Translation networks in the decolonising world, 1950s–1970s

The 1950s to the 1970s was a transformative period marked by anticolonial struggles, national independences, and non-aligned solidarities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These groundbreaking political shifts went hand-in-hand with profound cultural and ideological exchanges across continents. Central to these exchanges were translation networks—dynamic, often informal systems through which ideas filtered across linguistic and national boundaries. These networks not only facilitated the dissemination of anticolonial and more broadly revolutionary thought, but also helped forge new identities and solidarities in a bipolarised world. From clandestine literature, revolutionary manifestos, political speeches, to broadcasting and print journalism, translation operated as an essential too