Genesis in the Zinza Language!

Can you imagine reading the Bible in your own language for the first time? The Zinza people here in the Mara region of Tanzania now have the Bible's first book, Genesis, in their language. A dedication ceremony was held in one of their villages, and I jumped at the chance to go.

A large warehouse-type building had been festively decked out for the ceremony. The banner in the photo reads "The First Book" in Zinza. Everyone came who had a hand in the translation, as well as local church leaders, missionary guests, and of course, the honored guests: any other Zinza who could come (some of the communities live on islands in Lake Victoria). Standing in front of the table in the photo is Tim Gilmore. His family has been working with the Zinza language for several years before moving to Musoma to join the cluster project here (targeting nine languages simultaneously). This translation of Genesis is the fruit of their labors. Behind the table stands Rod McGarvie, director of our Uganda-Tanzania branch.



An Africa Inland Church choir helped lead the celebrations. Churches here love their choirs, and I was excited to be in an environment where I could finally take some pictures. Choir performances are a combination of song and choreography, accompanied by a keyboard and its synthesized beat. It's very neat to see.

In the picture below a little boy is visible on the far left. He's part of the choir, too. Church choirs are usually composed of men, women, and kids. (Also, I think most choirs wear matching clothes only on special occasions like this.)

The Zinza also performed some of their traditional dancing. This is not something we get to see very often! First they had to literally "warm up" their drums near a fire outside. Then they proceeded in, first the men beating the drums, and then the women.

A couple men sat in chairs with their drums, and everyone else formed a long column behind them. As the beat started, the column moved slowly forward, curling around the drummers, gaining energy as the dance continued. As Chris Gilmore said, "The Zinza like to have all the bells and whistles." Indeed, several of the men had whistles clenched in their teeth and bells tied around their ankles. Every stomp and every breath added to the cacophony of sound. Women did their part with their joyful high trilling.

Here you can see some of the audience. Everyone stood up to get a better view.

At last it was time to bring in the boxes of the new books. The choir carried them in, a pair to a box, dancing their way down the aisle. The local bishop did the honors; after slicing the tape to open the first box, he pulled out two copies of the Zinza Genesis and held them high over his head for all to see. The whole building cheered. Afterwards two of the Zinza translators read selected passages aloud--the first time God's Word had been read publicly in their language.

Now this people group can read one of the Bible's 66 books in their heart language. More books will (hopefully) soon follow. How wonderful to think that I can have a small part in this work!

The whole dedication lasted longer than this account might indicate. "Pomp and ceremony" is the rule at proceedings such as this. Various VIPs gave speeches, but they were relatively brief. The whole program, plus the following meal, had to be kept within a time frame that would allow several of our vehicles to make the afternoon's last ferry back to the city of Mwanza!

When the Zinza danced, I switched my little camera into video mode for a while. The resulting "footage" isn't of the highest quality, but the experience was unique enough that I wanted to share: