Dece mber to April is the rainy season in much of Tanzania, making it impossible to reach many remote areas, so for the past few months I have been mainly in Dodoma writing up the language assessment reports from the two trips last year.
The Fipa People
The sociolinguistic report for the Fipa people group is now finished. There are around 425,000 ethnic Fipa in and around the town of Sumbawanga (SW Tanzania) who are speaking two distinct languages. One of these languages has at least two dialects, which could probably use the same Bible, but the smaller dialect may well benefit from having their own translation at some stage if the church in the area has the ability and motivation to be part of a translation project. The other language (Mambwe-Lungu) has a New Testament already published in it (under the name of Fipa – just to confuse you…!), but it is hardly used at all in the area, partly due to the fact that it’s language is not seen as being pure. These people could possibly use a Mambwe-Lungu translation from Zambia, but these are not currently available in Tanzania.
A group of children in the Nyiha village of Msanda-Muungano
The Nyiha and Nyika People
The Nyiha of Mbozi (Tanzania) number about 246,000 and have a Bible translation project currently in progress in the town of Mbeya. The other three groups (the Nyika of Zambia and Malawi -10,000, the Nyiha of Malawi – 10,000 and the Nyiha of Sumbawanga, Tanzania – 25,000) don’t yet have any of the Bible in their languages, and desperately need their own Bible translations. Please pray for these people groups – that they would have the opportunity and the motivation to translate the Bible into their own languages.
The Sichela People
The Sichela people (around 20,000 in SW Tanzania) speak a dialect of the neighbouring Wanda language. At present neither the Sichela nor the Wanda have any of the Bible translated into their speech varieties. Please pray that the Sichela and the Wanda would soon be able to start a Bible translation project in their language.
Ruaha National Park
One Saturday last month I had the opportunity to join a family from MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) on a day out to Ruaha National park, which is about a 50 minute flight from Dodoma. It’s a really beautiful park with lots of cool animals, and the flight in a 6-seater aircraft made it even more fun!
Ruaha River and National Park
Looking ahead…
From June 9th-14th I’m hoping to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a couple of friends from here. At 19,340ft (5,895m) it’s the highest mountain in Africa and even has snow on top – brrrrrrr…! And then we have our Uganda-Tanzania Branch conference on the Kenyan coast from June 18th-24th, where we will discuss various issues to do with the branch… and maybe have some fun on the beach…!
The (very cold looking) top of Mount Kilimanjaro
Mara Survey
On July 9th we are planning to start surveying a completely new area of the country – Mara Region on the eastern coast of Lake Victoria. Our branch is hoping to start a Bible translation cluster project based around the town of Musoma, but at the moment we don’t really know which, or how many languages are spoken in Mara Region. At the moment the best estimate we have is somewhere between 10 and 25 languages!
The main aim of the survey will be language identification – discovering what languages are spoken in the region, and trying to determine the best strategy for translating the Bible into these languages.
The first week will involve travelling to the various Districts in Mara Region and speaking with bishops and church leaders from the major denominations in the area. We will try to get their perspective on the language situation and Bible translation, as well as sharing with them our vision for the region.
The next three or four weeks we’ll be travelling throughout Mara Region conducting research in many villages to try and get a good picture of the languages spoken and how they relate to each other.
Language Assessment Conference
From 5th-16th September I will be taking part in the 4-yearly International Language Assessment Conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand, when most of the language assessors from around the world get together to discuss various issues related to language survey.
- Praise God that the sociolinguistic reports from the last two survey trips are almost completed. Pray that these reports will be the first step in the Nyiha (x3), Nyika, Sichela and Fipa peoples having access to the Bible in their own languages.
- Pray for the various people groups mentioned above – that the churches in these areas would have a desire to start translating the Bible into their languages.
- Pray for my climbing Kilimanjaro – for safety and a really awesome time!
- Please pray for our branch conference, especially for the important things to be discussed. Also for a good time with the other SIL people, many of whom I haven’t seen since last year.
- Pray for the survey team (Louise, Anna, Richard, Dusty and myself) as we carry out the Mara survey. Pray for good relations within the team, health and safety whilst travelling and that we would accomplish all the goals of the survey. Pray especially for Dusty who is new to the team.
- Pray for the International Language Assessment Conference in Thailand in September – for safe travel and productive discussions.
Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much for your prayers!!!
For more pictures and info on what I'm doing... www.habarizamark.co.uk
My address in Tanzania: SIL, Po Box 1369, Dodoma, Tanzania (Mobile: +255 745 653 286)
E-mail: mark_woodward@sil.org
Wycliffe Bible Translators, Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP14 3XL, UK
www.wycliffe.org.uk
E-mail: askus@wycliffe.org | 