REPRESENTATIONS AND SYMBOLS IN EFIK MYTHOLOGY: IMPLICATIONS FOR TRANSLATION

ABSTRACT : Representation alludes to interpreting or describing something or someone in works of artusing visual, written or oral procedures. Sometimes, art works depict many things other than what is seen orstated. This may cause the mode of representation to become iconic, thus relying greatly on ideas or on symbols.However, symbols usually refer to solid recognizable things such as: animals, plants or objects that could bedifficult to capture in a picture or a sculpture. In Efik mythology, there are myriads of representation in symbolsand in stories which meanings are connected to other interconnected variables. And these symbols require extraknowledge and understanding to decipher their meanings. The purpose of this paper therefore is firstly, toidentify through analysis method, the challenges in translating and interpreting representations and symbols andsecondly, to proffer ways to minimize these problems.

KEYWORDS: Symbols, Efik mythology, representation, translation, interconnectivity.