Sandawe

Home is where you live (Sandawe, Tanzania)

Imagine having a daily ritual of walking a well to get water for yourself and your family. It is a shallow well, dug in the sand, in which water gathers very slowly. As the water table sinks in the dry season you have to make your well deeper and deeper and sometimes wait for hours until you can fill your buckets. When this proves too difficult you set off to get water from the village pump. Although you have to pay a fee and the water tastes slightly salty it's better than nothing. When you arrive, however, the village pump is broken.

When the shallow wells are dry and the village pump broken, it is a serious problem. People have to walk further to neighboring villages in hopes there will be water there. This scenario repeats itself at irregular intervals over the years. Whenever the water table falls and digging in the sand doesn’t yield the precious commodity, the demand for water from the village pumps increases.

Some years, the conditions become so desperate that the Sandawe are faced with a famine. However, God loves the Sandawe people and desires that they hunger and thirst for the truth and come to Him with their needs.

The language of the Sandawe people is very different from their neighbors, as Sandawe is classified as a Khoisan, or click language. The Sandawe language is very complex and quite difficult to read and write. Adult literacy rate in the national language Swahili is 80%, but in practice very few Sandawe are active readers. Bible Translation  work among the Sandawe is continuing at a slow but steady pace.

1. About the Sandawe -General information about the Sandawe people.
2. Sandawe Language Project - Find out more about this click language.
3. Pray - Support the Sandawe people through prayer.
4. Tanzania Info - Country information.

There is now an exciting new tool available to those Sandawe who own a smart phone or have access to the internet via computer. The Sandawe team has created a webpage onto which it has uploaded all the translated Bible texts in written, audio and some even in video format. Also posted are some cultural Sandawe stories as well as the alphabet chart and the transition primer (tool used to teach the Sandawe people to read their own language). Have a look at Sandawe website.

Apr 23, 2015 Sandawe materials online Written by Elisabeth H. A new website has been created by the Sandawe Team which will enable a greater number of people to access Sandawe materials digitally. Read more...

Dec 15, 2014 People LOVE the Sandawe 'redio' Written by Elizabeth H. People LOVE the Sandawe ‘redio', as they call the MegaVoice players. More people have asked for one and we need to refer them to the players that have already been given out so they can share them with each other. Read more...

Apr 6, 2009 Burst into Jubilant song! Written by Amy W. "Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music." Psalm 98:4 Give thanks and praise to God for a great Sandawe song-writing workshop that was held in the village of Magambua in August 2008! There were 20 participants in the workshop and 15 new Sandawe worship songs were composed and recorded, including Psalm 98:4 seen above. What a blessing it is when people all over the earth shout for joy to the one true Lord in the language that touches them most! Read more...

Apr 2, 2009 A new beginning Written by Amy W. The Sandawe experienced a new beginning with the completion of chapters 1-11 from the book of Genesis in their language. The dedication was on December 17, 2008, in a village called Gumbu. Read more...

Mar 31, 2009 Go where the people are Written by Amy W. Part of my role as a Scripture Use Worker is getting the translated Scriptures out to the people. God has provided many opportunities for me to travel around the local language area to build relationships and help people become aware that their language is now a written language and that there is an alphabet, stories, songs and portions of God's Word in their language. Read more...