Читать книгу Mission to Kilimanjaro - Alexandre Le Roy - Страница 8

The original title, Au Kilima-Ndjaro, means “To Kilima-Ndjaro.” The editor has rendered all names of places and persons in their current Swahili form, hence Kilimanjaro. The editor adjusted the title to Mission to Kilimanjaro. French phonetics was easily recognizable in Voumba for Vumba. But the nonnative may not know that Lake Dyipe is currently Lake Jipe. The editor is beholden to Fr. Dr. Florentine Mallya, C.S.Sp., who meticulously reviewed for us the thousand or so Swahili names of people and places.

The French original was published in several editions and formats from the 1890s to 1942. Translated here is the edition of 1914; this edition exists in at least two recensions. We stuck to the recension used by the translator, except for the engravings by Mgr. Le Roy and corrections noted in later editions (see, for example, note 1 on page 91).

The late Fr. Dr. Adrian Edwards, C.S.Sp. lamented the lack of social anthropology in the formation of today’s Spiritan missionaries. We began a discussion that eventually led to his translating this book. Mgr. Alexandre Le Roy was a Spiritan missionary whom Fr. Adrian greatly admired and saw as modelling the well-formed Spiritan missionary. At first, he wanted to translate a few chapters he regarded as most relevant for Spiritans in formation. Under gentle prodding, he happily and with accustomed grit translated the entire work. Fr. Edwards, lecturer and social anthropologist, died in Chester on October 31, 2017, while this work was being prepared for publication. As far as I know, this is the first and only English translation of this primal source.

Fr. Kenneth Oguzie, C.S.Sp., graduate assistant at the Center for Spiritan Studies, carefully photographed the engravings. Mary Beth Calorie, the then-administrative assistant, diligently inserted the photos. Fr. William Cleary, C.S.Sp. came on board as Associate Director late in the editing process. The book is dedicated to the memory of Fr. Adrian Edwards, C.S.Sp.

James Chukwuma Okoye, C.S.Sp.

Director, Center for Spiritan Studies