CÔTE D’IVOIRE — Ever since its launch and dedication in May this year, the Krahn:Tchien New Testament has been increasingly used in churches, seminaries and by Christians in their personal devotions, while literacy classes using it are also flourishing, reports Margaret Bohoussou, Manuscript Examiner at the Daloa Translation Centre.

The dedication itself was a colourful and cheerful occasion, with the tone set by a large choir of children leading everyone in a processional song and by the enthusiastic master of ceremonies appointed to lead the 500-strong gathering for the occasion.

In addition to the usual speeches and singing, the history of the translation project was told in the form of an amusing drama where the actors depicted a bewildered review committee trying to understand a foreigner whose name sounded to them like ‘Tee-shirt’. 

Pentecostal Church pastor the Rev Herb Tisher had arrived in Liberia in 1973, where he continued the work already begun by Annie Cressman in the mid-1950s who translated the first ‘Good News for the Whole World’ (which inspired the UBS production of the Good News Bible). The leading actress was Patricia Brown, widow of the late President Doe’s security chief who was killed at the same time as the former Liberian leader.

Translator Rufus Dowoyee, Herb Tisher and a review committee were busily into the work when the war started in Liberia in 1990, at which time many Tchien speakers fled Liberia, while the Tisher family returned to Canada. A year later they contacted Rufus, who had settled with his family in Côte d’Ivoire, and having located a mission school for their children in central Côte d’Ivoire the Tishers decided to return there to complete the translation project. The task was completed in 1994. 

The Krahn people are refugees from Liberia who have settled in western Côte d’Ivoire since 1990. Some live in scattered towns like Toulepeu and Bloléquin, but most remain in the refugee camp, aptly named ‘Peace Town’, which was built in 1995 just outside Guiglo. And it was here, just outside the camp’s community centre, that the dedication was held.

After the choir had sung ‘Send the Light’, Herb Tisher responded: “We are bringing the light to you in your own language today,” and then one of the church leaders led the people in prayer – that peace would return to Liberia so that they could soon take the gospel message back to their own country. The first public reading of the New Testament was duly undertaken by Betty Gaye, who chaired the translation project, and the words were greeted with cheers.