|
|
||
The ‘last place on earth’:
|
 |
| Ata Olul (left) and Nelson Tosul hard at work on translating the Gospel of Luke into Saa. Pentecost Island, Vanuatu. Photo: Asia-Pacific ASC/John Harris (VAN05DJ-2.JPG) |
VANUATU — Pentecost Island is one among the chain of 80 islands that make up Vanuatu. Hidden in its rugged southern tip are the secluded communities who speak the Saa language. Many other traditional villages are sprinkled throughout the 450-mile (724-km) island chain, but the Saa people know their own particular isolation. They feel as though they are clinging to the edge of the world. Accessible only by sea boat along the coast, or over rugged jungle tracks, their remote homelands are a stunningly beautiful blend of blue sea and steep mountain, of green forest and golden sand.
Here nature seems kind. Fish teem on the coral reefs and a variety of fruit grow readily in the rich volcanic soil of their gardens. But in this seeming paradise, nature is also experienced at its most turbulent. In the hot, wet summer months from November to April, raging cyclones can flatten forest and village alike; volcanoes erupt and sudden earthquakes shake the mountains or, if they happen beneath their seas, thrust up tsunamis to engulf their shores.
Earthquake
On November 27, 1999 – a Saturday – Pentecost Island and its neighbours, Ambrym and Paama Islands, were hit by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter Scale. On Pentecost itself, 12 people were killed and a thousand were directly affected. The tsunami it generated in the sea off South Pentecost totally demolished one of the Saa villages. It will never be rebuilt in that place.
Later, on the last day of the old millennium, the Saa people raised a memorial stone, ‘the Stone of all that has been’, thanking God for the past and for having protected so many of them from sudden death. And the next day they raised another, ‘the Stone of all that will be’. They had many hopes and dreams for the health and well-being of their communities in the new millennium for which God had saved them: foremost among them was having the Bible in the Saa language.
Here, at last, was a chance to be involved in writing down a language for the first time!
Like the Saa people, the Saa language, too, displays its isolation. Totally different from those spoken elsewhere on Pentecost and the neighbouring islands, it had never been written down. The Gospel of Jesus Christ had been brought to South Pentecost long ago, but missionary translators had concentrated on more accessible communities and linguists ignored Saa in favour of other languages. After all, in Vanuatu’s language mix, there was always a bewildering choice: according to Ethnologue (www.ethnologue.com) published by SIL International, Vanuatu’s some 180,000 people currently share 109 living languages between them.
Not their own language
So the Saa people had struggled for generations with Bibles in English that they could barely understand. They had recently been helped by the publication of the Bible in Bislama, the creole lingua franca of the region and their second language, but it still wasn’t their own language. It wasn’t the language of their prayers their home or their community: they wanted a Saa Bible.
“I think we must be the last place on earth,” said Ata Olul, one of the Saa Christians who was later chosen to be a translator.
Early in the year 2000, I was running a translation workshop for Bible translators in the Raga language in North Pentecost when I was approached by some Saa leaders who had travelled north with a request that I help them start a Bible translation into the Saa language. Their request both moved and challenged me. The Bible Society of the South Pacific (BSSP) encouraged me to investigate it and UBS agreed that I could add a Saa project to my list. So, a few months later, I found myself being warmly welcomed to the Saa-speaking village of Wanurr.
Daunting
I found this slightly daunting but tremendously exciting. I am one of the few Translation Consultants whose major study and doctoral research has been in Linguistics rather than Biblical Studies. Here, at last, was a chance to be involved in writing down a language for the first time! While occasionally we linguists may feel just a little in awe of our learned colleagues with their detailed knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek texts and with their instant exegesis of difficult and controversial passages, sometimes – just sometimes – we have a chance to prove our worth and the merit of our own humbler discipline.
And so the task began. Linguists from the University of the South
Pacific were glad to help develop the Saa ‘orthography’ (alphabet
and spelling). Surprisingly quickly, the written language began to take
its shape. Saa has very many vowel sounds and the Saa people chose to
distinguish them with accents. Since colonial times, Vanuatuans have
been divided into those with English and those with French influence.
Those with English influence prefer to write their indigenous languages
without any accents while those with a French colonial past think that
there must be accents everywhere! So Saa has words like 
and
Linguists,
of course, find this kind of thing exciting!
The church chose the translation team and they began working on Mark’s Gospel even before the spelling system had been fully agreed. They were people who lived by gathering their food and by tilling their jungle gardens. They were not well educated but they made up for that with their dedication and enthusiasm. They worked for no pay by firelight at night or by finding a free day here and there in their busy routine of gardening, fishing and caring for their families. Sometimes nature seemed to be working against them: cyclones would destroy their crops and homes; houses had to be rebuilt and gardens replanted. But whenever they could find a little time, the translation work continued.
Precious
Now Mark’s Gospel is finished and the translation team are working slowly but steadily through Luke. The precious manuscript of Mark is with BSSP in Suva being prepared for publication. Before this year is out the Saa people will have it in their hands. The story of Jesus, which they already know and love, will at last be heard in the beautiful speech of the Saa people in their remote communities on the edge of the world. (WR 392/20 - 04/5.05)[2 photos]