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Mark's story - Language Project in Tanzania
Mark Woodward on language survey in Tanzania
As I was in my final year studying Maths at university, and having been on two short-term trips to Kenya with other organisations I wanted to use my Maths degree in some way overseas, in East Africa if possible. Several people mentioned to me how Maths and languages went well together, so I looked into the possibility of joining Wycliffe for a period of around 2 years.
After several months of thinking and praying about it I became more and more convinced that this was what God was calling me to, as he really put a passion in my heart for people being able to read the Bible in their own language.
Six months later in August 2003 I was beginning the Wycliffe training programme, wondering if I would be any good at language work, but trying to trust God! To my relief I found that I really loved the work, and as the training continued I couldn’t wait to leave the country for my assignment… doing language survey in Tanzania!
In January 2004 I arrived in Tanzania and went straight into four months of language school to learn the national language – Swahili. This was the language that we would be using to communicate with most of the people on survey.
In August I was finally leaving on my first survey trip – to survey the Nyiha language in southwest Tanzania. It was a dialect survey, to see if all the Nyiha people could use the same Bible, or if they would need different translations to serve speakers of different dialects.
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After three weeks of travelling around a number of Nyiha villages we decided that as long as a consistent central variety of Nyiha was used, all the Nyiha would be able to use a single Bible translation. However, people also told us about another group of Nyiha who had emigrated south into Malawi sometime in the past.
After locating these “Nyika” as they called themselves, and spending a few days with them in northern Zambia and Malawi, we found ourselves running low on fuel. The only place we knew where we could get fuel was back in the south of Tanzania.
As we were on our way back from getting fuel we came across a young girl who wanted a lift to school. On talking to her, we realised there was yet another group of Nyiha in the far northwest of Malawi that we didn’t even know about!
We extended our trip by another day to visit these Nyiha, and found them extremely hungry for the word of God! Some were even copying out the antiquated Tanzanian Nyiha New Testament by hand into notebooks so that they would have at least something to help them in their faith!
Now this group are known about and will hopefully be able to adapt the Tanzanian Nyiha Bible which is currently being translated, into their own form of the language. It was amazing for us to see how God led us to this group that we would never have even know about had we not run low on fuel!
Time and time again in my two years doing survey in various parts of Tanzania God led us to the right people and the right places. It was such a privilege to see him at work, and to play a small part in people hopefully one day being able to read the Bible in their own language and know God for themselves.
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- Find out more about Language Projects and the related MA in Field Linguistics