Oku Language Project

SIL volunteer, Leslie Davis, finalized the Oku Alphabet. Other SIL members contributed to the linguistic development of the Oku Language. Rev. Peter Ngum, the Project Coordinator, leads a team of 10 volunteers in the activities of Bible Translation, Literacy, Community Motivation, and Scripture Use.

A newsletter; a Diary; four parables in Big Book format; the reading & writing book is with the printer; James; and cassettes have been recorded of the reading of the Parables and James. Arithmetic 2 is being typed. The Gospel of Luke will be dedicated in December 2006 or early January 2007.

Four zones have 14 schools teaching mother tongue literacy in 23 different classes with a total of 1032 pupils. Further, in six locations, 13 literacy classes have 200 adults enrolled. Five Supervisors oversee both the adult and children’s literacy, and assist in writing articles for the newsletter, and collect short stories from the field for the Big Books. The result being, that now 1,000 Oku speakers are using their language regularly in reading and written form. Our goal is to increase by 10,000 new literate people yearly. We need your support in prayers and finances. And we need to work hard!

Translators attended the following workshops: I Corinthians, Ephesians, Philippians, Hortatory, 1 Peter and Paratext 6, and many others all organized by SIL Bamenda. Other classes included the Basic Computer Course; the Writers Workshop; the Scripture Use workshop. One literacy worker gone three times in Kenya to attend some Literacy trainings.

There are two men translating the Scriptures into Oku, Christopher Fornkwa and Mbuh Samuel. They use the exegesis of Rev. Ngum on a given text to make the first draft. This draft is keyed and printed out for a team check with Rev. Ngum, after which the text is corrected and printed for testing in the community. When testing is done, the team again revises the text and gets it ready for checking with Ginnie Bradley, the consultant. After checking, necessary corrections are made to get the text ready for publication check.

There is also a Translation Review Committee made up of 15 elite from the different denominations of Oku, who meet once a month to review the translated texts. Many love the Word of God in the language so much that some priests and pastors request scripts to be printed out for reading in their congregations. Twenty-five percent of the New Testament already done predicts the completion of the project by the year 2008.

Thirty church leaders received training to carry out Bible reading and study activities among the Oku people. They practiced how to help individuals cope with their problems by using mother tongue Scriptures as study material for reading and writing classes. The project is praying for a full-time Scripture use pastor to lead the Oku people out of ignorance to the light of God’s Word.

We are thankful for our Community Motivator and Fund Raiser, Mr. Ngvumme Emmanuel Mbanmah, who is using radio spots and other methods. The main source of project income is through CABTAL funding. However, through local efforts, 240,000frs have been donated for the project. Selling of mother tongue literature has contributed total sales two years ago of 420,000frs around $2,100

Pray that the dedication of the Gospel of Luke will be a real blessing and encouragement to the community. Pray that the InterChurch committee will be set up and work to promote the Oku Scriptures. Pray for the translation team and all the people involved in the project. Pray for the impact of the translated Scriptures in the Oku community. Please join us in praying for consistency and timeliness on the part of volunteers, and for the necessary finances and equipment. The project is continually challenged with failing equipment.