The Africa Institute has announced the recipients of the 2025 Global Africa Translation Fellowship, part of its African Languages and Translation Program. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship supports scholars and translators working to make key texts from Africa and the African diaspora accessible to wider audiences.
This non-residential fellowship welcomes applicants from across the Global South and supports translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora into English or Arabic, with other languages considered. Projects may include retranslations of classic texts or new translations of poetry, prose, or critical theory.
The awardees for the 2025 Global Africa Translation Fellowship are: Lieketso Agatha Seutla (Lesotho), Nge Deris Meh (Cameroon), and Atif Alhaj Saeed (Sudan) each bring expertise across translation, linguistics, and African literary studies, continuing the fellowship’s mission to advance the circulation of African intellectual and cultural production through language.
A professional translator and Ph.D. candidate at the Pan African University Institute of Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) in Cameroon, Seutla’s research explores language, culture, and regional integration. Her academic background includes a Master’s degree in Translation from the Pan African University and the University of Buea.
Her translation of Thomas Mofolo’s Phakoana Tšooana into English will contribute to the growing body of translated African literature, offering new perspectives on Lesotho’s early twentieth-century cultural and political life.
Meh is a translator, proofreader, and faculty member at the University of Buea, Cameroon, where he teaches at the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI). His research and teaching focus on translation into and from African languages and on Cameroonian literary production.
As a 2025 fellow, Meh will translate Gabriel Kuitche Fonkou’s Les Vins Aigres (Sour Wines), a collection of short stories exploring truth, morality, and social critique within the Bamiléké society of western Cameroon.
A Sudanese translator, novelist, and researcher with a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, Saeed focuses on Francophone African literature. His recent translations include There’s No Rainbow in Heaven by Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry.
During the fellowship, Saeed will complete his translation of André Gide’s Voyage au Congo (Journey to the Congo), first published in 1927, deepening engagement with early European literary representations of Central Africa and their critical reception today.
The Global Africa Translation Fellowship reflects The Africa Institute’s commitment to supporting translation as a form of scholarship and cultural dialogue, advancing the study and accessibility of African and diaspora texts worldwide.
The Africa Institute has announced the recipients of the 2025 Global Africa Translation Fellowship, part of its African Languages and Translation Program. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship supports scholars and translators working to make key texts from Africa and the African diaspora accessible to wider audiences.
The Africa Institute has announced the recipients of the 2025 Global Africa Translation Fellowship, part of its African Languages and Translation Program. Now in its fifth year, the fellowship supports scholars and translators working to make key texts from Africa and the African diaspora accessible to wider audiences.
This non-residential fellowship welcomes applicants from across the Global South and supports translations of works from the African continent and its diaspora into English or Arabic, with other languages considered. Projects may include retranslations of classic texts or new translations of poetry, prose, or critical theory.
The awardees for the 2025 Global Africa Translation Fellowship are: Lieketso Agatha Seutla (Lesotho), Nge Deris Meh (Cameroon), and Atif Alhaj Saeed (Sudan) each bring expertise across translation, linguistics, and African literary studies, continuing the fellowship’s mission to advance the circulation of African intellectual and cultural production through language.
A professional translator and Ph.D. candidate at the Pan African University Institute of Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) in Cameroon, Seutla’s research explores language, culture, and regional integration. Her academic background includes a Master’s degree in Translation from the Pan African University and the University of Buea.
Her translation of Thomas Mofolo’s Phakoana Tšooana into English will contribute to the growing body of translated African literature, offering new perspectives on Lesotho’s early twentieth-century cultural and political life.
Meh is a translator, proofreader, and faculty member at the University of Buea, Cameroon, where he teaches at the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI). His research and teaching focus on translation into and from African languages and on Cameroonian literary production.
As a 2025 fellow, Meh will translate Gabriel Kuitche Fonkou’s Les Vins Aigres (Sour Wines), a collection of short stories exploring truth, morality, and social critique within the Bamiléké society of western Cameroon.
A Sudanese translator, novelist, and researcher with a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, Saeed focuses on Francophone African literature. His recent translations include There’s No Rainbow in Heaven by Nétonon Noël Ndjékéry.
During the fellowship, Saeed will complete his translation of André Gide’s Voyage au Congo (Journey to the Congo), first published in 1927, deepening engagement with early European literary representations of Central Africa and their critical reception today.
The Global Africa Translation Fellowship reflects The Africa Institute’s commitment to supporting translation as a form of scholarship and cultural dialogue, advancing the study and accessibility of African and diaspora texts worldwide.
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