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“efforts were made to consolidate and to domesticate Christian values. Government control over missionary activities tightened. Indigenous reaction assumed more menacing forms as the gods of the land became embattled. A new generation of educated elite emerged as the bastion of Christianity”. (p. 94).
It is no doubt that Pentecostalism brought its own evolutionary impression and impacts on the general worldview of the Igbo people. The enlightenment and liberation of the human soul often associated with their evangelistic campaigns and teachings may necessarily have proved veritable tool for the Christian religious consciousness of the Igbo. Nevertheless, what remains to be examined, is the alienation of the Igbo person, especially his language in the gamut of many Christian religious expressions, even within the Igbo socio-cultural milieu.
146 order words, the “superior” cultures tend to absorb the “inferior” cultures. On this notes, Ejiofor (1984) laments that “the Igbo language is fast being displaced not just by the international juggernaut - English - but by some more vigorously patronized Nigerian languages because the Igbo language is weakly patronized by an indigenous language – shy people” (p. 61).
In a contradistinctive evaluation of the two major languages spoken within the Igbo socio-cultural milieu, Ezeakunne (1977) nevertheless noted that:
In the East-Central State, bilingualism (Igbo-English) is here with us. Both English and Igbo are important. Igbo is a language . . . localized, but it is a symbol of the social and cultural identity of its native speakers. . . We also need the English, which is useful equipment for anyone who hopes to gain access to the secret of modern science and technology. We need English not for its own sake or for the sake of its native speakers who were once our colonial masters but for the sake of our being heard and understood by others and for our being able to understand millions and millions of others all over the world who use it as an international medium of communication. (p. 26).
However, the point of this enquiry is not that the Igbo language cannot or should not cohabit with another language, but the challenge of the assimilation of the Igbo language, and the identity of the Igbo person, even within its own cultural environment. For instance, Ejiofor (1984) is worried that “in 90% of the homes of Igbos married to expatriate wives, English is literally the mother tongue of the children. About 60-70% of such wives cannot coverse in Igbo even after living in Igboland for over ten years.” (p. 98). The fact remains that many Igbo persons tend to popularize the foreign language and habits over and above his own.
Meanwhile, it will be recalled that the earlier Christian missionaries had earlier made substantial contributions to the pioneering work of reducing the Igbo language to writing.
Abraham (cited in Ejiofor, 1984) observed that:
147 One of the first works on the language was by the German, Schon, who wrote the Isuama Ibo Primer in 1852. This was followed Polyglotta Africana by Koelle, another German. The Ibo Cookery Book was written by Gladys Plummer in 1947 . . . The missionaries were on their part busy translating the Bible or portions of it, the Missal, the Prayer book, as well as Catechisms into Igbo language. (p. 101).
The paucity or perhaps lack of emphasis in certain quarters of Igbo cultural environment, particularly within some religious domain to continue and to extend the Igbo language is disappointing. Unfortunately, as observed by Ejiofor (1984), “in place of a vigorous sponsorship programme, the Igbo languge was for decades subjected to campaigns of slander and defamatory myths by the very people who should have promoted it” (p. 101). To explicate further, it is evident that Igbo traders in the North learn Hausa because they have to in order to sell, and every other person speaks it. The same is applicable with those in Yorubaland. But the Hausa cattle trader in Igboland need not learn Igbo – his Igbo customers stutter Hausa to him in order to buy from him. Thus, one would agree with Nnaji (cited in Ejiofor, 1984) when he said, “I fear that in this part of the country (Igboland), we tend not to speak our mother tongue fluently. In short, one can say that WE ARE ALIENS IN OUR MOTHER’S DOORSTEP” (p. 118).
It is therefore, the socio-cultural import of Bible translation in Igbo Language as a form and pattern of consolidating the expansion of Anglican mission in Igboland and the development of Igbo language and literacy that remains to be evaluated. There is no doubt that coupled with its educational policies, Bible translation in Igboland spelt a particular and significant landmark in the general Igbo history. These considerations would form the focus of the subsequent chapter in which we shall be x-raying the historical perspectives of Bible translation, particularly in the Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland.
148 CHAPTER FOUR
BIBLE TRANSLATION IN ANGLICAN MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE
Over time, those who have been caught with the passion of missionary expansionism have often and necessarily been confronted with the need for Bible translation, especially into immediate native languages. This is because right understanding, interpretation and application of biblical texts, which is the main content of the message of the Christian faith, would be dangerously bereaved without correct translation. Consequently, the Anglican missionaries in Igboland were, therefore faced with this challenge. It would be recalled that persons like Jerome, Martin Luther, John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Bishop Ajai Crowther, Rev. John Christopher Taylor, Archdeacon Thomas John Dennis and a host of other reformers and missionaries understood this and thus pursued the course of Bible translation as a necessity for evangelism and missionary expansion in their generation.
This is because, the understanding and interpretation of the content of the Bible for effective preaching is no less dependent on correct translation and availability of the translated Bible. This is what several earlier translation efforts, such as the Septuagint in about 280BC, (which was the Old Testament Greek translation from the Hebrew), and in fact the Bible Society of Nigeria, Catholic Biblical Apostolate of Nigeria, Nigerian Bible Translation Trust and other translation agencies had vigorously pursued. These efforts to translate the Bible from its original Hebrew/Aramaic and Greek roots, to enhance effective propagation of the gospel of Jesus Christ by the Christian missions has not been without some nascent impediments and major challenges.
This chapter would therefore necessarily evaluate the contributions and challenges of Bible translation into Igbo language to Anglican missionary expansion among the Igbo people.