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BOBO-DIOULASSO, Burkina Faso — “When the Jula Bible is published it will be like a jewel for the churches here and will bring new vitality to all our congregations,” says Monsignor Anselme Titianma Sanon, Archbishop of Bobo-Dioulasso.
The Jula-speaking people of west Burkina Faso and northern Côte d’Ivoire are largely Muslim, but Christian churches have grown up among the Jula settlements and with more than one million speakers they certainly constitute a large enough language-group to warrant their own Bible.
Worked together
Roman Catholics and the churches of the
Christian and Missionary
Alliance (CMA) have worked together on the translation project.
They began it, with the support of UBS, in 1985. Now the translation
of the Bible is complete and the final work is being done on the Deuterocanon.
“It will be a significant work for the churches and will help to
make the Bible known among the Jula people,” says Mary Crowgey
of the CMA, the Translation Co-ordinator.
“We are currently reviewing the
books of the Deuterocanon to make this a translation used by both Catholics
and Protestants,” she adds.
One of the problems the translators had was to find an appropriate word
for sin, a concept which did not exist in the Jula language.
“We also had to be careful with words of blessing and cursing,” Ms Crowgey explains. “There are equivalents in the language but they refer to the magic and tribal traditions, so they are inappropriate in the biblical context.”
There is no confusion over the name for God, however: ‘Allah’ is accepted as the term for the one true God and it has been used by the churches over the years.
With the support of the UBS Opportunity 21 (O-21) program, the Bible Society in Burkina Faso aims to put the whole of the Jula New Testament onto audio cassette. This will benefit churches and schools and will also provide a tool for quiet evangelism in the context of the majority religious traditions.
Let Muslims have access
Mr Ilboudo says it is important to let Muslims, too, have access to the Bible. He tells the story of a Muslim who went to visit a friend who was a Christian pastor. The pastor happened to be playing a tape of the Mooré New Testament, which is the only local language in which the New Testament is available on audio tape so far.
“The pastor, who had been preparing for a forthcoming listening group, went to switch the cassette player off when his Muslim friend stopped him. ‘Don’t switch it off,’ he said. ‘If you will allow me, I would like to listen with you. This is the first time I have heard any recording in our language.’” (WR 366/11 - 1/2.02) [PHOTOS]