Working better together
by David Ringer
Cameroon
Two men survey a grassy plain in the cool light of dawn. I can't read their thoughts, but I wonder if they are thinking about the future of all the people who live on Cameroon's Ndop Plain. They might even be thinking about the future of Bible translation itself -- big thoughts to be sure, but Novethan Shanui and Dan Grove are one face of an increasingly important strategy for Bible translation and related ministries around the world.
Novethan is a young Cameroonian pastor who was born in Bambalang village on the Ndop Plain. His mother tongue is Chirambo. Dan is a Canadian pastor-turned-Bible-translator who lives in Cameroon with his wife, Melody, and their children, Caleb, Sam and Anna.
Together, they are part of the Ndop Cluster project, which aims to translate Scripture into the languages of the Ndop Plain and to see that Scripture having an impact on people's hearts and lives.
These days, cluster projects are a hot topic in the Bible translation world. No, it's not a brand new idea, nor is it a magical solution to immense and complex challenges that translators face. But in more and more places around the globe, Wycliffe and its partners are recognizing that cluster projects are smart, effective ways to work in a rapidly changing world.
So what is a cluster project? Clusters necessarily look very different in different parts of the world, but in general, the idea is to share ideas and expertise, maximize resources, increase community motivation and involvement, and build capacity for future work by working with groups of related languages instead of working separately on individual language projects. Cluster projects tend to emphasize training, workshops and group sessions at a common location, such as a regional center or provincial capital.
In some places, travel even over short distances is very difficult, and sometimes languages have no close relatives. Not every situation is suited to a cluster approach, but in much of Sub-Saharan Africa, we do find groups of related languages in reasonable geographic proximity to one another.
The Ndop Cluster includes 10 languages on the Ndop Plain, which is home to about 180,000 people. Their cultures and ways of life are similar; most people are subsistence farmers who live in mud-brick family compounds. Animism is the dominant belief system, though sometimes it is dressed in the trappings of Christianity or another religion. The vast majority of people on the plain are monolingual or have only “market ability” in Cameroon Pidgin, a simplified derivative of English.
“They can go to church in the morning and sing, dance and pray and then go home in the afternoon and sacrifice a chicken for a dead ancestor,” says Dan. “Are they reached even though they have a church to go to on Sunday? For me the answer is a resounding 'NO!'”
Thus, the area was identified as having a high need for Bible translation and also as being a good candidate for a pilot cluster project.
Dan and Melody moved with their family to Bambalang in 2003, beginning an early phase of the project. They were soon joined by Cam and Valerie Hamm and then by Jon and Sandra Blackwell and Christine Devisser.
The teams decided to settle in different villages and begin learning different languages. Though they identify with the project as a whole and do their planning together, they believe it is important to build deeper personal relationships and learn more language and culture by concentrating on specific communities, particularly in the early stages of the project. (For these and other reasons, cluster projects often have team-to-language ratios between 1-to-1 and 1-to-2.)
Their first job was to build vision and support for the work among local church and community leaders. Traditional authority structures are strong in this part of Cameroon, and when the fons (kings) and traditional councils lent their support to the project, the doors were open to proceed.
From the beginning, the teams took the approach that they had come as mentors, facilitators and consultants -- not to do all the work themselves. So, they began asking church and community leaders to identify people who could work with them as the project got underway.
Most languages on the Ndop Plain did not have any sort of alphabet at the time the cluster project began, so one of the initial project goals was to develop or finalize an alphabet for each of the 10 languages. Working in cooperation with local language committees and several short-term volunteers, that goal was completed in early 2008.
Many people, from young children up to government leaders, have expressed their excitement at seeing their language written down for the first time. Novethan and his brother Franklin (a school teacher) say that the ability to read and write in Chirambo will bring about a better future for their people.
The brothers believe that illiteracy and the lack of education affect their people's entire outlook and way of life, keeping them impoverished not only physically but spiritually and intellectually as well. For example, villagers regularly drown in the nearby Bamendjing Reservoir because they refuse to follow basic water safety procedures, and wild rumors periodically sweep through the village, causing irrational panic and alarm. Christianity is perceived as a foreign, white man's religion and has little or no relevance to daily life.
“Somebody lives better when he is able to read and write, even if he doesn't have a white-collar job,” says Novethan. “The person will reason better.”
“Because we don't know how to read and write, it has affected Christianity so much,” he continues. “It will help the people to be better Christians [when they can] read the Bible and reason things out for themselves.”
In March 2008, translation officially began in Bambalang and Bamunka villages. The process will begin in a third village soon. Reflecting on the occasion, Dan describes feeling “a shift in the universe.” He says, “It will never be the same again. We will begin to see the Sonrise in a new dawn.”
The teams still have much foundational and relational work to do in order to see translations started in the remaining seven languages. They hope to have all 10 villages underway by 2010. “Our biggest prayer would be for the Lord to show us godly and qualified men and women from each of these languages so we can begin helping them prepare for the start of translation in two years,” Dan says.
Pius Mbahlegue, another young pastor from Bambalang, wanted to express his appreciation to the Canadian church as he reflected on all that he has seen in the last few years. “Thank you for sending us people like Dan who have a heart for God and who teach the people practically and live the life,” he says. “Dan will go into the mud [to help us]. We like people like that to work with us.”
Dan and Melody believe that mentoring young men and women like Pius and his wife, Delphine, and the brothers Franklin and Novethan is one of the most important things that they can do. After all, a completed book is of little value if no one has the skill or the vision to use it. But a group of knowledgeable and passionate people with the Word of God in their hands? Well, they could change the world.