Mara Cluster

Lake Victoria is Mara Region's western border.
(Tanzania)

The Place

The Mara Region lies in the Northwest of Tanzania, and is the northernmost area of the country. Lake Victoria creates Mara’s western edge, the Kenyan border is the northern boundary, and Serengeti National Park wraps around the southern and eastern sides.

The Need

Around 1.4 million people live in Mara Region, which makes it the most densely populated area of Tanzania with the fewest churches. A wide variety of denominations comprise the churches which are present, and a majority of people call themselves Christians. But without the Word in the heart languages of these people, it is still traditional religion which claims people’s loyalties.

The Cluster

Mara Cluster language work began in 2005 with developing partnership with local churches. The local church leaders responded very positively when they first heard of the plan to do language survey in order to better understand the situation in the region, with the intent of Scripture translation in the future. The survey, which was done in 2005-2006, found that there are at least 14 languages in the Mara Region. Twelve of these languages are of the Bantu language family, and so are similar to one another. The two non-Bantu languages both have at least the New Testament already translated. The survey showed that several of the Bantu languages are very closely related and will likely be able to use one translation, and that another language already has a good New Testament translation.

The Project

Mara Cluster team. (Tanzania)

Linguistic work was began in earnest in 2006. The Mara Cluster team has worked with Tanzanians from eight languages to develop alphabets and writing systems for their languages. Bible translation begins in 2008 with the Gospel of Luke. Literacy work will be necessary, in order to teach people to read and write their own languages using the newly developed writing systems, and it is hoped that it will begin in 2009. Meanwhile, the cluster team is still busy building partnerships with local churches and doing further research about the sounds and grammar of these eight languages and testing the proposed writing systems.

Take a look at what is happening in this exciting work:

• Mara Cluster Team

Find out more about our language projects in the Mara Cluster Project.

For more information visit the following pages:

• Learn more about Tanzania
• Learn more about Bantu Language Clusters

   

Jan 28, 2010 We can’t have two Josephs Written by Misha S. To give a good idea of some of the issues that can come up when checking a Bible translation, here are some examples of what a translation consultant (Patrick) experienced while checking Luke 1-2 in both the Zanaki and Ikizu languages. The translators are Tanzanians working full-time as mother tongue Bible translators, and a Wycliffe missionary (Michelle) is the translation advisor. Read more...

Jan 27, 2010 Remotely Viable Written by Dave B Earlier this week the Mara Cluster Project conducted a Bible translation consultant check of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22 in the Simbiti language. Nothing unusual, right? Well, not really. The consultant was in Holland and the translation team in a small town in Tanzania.  Read more...

Jan 6, 2010 Tea for Two Chapters Written by Alison C. The Mara Cluster project recently published the Christmas Story in nine languages--a welcome Christmas gift for the two million people of the Mara Region. Pastor Waynse is a Simbiti Bible translator and he shared this testimony about the distribution of the Christmas story (Luke 1-2). Read more...

Sep 4, 2009 King Tauti Written by Rachel W. At the end of a translation checking session with the Ngoreme community, we all (translators and advisors) had a chance to thank the participants and explain why we are translating the Bible into Ngoreme. I shared how the Bible is a book that touches our hearts, not just our minds. So it needs to use the language of our hearts, our mother tongue. I saw several people nod their heads. When I was finished, one man spoke up.  He said that hearing the Scriptures read in his mother tongue touched him deeply. He said even just hearing the name ‘David’ pronounced ‘Tauti’ in Ngoreme (which is pronounced different in Swahili) had impacted him powerfully. Read more...

Aug 11, 2009 Deep Words Written by Misha S. You can imagine what a pastor for more than 30 years might feel as he anticipates hearing Scripture read in his mother tongue for the first time. And imagine his feelings when he hears these words in the church of his childhood. Read more...