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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
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
For more information visit the following pages:
- Learn more about Tanzania
- Learn more about Bantu Language Clusters
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Mar 23, 2009
Itagusa Moyo “It will Touch the Heart”![]() |
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Mar 23, 2009
The Gift of Space![]() |
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Nov 7, 2008
Same burden, new desire![]() |
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Sep 22, 2008
Never late and worth the wait![]() |
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Feb 28, 2008
The key that unlocked scripture
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- "You are just wasting your time!" (Dec 10, 2007)
- "This is very good" (Dec 10, 2007)
- The Blessing (Nov 26, 2007)
- Imagine! (Jun 15, 2007)



