SOURCE:

Faculty: Arts
Department: Religion And Human Relations

CONTRIBUTORS:

Agbo, T. O.
Nmah, P. E.

ABSTRACT:

This research is an evaluation of the roles of Bible translation in the Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland and its consequent impact on the socio-cultural milieu of the people, particularly their language. It would be recalled that the Christianization of Igboland actually began with the Anglican (CMS) missionary enterprise, following the 1857 Niger expedition at Onitsha. Its expansion would have been a farce if the cultural context of the Igbo people, particularly their language were ignored. The need to translate, and to effectively communicate the missionary message as contained in the Bible through the language of their audience therefore became obvious for Igboland. The major problem, however, is that, in spite of these efforts, which played pivotal role in the Anglican missionary expansion; the language is yet to take the expected central position, which deservedly belongs to it in Igbo Christian religious expression. Incidentally, there is a glaring decline in the use of Igbo language in contemporary religious expressions even within the Igbo socio-cultural locale. This is evidently a loss of the original intent and a harmful undoing to the Igbo cultural identity consciousness in the global expansion of Christian mission. Inadvertently, the English language and the English Bible still enjoy wider patronage over the native language and the translated Bibles after more than one and half a century of the existence of Christianity in Igboland. In any case, the translation of the Bible into the Igbo language as a major contribution, among other factors, for Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland is doubtless. The literary development of Igbo lexicology and vocabulary as a product of missionary encounter is also evident. As a result, the impact of Bible translation for missionary expansion and its interplay with the Igbo socio-cultural realities therefore become exigent. A descriptive analysis of historical data from the evolution of the “Union Igbo” and contemporary Bible translation agencies necessarily provided the benchmark for qualitative evaluation and the conclusion that language and its effective communication has always been an indispensible tool for transferring and inculcating the concepts of various and different knowledge from one person to the other. The challenge of truly Christianizing Igboland and ‘Igbonizing’ Christianity is therefore enormous. This would be difficult to achieve until the language of the people, which is primarily their culture, is given its important place. It is true that the Igbo language usage is seemingly in the brinks, especially among the new generation Churches; this study establishes the strength and equality of the native languages in comparison with other foreign ones for effective communication of any given idea, including the religious faith. No language is better or more sacred than the other. The contemporary Church should therefore rediscover the primal motif for Igbo Bible translation, and employ its value as their contribution for the preservation of the Igbo language and especially, for more effective Anglican missionary expansion in Igboland.