Issues of subtitling in Biyi Bandele’s Elesin Oba
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21790605 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Israel Ayinla Fadipe (0000-0003-0862-6377, North-West University), Imoh Sunday Obot (0009-0007-5858-0430, Ajayi Crowther University) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 261-277 |
| Publication date | 2025-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of African Cinemas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1754-9221 • E-ISSN: 1754-923X |
| Publisher | Intellect (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1386/jac_00150_1 |
| OpenAlex | W4416646579 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 9 |
Translation and subtitling are prominent features in the global film industry. Subtitling is a translation of films’ audio and visuals into a language that will be understood by people. In recent times, there has been a deliberate focus on African language films, which has attracted a global audience and has led to the observations of perceived lapses in translation and subtitles in these films. It is imperative to note that non-native audiences require subtitles for easy comprehension of Indigenous African language films, and issues arise when there are lapses in subtitles, especially when considering films from creative texts in a different language. Viewed from the lens of Ngugi wa Thiongo’s argument in ‘Decolonising the African Mind’, this article investigates subtitling issues inherent in the film Elesin Oba , directed by Biyi Bandele in 2022 and adapted from Wole Soyinka’s English play Death and the King’s Horseman . This article adopts a qualitative content analysis technique to examine the lack of sync between subtitling and scene reality, music score subtitling, flash forward and linguistic misrepresentation between subtitles and scene realities. Though there is a glaring dearth of good translators in the Nollywood industry, subtitling should not be seen as a passive element of interpretation, especially for culturally embedded films such as Elesin Oba
Closed captioning · Colloquialism · Comprehension · Headline · Indigenous · Misrepresentation · African history and culture studies · Subtitles and Audiovisual Media · Translation Studies and Practices
Correctness of the Subtitled Expressions in Context
African Languages and Gender Identity in Marginal Films Made Outside the Mainstream Film Industry in South Africa
Nollywood and Its Others
Nollywood across Languages Issues in Dubbing and Subtitling
Africa, film theory and globalization
The Situation and Tendencies of the Cinema in Africa
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |