The Russian House in Tanzania has presented a Swahili translation of Nikolai Gogol’s play ‘The Government Inspector’ under the title ‘Mkaguzi wa Serikali’. 500 copies of the book have been donated to the National Library of Tanzania, the press service of Rossotrudnichestvo reported.
The translation and layout of the book were carried out by the staff of the Russian House. Acting Director of the National Library, Renhema Ndumbaro, highlighted the importance of co-operation with the Russian cultural centre. She added that such initiatives enable Tanzanian libraries to familiarise themselves with Russian literature.
The books will also be distributed to regional libraries and schools across the country. The Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Dar es Salaam continues to translate Russian classics into Swahili, with works by Alexander Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Alexander Ostrovsky, Alexander Kuprin and Alexei Tolstoy having been published previously.
The artist Maria Suvorova, who created the illustrations for ‘The Government Inspector’, noted that she had strived to create images that would be relatable and accessible to Tanzanians.
The presentation of the translation was held at the National Library of Tanzania, where the Russian House organised a quiz on the Russian alphabet and basic facts about Russia. The winners were awarded books of Russian classics. The quiz was hosted by Daria Ilyenko, curator of Russian language promotion programmes and winner of the Rossotrudnichestvo competition ‘Masters of the Russian Language’.
