NDEBO MBUYA AND ITS READERSHIP: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

One cannot think of religion without bringing in language use. From time immemorial, language has played a very vital role as a vehicle of communication in matters of religion. Hence missionaries always strove to teach the native languages of the communities in which they work so as to effectively spread the word of God. Oftentimes the starting point has been with the translation of the Bible into these vernacular languages, a practice which continues to this day. The Kalanga Bible Translation Project started the translation of the New Testament into Ikalanga in the mid 1980s. The work stretched over a period of 12 years and the result was the publication of Nedbo Mbuya in 1999 by the Botswana Bible Society. The publication of Ndebo Mbuya was perceived as a major milestone in the promotion of Ikalanga. This paper therefore considers Ndebo Mbuya, the New Testament, and the role it has played in promoting the use of the Ikalanga language. Secondly, the paper looks at whether this Bible has played any significant role in changing the native speaker's attitudes towards the language, given the marginal use of the language in the country. The paper further highlights some of the sociolinguistic and linguistic problems which surrounded the use of this Bible. However, lack of use of Ikalanga in some of the main domains in the country may have negative effects on the use of this Bible. It is hoped that an analysis of this nature will help understand some of the problems associated with the production and distribution of the later versions of this Bible.