Good news at last for the people of Kiribati
A story from the South Pacific, by Dr Nigel Staham

TARAWA, Kiribati — The Republic of Kiribati is a country of tiny coral atolls straddling the Equator and spread across 3,200 kms (1,988 miles) of the Pacific Ocean. It has a population of about 90,000 and a yearly income of just US$625 per person, most of which is sent home by Kiribati sailors working as deck hands on foreign merchant ships. In this situation, local funding for the production of any kind of literature in the local language for young people is very scarce. The need, on the other hand, is great: two-fifths of the population are under 15 years old!

Comics arrived

Early in the 1990s a set of young people’s Bible Comics was due to be published by the UBS. Unfortunately, the translations on which they were to be based got lost. New translations were completed in 1997 and in May 2000 the Comics arrived and went on sale in the Kiribati Bible Society Bookshop. They are still among the very few publications for children in the Kiribati language. The titles in the series are David 1 and 2, Elijah, Jeremiah, Joseph, and Moses 1 and 2.

The translator responsible was the Rev Baiteke Nabetari, Moderator of the Kiribati Protestant Church, and I myself was the Bible Society in the South Pacific Translation Consultant on the project. The people of Kiribati have more good news on the way, however. A new translation of the Kiribati Bible, sponsored by all the Protestant churches in Kiribati, is also in progress. It will be the first completely new translation for more than 100 years.

The New Testament, also the work of Mr Nabetari, is about to be printed as a pocket trial edition, and the translation of the Old Testament is about half way to completion. (WR 370/6 - 9.02)