‘Sokrates Anoyi’: Lawrence Henry Yaw Ofosu-Appiah’s Translation of Plato’s ‘Apology’ into Twi

This seminar in the Classical Reception series 'Out of the Shadows of Empire' will take place wholly online.

While Classical reception studies on the African continent has focused largely on ancient Greek drama and art, there’s been some recent interest in the reception of ancient philosophy in the philosophical thought of African writers. These attempts have considered the contexts of colonialism, and the challenge Pan-Africanism presents for the study of Classics in general. However, research on the translation of ancient philosophical works into local languages has not been explored. This presentation attempts to fill this gap by exploring the significance of the translation of Plato’s Apology into Twi by Lawrence H. Ofosu-Appiah, as a way of decolonizing and making Classical texts accessible, and against the backdrop of the politics of knowledge production in the two decades following Ghana’s independence from colonial rule.

Michael Okyere Asante is assistant lecturer in the Department of General Studies at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development in Somanya in the Eastern Region of Ghana, where he teaches critical thinking to an undergraduate population of over 300 students. His research interests lie primarily in ancient philosophy and its reception in African political thought, and in the presence, decolonization and history of Classics in Africa. He has recently co-edited a special issue on ‘Decolonizing Classics in Africa’ for the Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 65(1).