Språk og etnisitet: NMS misjonen blant Gumuz i Etiopia 1970-2020

Abstract

This paper examines the work of the Norwegian Mission Society amongst the Gumuz people in Ethiopia from the perspective of linguistic and cultural sensitivity. The Norwegian missionaries were called to Ethiopia in 1970 by the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY), to work with the indigenous Gumuz population in Western Ethiopian lowlands. Despite a chal-lenging relationship to a church dominated by the majority population of the area, the Oromo, and despite changing regimes and governmental restrictions on language and evangelism work, the results of the Gumuz mission are remarkable, achieved through the presence of strong and committed missionaries. However, the NMS never developed a conclusive strategy for this work which takes the importance of linguistic and cultural factors into consideration. For a long time, no efforts for scripture translation were made and no strategies for the proclamation of the gospel in mother tongue were formulated. The ethnically based power relations in the church were never challenged. In recent times NMS has strengthened its focus, but the practical implementation is threatened due to ecclesiastical and political circumstances in Ethiopia as well as little consistent priorities from the mission organisation.