Translation and colonization in the early modern Antilles

Translation practices were a part of life in the early modern French Caribbean colonies. In directing labour, maintaining order, or attempting conversion, the region’s settlers, militia and missionaries regularly participated in translation events involving West African and Amerindian populations. While translation was frequently shaped by situational contexts, certain forms were also structured by methodologies brought to the colonies. These ranged from the techniques for governance described in planters’ texts, to the proselytizing strategies of missionary organizations, and might be complemented by recourse to artefacts and images. Such translation strategies inspired analyses of the linguistic capacities of non-Europeans, as well as recognition that the use of language in the colonies implied the encounter of radically differing epistemologies.

In this seminar I discuss the techniques French colonial populations used to translate for Amerindian and enslaved African populations. Such techniques are instructive about the conceptualization of ‘Créole’ linguistic environments; in the challenges they faced, they are also telling about wider anxieties concerning the diffusion of ideas within the colonies.

This event has been organised by the Centre for French and Francophone Research at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies.