Download Translating the Kuranko Bible for Sierra Leone

Rejlections 8 (Spring 2004): 11-14
A BriefHistmy
A short while after we arrived in Sierra Leone in 1971, the Kuranko New
Testament, translated by Hazel Shoup with the help of Rev. John Marah and
published by the United Bible Societies, was distributed to the churches. Prior to
that time, all they had were portions of the New Testament in Kuranko and the
entire New Testament in the Manika language of Guinea where Kuranko pastors
had previously been trained. The New Testament was well received, and people
began memorizing verses and using it in literacy classes as well as in all church
meetings.
The Koinadugu Bible Training School (now destroyed by rebel activity)
was also producing literature necessary for the training of pastors which involved
translating portions of the Old Testament in Kuranko. Ruth Schierling was the
principle coordinator for the translation work there and was a great inspiration to
us.
After fifteen years of church planting ministry, we saw the need for the
addition of the Old Testament. Because of the Muslim influence among Kurankos,
many of the customs of the Old Testament are well understood by them. They also
practice animal sacrifice, and in order for them to fully appreciate the sacrifice of
God's Son, the Old Testament seemed necessary.
By this time the Lutheran Bible Translators (LBT) had begun work in
Sierra Leone in other languages, and the Christian Extension Services (CES) [of
the Christian Reform Church] had begun a church planting work in the Kuranko
area. The LBT approached us to see if we would be willing to get the additional
training needed in order to translate the entire Old Testament in Kuranko. The
LBT, the CES, and the Missionary Church agreed together to share in the
translation effort. The translation would be supervised by United Bible Societies,
who would check the accuracy with the Hebrew text throughout.
After attending the Summer Institute of Linguistics of the Wycliffe Bible
Translators to get the additional training in translation principles, we returned to
Sierra Leone and began the process in the fall of 1986. The LBT had already done
Reflections: Bible Translations Overseas
a dialect survey and determined that the Sengbe dialect spoken near Kabala was the
most widely understood and admired dialect among Kurankos. So we had to move
from the area where we had done church planting to the Kabala area where we
began recognizing the differences between the dialects.
We feel that the Lord led us in providing Balansama S. Marah, a new
Christian attending the Bible school, with a deep appreciation for his own language.
He was also one of the first Christians from the Sengbe dialect. Everything that he
has translated is enjoyed tremendously because he brought freshness to the text.
He made it sound as though the Bible was originally written in his language, unlike
foreign language translators, who often stay so close to the English text that the
receptor language ends up sounding unnatural.
We also employed two other nationals representing two other major
dialects of Kuranko used in Sierra Leone. They helped ensure that what Balansama
said would also be understood in their dialects; hence, Philip M. Koroma and
Samuel K. Koroma were a valuable part of the team for our next two terms of
service.
We did our work a bit differently than what is being taught in the world of
translation now. Jan and I were the exegetes for the text; that is, we had the task of
plowing through the various English texts in order to determine the meaning. At
present, nationals are encouraged to receive the needed translation training and do
the work themselves. We kept three English translations open at all times and had a
stack of commentaries and Bible dictionaries at hand to aid us in determining the
meaning. After we were comfortable with what we felt the text said, we then
restated it using the Krio language, which all of the Kuranko translation helpers
knew. From their response, we could tell if what they said in Kuranko was accurate.
The Bible Societies' consultants, who have checked the whole translation,
were invaluable to the work. Dr. John Ellington, Rev. Don Slager and Dr. Robert
Koops gave a great many weeks to make sure that the translation well represented
the original texts.
In 1994, we had just completed the rough draft of the Kuranko Old
Testament when rebel activities forced us to leave Sierra Leone and return to the
USA. In order to complete the Bible Societies' checks and to do the revision of the
New Testament required by the Bible Societies, we had to find a Kuranko to help us.
That required bringing nationals to the States and, some years later, traveling to the
country of Gambia, north of Sierra Leone, where Dr. Koops and many Kuranko
refugees are living.
God provided a Kuranko, Mr. F. P. Koroma, of Bluffton, Indiana, in an
interesting way. We met a Christian salesman who told us that some years earlier
he had been working in a factory alongside an African. During his break one day at
work, he was having his devotions and God impressed some words into his mind
that seemed African. He decided to say them to the African with whom he worked.
The African was astonished to hear this man speaking his own language. The man
asked what he had said. He told him that he had said that God was not pleased
Logan: Translating the Kuranko Bible
with how he had been living and he needed to get his life straightened out. The
salesman got us connected, and F. P. Koroma has been a very great help in these
checking sessions here in the USA. He is a strong member of his church in Bluffton
now.
The Bible Societies' consultant checks were completed on both the Old
and New Testaments at 2:20 p.m. on February 20, 2002. Since that time we have
returned to Sierra Leone to have the entire Bible read in Kuranko villages by a team
of readers looking to make improvements in the Kuranko wording and to create an
interest in the translation. Everyone excitedly returned to Freetown with reports
that people were anxious to get their completed Kuranko Bibles. We feel that a little
more work still needs to be done on some ofthe New Testament epistles before
they will be ready for publication.
Translation Anecdotes
In narrative passages which comprise most of the historical books of the
Old Testament as well as the Gospels and Acts, the text was fairly
uncomplicated to translate. We had fun doing this type of text. When a
Biblical character, whose messages we had been translating for months,
died, we all felt the sadness.
The figurative language used in the poetic books sometimes had to be
expanded to make a metaphor clear to the reader. In Kuranko, "The Lord is
my Shepherd" is unfolded to say that "the Lord will take care of me like a
shepherd takes care of his sheep."
What probably gave us the most difficulty was the description of the
Tabernacle in the Wildemess (Exodus 25-27, 30, 36-39) and Solomon's
Temple (I Kings 6-7, Ezekiel 40-44), especially when the commentaries
admitted that the meaning of the Hebrew was unclear.
The genealogies, which are prominent in the Old Testament, were difficult
in that all the names had to be transliterated (re-spelled so that a Kuranko
could pronounce them), and a list of them had to be kept so that no two
were spelled exactly alike.
Quoted material was difficult to translate because this translation will be
heard more than it is read. Direct quotations can be misunderstood, such
as when Moses quoted God and said, "I am the Lord your God who
brought you out of Egypt ...." To the Kuranko hearer, this could be
misinterpreted as Moses saying that he was the Lord. We had to rephrase
that kind of statement and say, Moses said, "God says that He is the Lord
your God who brought you out of Egypt .... "
Reflections: Bible Translations Overseas
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The Old Testament has more "earthy" things to be translated than the
New Testament does. We had to depend on nationals to give us
renderings that could be read in public and not cause embarrassment to
the hearers. As in all languages, Kuranko has different levels of speech;
i.e., street language, colloquial language, and technical language. Later
comprehension testing would find out when a reading was too "vivid" for
certain bodily functions. The fellows didn't even want a woman around
when we did the Song of Solomon.
In matters of death and dying, there are direct ways to say things and
there are more pleasant ways, euphemisms. We departed from such
Hebraisms as, "Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers," (I Kings 22:50) which
gives a wrong meaning to a Kuranko. We used a Kuranko idiom that said
he "changed his residence." If the person who died was ungodly, we said
flatly that he died, something that you wouldn't say about someone
respectable in Kuranko. Other Hebraisms which would not be understood
correctly had to be dealt with in a similar fashion, such as, "birds of the
air," and "fish of the sea." A Kuranko would say, "Where else would you
see a fish?"
When we came to "From now on you will no longer be fishers of fish but a
fisher of men," we had a problem because the Kuranko word for fisherman
is commonly "fish killer." Were they to become "killers of men" now?
One word for shepherd in Kuranko refers to the boy in charge of keeping
the sheep away from the rice spread out on mats to dry. Does our Good
Shepherd keep us away from the good food?
In conclusion, we feel honored to have been the ones chosen to provide
God's Word for a people group that is now emerging from the savage horrors of
rebel invasions. As we were once told by a Sierra Leonean, "The Muslims came
and brought the Koran in Arabic which we can read a little. The white man came
with his English Bible which we can now read. But this (Kuranko Bible) is
something that speaks in my language and that I can really understand." If the
Lord tarries, we trust this translation will be used to speak to thousands in their
heart language.