had thrived for centuries (Rodney, 1972).
The Ethical Imperative:
Retaining dehumanizing descriptions without challenge validates the colonial gaze. However, simply deleting them sanitizes history.
Adaptation Strategy:
The adapter should employ reframing. Instead of repeating a slur or a derogatory generalisation as fact, the text should be adjusted to attribute these views to the author explicitly (e.g., “The author perceived the locals as…”). Furthermore, footnotes or sidebars should be used to provide the counter-narrative, citing indigenous efficiency and social structure to restore agency to the subjects of the text.
2. Rejection of Racial and Religious Essentialism
Colonial ideology was heavily reliant on essentialism—the belief that specific racial or religious groups possess inherent, unchanging qualities. In Northern Nigeria, this often manifested in a dualistic bias: a grudging respect for the Fulani aristocracy coupled with a disdain for African religious practices, or the framing of Islam as a barrier to “modernization” (Achebe, 1977).
The Ethical Imperative:
Texts that present Europeans as biologically or morally superior, or that dismiss African cosmologies as “fetishism” or “witchcraft,” constitute hate speech by modern standards.
Adaptation Strategy:
The adapter must practice critical intervention. Statements asserting racial hierarchy should be excised if they do not serve a critical historical purpose. If the text attacks religious beliefs, the adaptation must contextualize these attacks as a failure of the colonial imagination, not a deficiency in the religion itself. The goal is to separate the observation (what happened) from the ideology (how the colonizer judged it).
3. Historical Veracity vs. Colonial Propaganda
Colonial historiography often framed the conquest of the Sokoto Caliphate and the subsequent colonisation as a “pacification” mission that brought order to chaos. This narrative ignores the violence of conquest, the displacement of rulers, and the economic extraction that defined the period (Rodney, 1972).
The Ethical Imperative:
An adaptation that repeats the narrative of “benevolent colonialism” without critique is historically inaccurate. For example, praising the construction of the railway from Lagos to Kano without mentioning that it was built primarily to extract groundnuts and cotton, often using forced labor, is a distortion of truth.
Adaptation Strategy:
The adapter must employ historical expansion. When a text praises a colonial achievement, the adaptation should broaden the lens to include the cost of that achievement to the local population. This provides a “stereoscopic” view of history—seeing the event through both the eyes of the administrator and the eyes of the governed (Venuti, 2012).
4. Paratextual Transparency
Transparency is the bedrock of trust between the adapter and the reader. The audience must understand that they are reading a mediated text. If significant changes—such as the removal of racial slurs or the simplification of language—are made without notification, the adapter risks being accused of censorship or revisionism (Tymoczko, 2007).
The Ethical Imperative:
Readers have a right to know the provenance of the information they are consuming.
Adaptation Strategy:
The work must include a comprehensive Translator’s Preface or Editor’s Note. This section should explicitly state:
- The source of the original text.
- The specific ethical guidelines used for adaptation.
- The nature of the changes made (e.g., “Racial epithets have been removed to align with contemporary standards of dignity”).
This paratextual transparency empowers the reader to engage with the text critically.
5. Linguistic Accessibility and Modernization
Colonial texts are frequently written in archaic, bureaucratic, or Victorian English. For a contemporary Hausa audience, particularly younger readers who may use English as a second language, this density can be alienating.
The Ethical Imperative:
Information is useless if it is inaccessible. However, “dumbing down” the text insults the reader’s intelligence.
Adaptation Strategy:
The adapter should focus on functional equivalence rather than formal correspondence.
- Vocabulary: Replace obsolete terms (e.g., “Mohammedan” with “Muslim,” “native” with “local” or “indigenous”).
- Syntax: Break down convoluted Victorian sentences into clear, active-voice statements.
- Terminology: If a specific Hausa historical term (like Sarkin Dogarai) was mistranslated in the original English (e.g., as “Chief Constable”), the adapter should restore the correct indigenous title.
Conclusion
The adaptation of colonial texts is a form of repatriation—returning the stories of the Hausa people to the Hausa people, cleansed of the distortions of the colonial era. By rigorously applying these ethical considerations—respecting dignity, rejecting bias, ensuring historical depth, maintaining transparency, and enhancing accessibility—we transform these texts. They cease to be monuments to colonial power and become resources for self-knowledge and critical reflection (Boaheng, 2022).
References
Achebe, C. (1977). An image of Africa: Racism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Massachusetts Review, 18(4), 782–794.
Boaheng, I. (2022). Formulating a translation model for postcolonial African literature through the study of selected works. International Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics, 5(1), 86–97.
Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications.
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Pantheon Books.
Tymoczko, M. (2007). Enlarging Translation, Empowering Translators. St. Jerome Publishing.
Venuti, L. (2012). The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation.
This article won the best entry in the Hikaya Monthly Challenge, January, 2026.