Bringing God’s Word to Zimbabwe’s “forgotten” Tonga peopleHARARE, Zimbabwe — The Bible Society of Zimbabwe is seeking to bring God’s Word to a “forgotten” population group by printing 20,000 copies of four New Reader Portions (NRPs) in Chitonga (Tonga). This is spoken by around 1.1 million people whose name means “independent” and who for generations have lived in isolation in the Zambezi valley in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe itself is home to 112,000 Tonga speakers, many of whom belong to families which were forced to move inland from the Zambezi valley following the completion of the Kariba Dam in 1960. They now live mainly in the Binga region of western Zimbabwe. Their struggles to adapt to the loss of their traditional way of life have been largely ignored by the outside world, as has their suffering, particularly food shortages, as Zimbabwe’s economic circumstances have worsened. The Bible Society, however, has not overlooked the need to bring God’s Word to the Tonga people in their own language. The Bible has been available in Tonga since 1963, but is not always easily accessible for people whose literacy levels are generally quite low. The Society has therefore worked with Tonga-speaking students to produce four NRPs – Creation, Jonah, Ruth and Noah – 16,000 copies of which have been distributed in collaboration with Operation Mobilisation. Initial results from trials among local Binga churches indicate that the NRPs are very appropriate and have received “great acceptance,” according to Tinashe Kasere, the Society’s Marketing Manager. The Society plans to distribute the remaining 4,000 NRPs to members of listening groups which are due to be established now that it has completed the recording of the whole New Testament in Tonga on audio cassette. Mr Kasere has emphasised the Society’s determination to complete the distribution of the NRPs and to establish the listening groups regardless of the political situation: “In God’s name nothing is impossible,” he says. (WR 375/26 - 3.03)
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