Johnny Masilela
A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCE by ES Madima (ESST)
Tenda Madima, a journalist and the author of an as-yet- unpublished novel in English as well as a screenplay, has taken it upon himself to translate his father’s celebrated TshiVenda novel into English.
Academic MC Neluvhalani writes in the preface that he is convinced this translation will place Venda ”on the global map of literature”.
A Victim of Circumstance is the love- triangle tale of a man trapped between two women. The plot is complex, with kidnappings and murders, escapes and last-minute rescues, and it makes exciting reading.
Not having read the original version of the novel, I am not sure who – author or translator – is responsible for certain infelicities. For instance, in the early chapters, an unsophisticated villager, uses the English expression ”one man’s meat is another man’s poison”. Are these villagers not communicating in their native TshiVenda, which is rich in proverbs and idioms? The author and/or translator also use expressions in other African languages such as Sesotho. But ”Re gona” (”I’m well”) is a Sepedi, not a Sesotho greeting.
Also, some characters jump out of the blue for plot reasons, and then disappear.