Learning The Languages Of Africa

In 1800, there were only about a dozen written languages in Africa. Hundreds of other spoken languages had to wait until someone invented a writing system. Missionaries came and learned the languages, without the aid of primers or dictionaries. Then they labored to develop a written form and after that they taught the people how to read the script. This they did so that someday people could read the Bible in their own tongue.

One such missionary was a Scotsman named Robert Moffat. In 1821, at the age of 25, Moffat set up a mission among the Tswana-speaking people of southern Africa. To learn their unwritten language, he mixed with the people, at times journeying into the interior to live among them. "The people were kind," later he wrote, "and my blundering in the language gave rise to many bursts of laughter. Never, in one instance, would an individual correct a word or sentence, till he or she had mimicked the original so effectually, as to give great merriment to others. Moffat persevered and eventually mastered the language, developing a written form for it.

In 1829, after working among the Tswana for eight years, Moffat finished translating the Gospel of Luke. To get it printed he traveled about 600 miles by ox wagon to the coast and then to a ship to Cape Town. There the governor gave him permission to use a government press, but Moffat had to set the type and do the printing himself, finally publishing the Gospel in 1830. For the first time, the Tswana could read a portion of the Bible in their own language. In 1857, Moffat completed a translation of the entire Bible into Tswana.

Moffat later described the reaction of the Tswana when the Gospel of Luke was first made available to them. He noted: "I have known individuals to come hundreds of miles to obtain copies of St. Luke. . . .I have seen them receive portions of St. Luke, and weep over them, and grasp them to their bosoms, and shed tears of thankfulness, till I have said to more than one, 'You will spoil your books with your tears.' "

Devoted translators like Moffat thus gave many Africans-some of whom initially saw no need for a written language-the first opportunity to communicate in writing. The translators, though, believed that they were giving the people of Africa an even more valuable gift-the Bible in their own tongue. Today the Bible, in whole or in part, "speaks" in over 600 African languages.

Next time: Learning The Languages Of Asia

A Book For All People, 1997