Audio Scriptures help Sena people
to engage with God’s Word

By the Rev Francois Sieberhagen, UBS Africa Area Media Consultant

MALAWI — Clapperton Mayuni, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Malawi, recently made a distribution trip to Phokera, a small community on the banks of the Shire River in southern Malawi. “The people in this area suffer a lot,” he explained. “First there was drought, then floods. We cannot be sure that they are eating every day. Yet they smile despite all their hardships.”

A boy carrying a box of Sena New Testaments for distribution at Phokera, a village on the banks of the Shire River and near Bangula town, Nsanje district. The distribution took place at the Church of God, a Pentecostal Church. Malawi. Photo: UBS/Francois Sieberhagen (MAI06DJ-37.JPG)

Accompanying Mr Mayuni on this visit was Dr Barry Funnel, Director of Word for the World, the South Africa-based organisation which collaborated with local translators and churches to translate the New Testament into the local language, Sena. This project took only five years, culminating in the launch in 2000 (see Latest News #112). Even as the printed New Testament was being launched, the Bible Society acknowledged the need to also record the Sena New Testament on audio cassette for the many people among the country’s 300,000 speakers of the language who cannot read it. This was achieved in 2003 using a makeshift recording studio (see Latest News #239). So, along with 2,400 printed New Testaments, the visitors to Phokera brought with them four Faith Comes By Hearing sets containing the Sena New Testament in audio format.

“We need to bring the Word of God to these people in formats that will really help them engage and to lead a godly life,” said Mr Mayuni. “Almost 80 per cent of our people identify themselves as Christians, but this does not mean that they understand the demands of Christianity. It is therefore important that the Bible Society, with its partners, reaches out to them.”

Joyful occasion

For Dr Funnel, who has been so closely associated with the Sena translation project, this was a particularly joyful occasion. “It is exciting to be able to bring these Sena New Testaments to these people,” he said. He emphasised that supplying the Sena New Testament has direct links with literacy work being carried out in the area. “We realise that literacy is low in this area and we are therefore running a literacy program to help people develop their reading skills. Word for the World has developed primers which will be published very soon.”

Another eagerly awaited publication is the full Sena Bible, which is due to be completed later this year.