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.

Mara Cluster team. (Tanzania)

The Project

Linguistic work began in earnest in 2006. The Mara Cluster team worked with Tanzanians from eight languages to develop alphabets and writing systems for their languages. An already-existing translation project for the Zinza language joined the Mara Cluster in 2009, and later that year all nine translation teams began translating the Gospel of Luke. Literacy work is in the early stages of teaching people to read and write their own languages using the newly-developed writing systems, and a Scripture Use department is developing materials and activities aimed to encourage people in the language communities to engage with Scripture in the various languages.

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.

Ikizu Ikoma Kabwa Kwaya Jita

Ngoreme Simbiti Zanaki Zinza

For more information visit the following pages:

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

   

Jan 5, 2012 Motivated! Written by Albinus W. As part of their regular work routine, the Simbiti translation team invited a Simbiti man to come to the translation office in Musoma town for a couple days. His job was to listen to them read Luke chapters 7 through 15 in his language, Simbiti, and help them improve their translation. Read more...

Jan 5, 2012 Pure Zanaki Written by Misha S. When we finished drafting chapters 12-20 of Genesis, we traveled to a small Zanaki village named Mirwa to read the chapters aloud to people and see if they understood them or not and to get help with a few difficult words.  In Mirwa, we were fortunate to have a large group of people, mostly non-Christians, who wanted to listen to the stories about Abraham. Read more...

Nov 29, 2011 Coming or Going? Written by Misha S. The Jita translators and I recently spent two weeks with a translation consultant working on the first fourteen chapters of Acts.  One day we encountered an interesting problem in Acts 10:33a.  It's one of those half-verses that doesn't have anything particularly theological in it, so it didn't seem likely to have any translation issues. Read more...

Oct 28, 2011 A new Question Written by Andrew S The Mara Cluster Project, have come a long way with beginning Bible translation in many of the local languages, but a question that comes up is, "How many people in the area actually know what we are doing and why we are doing it?"  We all realize the importance of church and community involvement and hope for a continued buildup of anticipation for Scripture availability in these languages. Read more...

Jun 3, 2011 “Naomi has a son!” Written by Misha S. The Ikizu and Zanaki translators and I recently checked their translations of the book of Ruth.  In the process of doing so, they taught me something new about the story. Read more...