Crossing Worlds: Translating Le Petit Prince into Kiswahili and Hausa

We are excited to host Walter Bgoya and Ibrahim Malumfashi, translators of Le Petit Prince into Kiswahili (Mwana Mdogo wa Mfalme) and Hausa (Yarima Ɗan Sarki) respectively.

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is the world's most translated secular book. It has over 600 translations including into numerous African languages, Kiswahili, isiZulu, Bemba, Tamazight, Bemba, Ndebele and now Hausa.

We are excited to host Tanzanian Walter Bgoya and Nigerian Ibrahim Malumfashi, translators of Le Petit Prince into Kiswahili and Hausa respectively. 

This event will explore this timeless story that continues to inspire readers across generations examining how the novella has taken on new life when expressed through African languages.

The event is part of SOAS University of London Research Culture TAFSIRI project led by Ida Hadjivayanis, Carmen McCain, Wangui wa Goro, Ret’sepile Mkamane, Cristina Juan, Lutz Marten, Te-Ho Kong, Thomas Summers, Yoseph Mengistu and Yingxin Chen.

It invites readers, translators, and lovers of world literature to join us and celebrate the richness of multilingual storytelling.

Speakers

Walter Bgoya is a Tanzanian publisher, author, and Pan‑Africanist intellectual known for his leadership of public and independent publishing initiatives in Tanzania. He served as General Manager of Tanzania Publishing House (TPH) from 1972 until 1990 and then founded and managed his own company Mkuki na Nyota Publishers Ltd, established in 1981 in Dar es Salaam.
Distinguished as Chairman of the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and Publisher of the Year in 2024, Bgoya and his promotion of literary and non-fiction books in both English and Kiswahili have been repeatedly acknowledged by the African and international publishing industry. He was awarded the Brittle Paper Publisher of the year in 2024 and ASAUK Outstanding African Studies Award 2024.

Ibrahim Malumfashi is Professor of Hausa Literature and Translation Studies with over thirty-five years of experience in archival research, textual criticism, literary history, and cross-cultural transmission of early modern and modern texts. His scholarship examines the movement of literary forms, genres, and ideas across languages and cultures, with particular attention to colonial mediation, translation practices, readership cultures, and performance histories in Northern Nigeria. His work is especially relevant to Shakespeare studies through its focus on adaptation, reception, translation, and the afterlives of canonical texts in non-European traditions.

His current publications include: Jarusalem (Translation of Gonçalo M. Tavares’s book Jerusalem, OpenArts, 2024); Mista Wasler (Translation of Gonçalo M. Tavares’s book Mister Wasler, OpenArts, 2026) and Yarima Ɗan Sarki (Translation of Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, OpenArts, 2026).

Timings

This event will take place 3pm (UK), 4pm (Nigeria), 5pm (Tanzania).

Join this event

Please follow the link at the top of the page .

Image credit: Book cover of Swahili translations, Mkuki na Nyota Publishers.