July 2006 newsletter
News from Sarah Casson, working with SIL in Arua, Uganda, July 2006.
Our truck lumbered uncertainly down the narrow track, flattening tall grass before it. Wrapped in darkness, we pulled into the circular compound, thatched roofed houses arranged around its circumference. And then we heard it: the high-pitched, exuberant sound of children's voices singing exquisitely in welcome. Through the flurry of hugs and handshakes, baggage handling, bathing and feasting on chicken and fufu, the high rhythmic songs continued, the children dancing their joy. Soothed by the warmth of this welcome, the jolts of the journey were soon forgotten.
This trip to the village of Mado, in the north-eastern corner of DRC, was my first visit to Congo for two years. Mado is the home of the Omiti language project and the nearest to Arua of the language projects ECG works with.
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I have just begun to work with the Omiti translation team as the intermediate checker for their drafts of Genesis (more about this below). Since my colleague was leading a Scripture Use seminar in Mado at the end of July, I seized the opportunity to watch her at work and to get to know the Omiti project at the same time. |
reading Genesis in Omiti |
Scripture Use is all about training and motivating people to use the Bible in their everyday lives: Bible translation work is not much use unless Bibles are used! About forty church leaders attended the two day seminar. Topics included how to use the Bible in leading a family time of prayer, how to read it well so that it captures people's attention, and how to apply biblical issues to some of the hot cultural issues people struggle with. What does the Bible have to say about polygamy, about turning to magic or witch doctors for help with childlessness, or about traditions that dictate that only men can eat certain kinds of meat?
The Omi translators have just finished working on the Flood story in Genesis, and people were given drafts of the story as material for polishing up their reading skills.
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reading Genesis to passers by |
It was fascinating to watch how absorbed people were in the story of Noah as they crowded round to hear it read for the first time in their language. The reading practice took place outside the church in the fresh evening air, and passers by stopped and listened in curiosity. |
Two weeks before, the translators and I had pored painstakingly over biblical concepts unknown in Omi culture, idiomatic expressions, spelling slips and paragraph breaks. Now we were listening to the translation coming to life in the mouths and minds of Omi readers!
As I write, DRC is holding its breath as it gears up for its first democratic elections in 45 years. On July 30th, 2006 voters will elect a new president from among 33 candidates. Election excitement is evident: vehicles sport bright flags in support of their favoured party, radio stations urge people to make sure they have their voting cards, posters of candidates are slapped on trees and buildings and there is animated talk of President Kabila's recent visit to Aru, the Congolese town just over the border from Arua. The big question: will the elections pass off peacefully with people respecting democratic processes? If so, these elections could represent a significant new start for a country devastated and exhausted by ten years of war.
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Just checking… It's a challenge to get your head round the twists and turns of the translation checking process! In a nutshell, it goes like this. First the mother tongue translators consult commentaries and versions of the Bible in French and produce a first draft of, say, Genesis chapters 6-9. Another speaker of the language translates this draft back into French. Next the draft and French back translation are sent to an intermediate checker, like me, for a first check. This checker combs the draft for potential problems --omissions, additions, and concepts that have not been clearly expressed, for example --and writes notes suggesting potential changes. These are sent back to the translation team who make the necessary adjustments. Then they send the corrected version to the external consultant, who meets with the team for a final checking session, like the one we've just had in Arua. |
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At the beginning of July five Congolese translation teams came to Arua to check their drafts of the Flood story and various other chapters of Genesis with the external translation consultant. These checking sessions were a valuable opportunity for me to see a senior consultant at work. In my last letter I introduced the Mangbetu team, with whom I have been working as intermediate checker. Sadly, the new translator dropped out of the team in April. Shortly afterwards the one remaining experienced translator, was told by his church that he will be sent for further studies at the end of this year. This will leave the team without any experienced translators and means that translation work will have to be suspended. This is a disappointing blow for all of us, especially as he is a gifted translator, and Genesis in Mangbetu was unfolding promisingly.
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With Omiti translators in Mado |
At the same time, the Omiti team found themselves in need of a new intermediate checker when their previous checker took on a new role within ECG. I'm very sad about the suspension of Mangbetu translation work, but I am also excited to have taken on the Omiti checking. |
Omiti is a closely related language to Lugbarati, the language that I'm currently learning in Arua. It means that I can apply insights that I gain as I learn Lugbarati to my Omiti checking work. I was encouraged to find that I could decipher bits of the Omiti Genesis drafts before I looked at the French back translation. And I was delighted in Mado to be able to communicate (on a very basic level!) with people in their mother tongue by adapting my Lugbarati!
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Tricky translation… During the July checking sessions, I had the unexpected pleasure of working with Amisi, a translator from a third language, Komo. The Komo project is the most isolated of all we work with, situated in the rain forest between Bukavu and Kisangani. They have no electricity, not even solar, and can currently only communicate with ECG when someone travels. Because of these communication challenges, the Komo Flood story drafts had not gone through the intermediate check, but Amisi and I were able to do this first level check together in Arua, getting the chapters ready for the external consultant. I'd never realised before how moving the story is. Take Genesis 6:6, for example, where God is deeply grieved because his creation has become so corrupted. The Komo described this heart-rending grief with a vivid idiom: God's heart burned with sadness. How do you describe an ark for people who only know canoes and whose buildings never have more than one floor? After considering various long-winded paraphrases of Genesis 6:16, where God tells Noah to divide the ark into three storeys, Amisi suggested that a picture of the ark was a must for the Komo translation! And then there was the raven. I'd never considered before that Noah probably sent the raven out first because they feed off carrion and rubbish. Ravens are unknown in Komo culture. In the end Amisi settled for a descriptive phrase instead, using the name of the most similar bird known to the Komo: " a bird like a sparrow hawk" . Translation sometimes involves choosing the best from several less than ideal options! |
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Thank God...
for the elections in the DRC
for the progress the translators are making with Genesis in their languages
for the opportunity to work with the Omiti team
Please pray....
that the new president will uphold peace and justice in DRC
that translation work may soon be able to continue in the Mangbetu language
that people will read and use the Bible as it is translated into their languages
And thank you for your letters and emails, support and prayers. They are a big encouragement!
With Love, Sarah
See also
