Confronting Congolese Doubts about Local Language ("Mother Tongue") Development and Bible Translation

A few weeks ago, President Joseph Kabila came to town for a few days. Among the groups he planned an audience with was UNADI, a coalition of 21 ethnic groups. They are concerned that their parliamentary representatives (MPs) serve their party and not the people they represent. So these ethnic communities wanted their representatives to talk with the president about how they can help themselves without relying on government. They voted on 3 people to represent them in that meeting. One of them was Douglas' partner and our dear friend, Dr Bagamba Araali.

Bagamba and Douglas in front of the Bible translation office in Bunia

He and the representatives arrived where President Kabila was staying at 7 AM, as instructed. And they waited....


But the waiting was not lost time. Also waiting to see the president were the local Catholic Bishop, provincial and national MPs, government ministers and people from the governor's office. As it happens, Bagamba had tried to organize a meeting for himself and our group's director with the Catholic Bishop, back in September, but the meeting had not taken place. So he took the opportunity to ask the Bishop whether they could schedule a meeting in February, when our director will be here again. This led to a discussion, in front of all these "notables", about the use of local languages.

Talking with a pastor in Kisangani during partnership meetings. For many church leaders, Bible translation is a new idea and they need to be convinced of its value.

One of Bagamba's jobs - and his passions - is advocating for the use and development of local languages. And now he had a captive audience.

An MP asked the Bishop about the role of local languages in evangelism. The Bishop seemed to have trouble answering that, so Bagamba asked permission to answer for him. He talked about the difference between a "head" language (for example a language you learn in school or to communicate at the market) and a "heart" language (the language you learn at home, that you understand best). He noted that ethnic communities are good at teaching and instilling cultural values, using the mother tongue. But the Church is not good at teaching right and wrong, using regional or national languages. This teaching should be done in the mother tongue, so that it is well understood. 

Pastors hearing recorded Scripture in their language for the first time

He told about preachers giving "poor" sermons, prepared using a Bible in a language that they do not understand well. He gave the example of a Scripture passage that says that "false prophets will arise" (kuinuka in Swahili), but the preacher did not know Swahili very well and mistook kuinuka for kunuka, "to smell". So he preached that false prophets would smell bad. In many areas, there are no dictionaries for preachers to consult when they don't understand a word, so they end up not understanding the Scripture well and giving poor teaching.

Someone else asked about politics. Isn't the use of mother tongue languages harmful to national unity? Doesn't it keep the ethnic groups "in their corner" instead of integrated into the nation? By comparison, in the United States, there is only one language that everyone speaks. (This of course is not true. Such optimistic misconceptions about the U.S. are unfortunately common.) Others there thought that only a language of "wider communication", such as French, can promote unity. But there are many who don't speak it well.

Testing how well speakers of one dialect of Pazande can understand recordings of people from another dialect.

Bagamba pointed out that Switzerland, which has 4 official languages, is quite prosperous. And that in Rwanda, the fact that everyone speaks the same language, Kinyarwanda, did not insure unity. (The same could be said for Somalia.)

He pointed out that the reason for conflict in D.R.C. - as elsewhere in the world - is a struggle for resources, not a difference in languages. Only justice will solve that problem, not a common language. They agreed.

He gave some local examples to illustrate. In our region, Ituri, the Ngiti and the Lendu have been allies even though they speak different languages, because they have common interests. The northern Hema and the Lendu use the same language, but they have been enemies to the point of massacring each other. (That conflict, in fact, is the reason that the United Nations first set up a base in Bunia, at the time the largest in the world.) It is a sense of brotherhood and shared values that will bring about loyalty among peoples.

Road conditions in Congo add to the challenge of language survey work

His profound hope - ours, as well - is that a deeper understanding of God's love and of unity in Christ will help bring about reconciliation among enemy groups. Scripture in the mother tongue - hearing God speak in one's "heart language" - are part of helping people having that deeper understanding.

The conversation was too short to fully convince those present or to present all the arguments he would like to present for the development of local languages. But he is always happy when there is an opportunity to address these doubts and questions, which run deep.

Bagamba noted that, when President Kabila visited a refugee camp in the Ngiti area on that same trip, he made a great effort to speak to them in their own language, Ndruna. It made people very happy, it showed that he was close to them. Bagamba takes this as a sign that even the President recognizes the importance of mother tongue, to speak to people's hearts.

At the end of their time together, Bagamba invited the Bishop and others present to come to the celebration of International Mother Languages Day on February 20-21 (the celebration will go on for 2 days!) at Shalom University. We thank God for Bagamba's heart for mother tongue languages and for his unique position that gives him a voice with other Congolese leaders. And we pray that more Congolese will develop a vision for the development of these languages, and that it will be blessing to the people who speak them and bring glory to God.

Mother Language Day conference in 2012