Despite its main orientation towards professional training, ASTI has always been interested in promoting publications in its areas of specialisation. Some of the major publications are:
- Epasa Moto
- The Survey of the Translation and Interpretation Job Market in Cameroon
- The Tracer Study of ASTI Graduates
- Translation Perspectives
Job Market Survey
ASTI was created by presidential order in 1985. Its mission is defined as follows:
- Training of translators and translators/interpreters,
- Research in translation, interpretation and terminology,
- Refresher courses for practising translators and interpreters,
- Promotion of institutional bilingualism in Cameroon.
Since its inception in January 1986, ASTI has been partially fulfilling this mission by training translators and interpreters and organizing language courses for students from Douala University. Refresher courses for translators and interpreters are yet to be organized. As of the end of the 1997/98 academic year, a total of 209 translators and 31 interpreters had graduated from ASTI. Over 90% of the graduants are employed in the public service; a good number work in international organizations such as OAU, WHO, UN on a full time or part time basis. Others started working as translators in SONARA, SOWEDA, BICEC, AMITY BANK, Insurance Companies (CAN, Satellite, etc.) and now hold managerial positions.
In 1997 the Minister of Higher Education commissionned that a study of the job market for ASTI graduates should be done in order to determine the needs of prospective employers in the public and private sectors. The Study began in December 1998 and ended in April 1999.
Tracer Study
The Objective of this study is to analyze the graduates of the Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI) of the University of Buea, Cameroon from 1987 to 2003. To this effect, a field survey was initiated in April 2004 with the overall objective to focus on the following perspectives: employment trends in the public and private sectors with respect to the period of graduation, language combination and gender dynamics, professional mobility, further training trends, etc. The study also strives to fond out which orientations and strategies are likely to enable ASTI sustaiin a leading as a translator and interpreter training institution in today’s world.
The Advanced School of Translators and Interpreters (ASTI), which is currently part of the University of Buea, Cameroon, was set up by presidential order in August 1985 to the effect of fulfilling national needs in translators and interpreters, with particular attention to the public service. The first batch of translation students effectively commenced training during the 1985/1986 academic year. Since inception, training in translation has sustainably been a two-year postgraduate programme, which admits holders of at least a first degree in any discipline; the School therefore recorded its very first translation graduates in 1987. The one-year programme in interpretation, which has since its inception opened exclusively to holders of a profesionnal diploma in translation , was subsequently introduced in 1988, and the first batch of trainees graduated in 1989.
Epasa Moto, a Bilingual Journal of Arts, Letters & the Humanities
The expression, EPASA MOTO is from the Bakweri language of the South West province of the Republic of Cameroon. It means literally “half man”. According to mythology, EPASA MOTO is the name attributed to a supernatural being who resides in the Buea Mountain (the highest mountain in West Africa) which is allegedly “half man, half stone”. This incomplete state of EPASA MOTO aptly describes the African condition at home and in the diaspora, in the sense that, as a result of our contact with the West, our values, concepts and worldview have been tampered with and are non longer in their original state. This tampered state permeates every facet of our lives as human beings aspiring for ultimate perfection. It is our wish that EPASA MOTO will adress this problem from a variety of perspectives.
Articles on Cameroon, Africa and the African diaspora from scholars working on language, letters and culture will be considered for publication. Similarly, current book reviews, poetry, philosophical essays, creative writing, research work in progress etc. will also be published. Consequently, it is my fervent wish that scholars working in this area will submit original, scholarly articles for consideration and possible publication in the journal. We are hopeful that like its mythologic counterpart from which it derives its name, EPASA MOTO will grow and inculcate positive and dynamic ideas in language, letters and culture. (From the foreword of the first issue: Volume 1 No 1, June 1989, p. iv)
STYLESHEET
Articles should be between 15 and 20 typed pages, size A4, double line spacing with the bibliography at the end of the article. Direct references of words cited or referred to should be incorporated in the text, but notes should appear at the bottom of the author’s biographical sketch indicating publications and research in progress should be forwarded with the article. Articles may be written in English or French.