Stephen Muntet of Maasai Voices Consulting stands out among all of my translating collaborators in two crucial ways. First is his extraordinary mastery of English. He is as sensitive to nuances in English as he is to those of Maa and Swahili. My practice in creating subtitles is often to discuss which of several alternatives phrasings is best. Stephen’s linguistic and cross-cultural expertise has been crucial in making the best choice. Writing subtitles requires judgment and discrimination. If a single sentence in Maa has several implications, the translation ideally acknowledges them all. But subtitles must be short. Stephen’s tri-lingual fluency has never failed to meet the need. Working with him for hundreds of hours on translations, I want to add, has taught me a great deal about the culture that I have studied throughout my adult life.

The second quality that makes Stephen stand out among other translators is his flexibility and ingenuity. In 2019, I asked him to work with me in shooting the sequel to a film I had made in Dodoma, Tanzania. Yet when we arrived in Dar es Salaam to finalize permissions, we were told by the Tanzanian Film Board that we had to pay a previously-undisclosed fee of more than $15,000. That was out of the question, but we were in a sense trapped, because I had already paid for travel costs and salaries, not to mention the seemingly-irretrievable filming permit of $3,000 required by the Tanzanian Film Board. In the midst of this crisis Stephen came up with a life-saving idea. He proposed that we cut our losses, leave Tanzania and make a new film in his native town in Kenya. We agreed, and in Sekenani, Stephen’s expertise and contacts allowed us to shoot a fascinating work about the dependence of Maasai on the unreliable business of tourism.

Stephen’s ingenuity continued to assist me even after we returned to the United States. He asked the help of his friend, an influential Tanzanian businessman, who then put enough pressure on a director of NMB Bank Tanzania so that I eventually got back the $3,000 I was owed.

Stephen Muntet is a deeply articulate translator, a master of nuance. He is also a very good man to have at your back when navigating the depths of working in East Africa.