Paper short abstract:

Interpreters have always been employed by administrations in Africa. In French colonies as well as today at court they are indispensable because colonial administrators and judges could and cannot communicate in African languages. Nevertheless, the interpreter’s role is ambivalent and ill defined.

Paper long abstract:

In many African societies the head of state, the king only spoke through his translator, never addressing the population directly. French colonial administrators, the majority of whom could not speak African languages, were dependent on interpreters. In the courtroom in Burkina Faso today, judges may only use the official language French. Interpreters have thus always been a part of communication in Africa - as dalamina, as colonial clerks, and as employees working for the court today.

All major cities in Burkina Faso have an independently working criminal court. Interpreters are employed to translate between the French speaking court and the African-languages speaking defendants, witnesses, and public. But the (court) interpreter's role has never been as ill defined as it is today. During colonial times, African interpreters enjoyed immense prestige among the local population and they were indispensable to the French colonial officials. Nevertheless, interpreters were often treated with disdain by them, sometimes even publicly ridiculed (Mopoho 2001).

This top-down talk can be seen as typical for a highly hierarchized organization or society. The French justice system, which is largely in use in Burkina Faso, is managed in a strictly hierarchical way (Ginio 2006). Burkinabe social structure as well functions and is organized hierarchically, but not along the same lines as French jurisdiction. In the courtroom in Burkina Faso, these two hierarchical systems come into contact. Courtroom participants need to maneuver the dichotomies, continuities, and contradictions between the two systems, translating them into their own daily reality to create and make sense for themselves.