It was all joy on Saturday March 17, 2018 at the EP JHS School park in Vane, when the KUNYANYA VUVU Y) – Avatime New Testament was launched.

The paramount Chief of Avatime Osie Adjatekpor VII after receiving the New Testament on behalf of his people, entreated them to study the KUNYANYA VUVU Y) for life transformation. He further encouraged parents to teach their children to read in their mother tongue.

Former Supreme court judge, Justice E.D.K. Adjabeng a native of Avatime, who chaired the dedication ceremony was full of appreciation to GILLBT and partners who funded the translation and printing of the the KUNYANYA VUVU Y). His charge to his people was to collaborate and ensure the translation of the complete Avatime Bible.

GILLBT Ag. Executive Director, Rev Thomas Sayibu Imoro, in his speech, recalled and thanked all who have played various roles in making this translation possible. He welcomed a collaboration between Avatime natives and GILLBT to begin the Old Testament translation.

Rt. Rev Dr S.S. Agidi, The Moderator of the General Assembly of E.P. Church, Ghana performed the dedication rites.

 

Brief History

The Avatime (ah-vah-tee-may) community and the churches requested for assistance from GILLBT to help them translate the New Testament into Sideme (see-day-may), the language of the Avatime people.

In 2005, the late Osie Adjatekpor VI was the paramount chief of Avatime traditional area when Divine Mununkum accompanied by Elizabeth Dzomeku (a native of Avatime) visited the community to introduce himself as a GILLBT translator assigned to the Avatime New Testament Translation Project.

After the introduction, Osie introduced Divine to Jacob Komladzei, to help him settle among the Avatime people. Charles Gbagbo was involved greatly in this settlement process. Translation work began in that same year.

In 2006 a Russian family, Alexander and Lena Vinokurov and their children Anna and Daniel arrived in Ghana. They were sent to the Avatime Project to serve on the translation team.

Avatime natives were recruited and trained as mother tongue translators. These natives supervised the translation work from start to finish.

Literacy and Scripture in use staff were also trained. Both old and young were taught to read and write Sideme.

The translation also worked closely with all church denominations in Avatime.

The churches actively participated in seminars and workshops organized by the translation team on literacy and scripture use.

As part of GILLBT’s community engagement strategy, our translators attended community gatherings such as festivals and funerals. On such occasions we were given the opportunity to tell the community about the work of Bible translation.

We created awareness of the translation work in the communities and also involved the natives in our programs. GILLBT made the translation program a holistic one.

An important component of the strategic planning was to establish a Language Committee (LC). The community, through democratic means, identified and submitted names of some capable natives to serve on this committee. This committee was necessary since not everyone could be directly involved in the translation work.

The church and other Christian mission bodies in the community also had representatives on the language committee.

Though this process was time consuming, it has enabled the people of Avatime build a program that is acceptable and manageable by themselves.