2018 Presidential: Biya’s Campaign Slogan Rustles Up Translation Controversy

Paul Biya: “la force de l’experience”, “the force of experience”…

This is President Biya’s campaign slogan, in the bid convince Cameroonians ahead of the country’s October 7 presidential polls.

But apparently not everyone agrees.

The slogan has drawn backlash from critics, including translators as not everyone agrees with the English translation.

2018 Presidential: Biya’s Campaign Slogan Rustles Up Translation Controversy

While many out rightly condemn the translation, others say the translation in English has a negative connotation.
Over Twitter, the attack varied as seen in some of these excerpts by some Twitter users regarding the slogan:

“It’s not the first time they do a direct word to word translation. They have never done anything to amend those mistakes. They keep making the mistakes and asking people to vote for them when they keep on repeating a single translation mistake”,

“Absolutely right. I got off when I saw it. J’aurais dit quelque chose comme “experience speaks louder than words”, another user wrote against the translation.

Despite the pushback, apologists of the Biya’s regime think it is correct and the right slogan to pull the right crowd.

Published on September 24, 2018 - View More