Literary translation, literacy and human development in africa

Writing is a means for the preservation of information. The written literary text, as opposed to the oral, exploits and deploys all the possible resources of a language in order to recount the way of life of a society or people, thereby creating a durable heritage for posterity. Such literary creation, when it is in the indigenous language(s) of a given society is what should be recognized as the national literature(s) of that society or country. The literary texts of the majority of south SaharanAfrican countries are written in the foreign languages that became the official languages of these countries following the colonial experience.These official languages are poorly mastered by the majority of the African population and therefore the texts written in them are not accessible to this majority. Thus, the benefits ofliteratureare lost on them. But these countries possess their various indigenous languages which still serve as popular means of communication for the peoples. We contend that if the existing literary texts in foreign languages are made accessible to the majority of Africans through translation, the impact on it would help to bring about the much needed human development in most countries of the continent. This is due to the perceived usefulness of literature as an instrument of both human and language development. The Development Program of the United Nations is used as a basis for measuring human development.