'Most Precious Moment' for Swati Speakers
by the Rev Neville Turley, Assistant General Secretary, Communication,
Bible Society of South Africa
A complete Bible in Swati has been jointly published by the Bible
Society of South Africa and the Bible Society in
Swaziland. For the first time ever the nearly two million Swati speakers
living in Swaziland and South Africa will be able to read and hear the
Bible in their own language.
Full Bible
"This most precious moment occurs only once in the history of any language,"
said Dr Donald Tolmie, BSSA General Secretary. "For the English it [effectively*]
happened in 1611 when the King James Bible was published, for Afrikaans
speakers it happened in 1933. Now in 1997 it is the turn of the Swati-speaking
people." Until now, Swati speakers wanting to read the full Bible have
had to read it in English or Zulu.
History
History has it that King Somhlolo, the founder of the nation, who ruled
over Swaziland in 1844, had a vision in which he saw people of a
different colour, coming to him bearing two objects. One was a book (umculu),
the other a circular object (indilinga). The king was advised in his dream
to spurn the circular object (interpreted as money), but to take the book
(the Bible), so he sent four messengers to find the men with the Book.
They went down to the Methodist Mission at Thaba Nchu in the Free State
and their visit resulted in two missionaries going to Swaziland in 1844.
Vision fulfilled
Now the full Swati Bible has been published, and King Somhlolo's vision
of 153 years ago, which was partly fulfilled with the coming of the missionaries
bearing the Christian Gospel in 1844, has at last been perfectly fulfilled.
Thirty thousand copies of the Swati Bible have been printed in Cape Town
and these will be jointly distributed by the BSSA and the Bible Society
in Swaziland.
LATEST: His Majesty King Mswati III has instructed that a special
thanksgiving day to celebrate the arrival of the first Swati Bible be held,
at which time copies will be presented to the Prime Minister, Minister
of Education, and Minister of Home Affairs of Swaziland. A special launch
of this Bible in South Africa is also scheduled to take place on May 25.
Background:
The BSSA, in close liaison with the Bible Society in
Swaziland, had been working on the translation of the Bible into Swati
since 1973, and a translation office was established in Mbabane, Swaziland
in 1976. The New Testament was published in 1981 and an edition with Psalms
in 1986.
Estimated number of speakers: 1,620,000 (more than 1
million of whom are in South Africa).
* The
first complete Bible in English was published in 1535 by Miles Coverdale.
This page was last updated on Thursday, 22nd May
1997.