!Xun speaking San communities across the African continent will soon have a Bible in their own language. The Bible Association of South Africa is currently overseeing the translation of a Bible to !Xun, with the help of the San community.
The translations are taking place at Platfontein near Kimberley in the Northern Cape. Bible translations date back centuries and still continue in the modern day era.
“Most people can’t write English and they can’t understand English,” said one of the translators, Tinus Maqumbu.
The San translators from Namibia, Botswana and South Africa are faced with a mammoth task, as the !Xun language is not an official written language. They are using different forms of alphabets they came up with. To ensure that the holy word is not lost in translation, they also using a Hebrew language Bible as a guide.
The tedious process is adding to the challenge of delivering the new Bible in record time.
“In order to make sure that the Bible is delivered on a promised date, you need to first have this lion or elephant to cut into pieces. So, as the Bible is having 33 000 verses, then I’ve divided those verses into say how many verses per day must we translate. So I’ve come to understand that we need to translate 20 verses per day, in order to deliver the Bible in 9-years,” said the project’s manager Maenyane Baloyi.
Religious leaders are happy that they will finally be able to quote Bible verses written in their own language.
“I’m happy they have started with the! Xun translation. This is history made here in Platfontein that we can have our own Bible, in our own language. We have our own Bible in our own language like other people in the country,” said pastor Johanne Beregho.
The San community will be able to see a complete !Xun bible only after 9-years. The process of translating the Bible into !Khwe, another language spoken in the area, will follow soon after.
