Revolutionizing Translation: A Case Study of Sudan December Revolution

This thesis investigates the role of translation as one of the core practices in the context of the non-violent Sudan uprising in December 2018, with a particular focus on the emergence and influence of “Randok”, the secret jargon used by the Sudanese Professional Association (SPA) – the political body that led this uprising - to address the local Sudanese youth and the socially marginalized population throughout the revolution (January-August 2019). This research explores the role of translation within the movement that helped spread dissent, and contest, undermine or exploit counter- dominant institutions. It also highlights Sudanese diaspora activism and involvement with the revolution through translation, how they narrate the revolution using various forms of linguistic and cultural mediation in order to globalize the local and conform to the expectations of an international audience. These translation practices are examined in terms of linguistic and non-linguistic features, to show the different effects, they elicit at both local and global levels. This thesis is exploratory and inductive in nature, facilitating a qualitative data analysis to investigate the role of translation in disseminating revolutionary messages. To do so, I analyzed 25 Randok statements extracted from the SPA official Facebook page, and their responses, and performed online observation to explore diaspora activism targeting activists in USA and Europe using (Boyd, 2010) Networked publics approach. The findings indicate that Randok had a significant influence on the overall mode and spirit of this youth-led revolution, whether in mobilizing the masses or in shifting the style of chants and slogans, besides impacting the discourse of the uprising. The research also shows that although some Sudanese diaspora were aware of this strong linguistic component, their translations of the revolution in English primarily transferred the most frequently used terms in Randok and colloquial Sudanese that best represent and prefigure the revolution. This led them to generally streamline the complexity and diversity of this unique mass-based movement as “one” unitary movement.