Funds shortage cripple Bible translations

Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday May 15, 2018 14:29

 

According to the general secretary of the Bible Society Gabriel Tsuaneng, they have in the past translated the Bible into languages such as Senaro, a Sesarwa dialect and Kalanga.

 

The Society will launch another revised version of the Kalanga Bible on August 25. The new version will feature 66 books of the Bible.

 

“Translating the Bible into languages of other tribes is very vital because it helps restore the dignity and pride of the respective tribes.

“We do not want to put any language in the backseat when it comes to translating the Bible. Our hope is that in future we will secure more funds to translate the Bible into more languages spoken in Botswana. We are working on other ways of securing money to do more translation projects,” said Tsuaneng during a recent press conference meant to announce the launch of the new version of the Kalanga bible. 

Tsuaneng added that the production of the latest version of the Kalanga Bible which started early in 2016 gobbled around P340, 000 annually in operational costs. 

Various international donors and churches in Botswana funded the translation of the Bible. Tsuaneng further said that the new version of the Kalanga Bible would have very minimal translation errors. 

“We also decided to translate it again because previous versions of (the kalanga Bible) did not feature all 66 books of the Bible. The new version has all the chapters,” he highlighted. 

The translated Bible is currently being packaged abroad it is expected to arrive soon to prepare for the launch. 

The launch, which is billed for Francistown, is set to attract people from various parts of Botswana and countries such as the United States of America.