God's word and death, in Kwazulu-Natal

“Mfazi” used to be the Zulu word for woman… today it is a pretty serious insult. I suppose we could relate this to our english word which, years ago we would have used in reference to a female dog, but today is something rather different. A big push these days in the bible industry is “gender-neutral” versions so no one is offended… in the Zulu language there is no word for “he” or “she” they only have “it”. Men and women are not referred to as he or she but rather as “it”- “it is going to the store…” or, “it took my sheep…” What do we do with that in translating from the English language to the Zulu?

In my last blog I mentioned I was heading off to purchase 20 Zulu bibles for some new believers in our community. This time I am proud to announce that with the help of friends I was able to bring home 88! This is very exciting, bibles are so rare around here that it seems every day someone is asking for one.

Now, I am letting you in on what we are dealing with here in regards to getting the word of God into the hearts and minds of believers. The beginning paragraph is only a couple of examples of the difficulties found in translating the bible from English into Zulu. The only Zulu translations available are a Gideon version translated some time before 1959. South Africa is experiencing major rapid changes, many adults are close to being illiterate, and in school our children are studying 3 different languages-- in consideration of these dynamics we can imagine the Zulu language is evolving quite a bit, and has since the original Zulu bible was translated. Therefore, while it is exciting to have many brand-new bibles to hand out, perhaps you can see the greater difficulty of actually transferring the printed words into their hearts and minds.

Death seems to be everywhere here…

The other night I was particularly touched by how common death is to these people. I felt like playing my guitar while my “daughter” scrubbed my floor. (I tell you she loves doing this- she does my laundry and cleans for me and I want to give her money but she says it’s her job… so I buy her presents instead and she loves it! My wall also is getting covered with valentine type hand-drawn cards). So, while I was on my front porch playing my guitar I felt like singing an english song which the Zulu people sing called “Sweet Jesus”. Then I went on to play some other tunes when my neighbor came out to dump her dish water. She stopped and told me that she appreciated my singing, it was very beautiful and especially the song “Sweet Jesus”. She said that her older sister used to sing it to her when they were little girls. She went on to say that her sister had died just two years ago and just before I had come outside to sing she had been filled with thoughts and memories of her. I must say I was very touched. In the calm night I played the song again, this time with more feeling.
A couple days later I asked one of our caretakers how she herself was doing, she said she was doing well but looking at her face I knew she was not being honest. I told her so and she shared that her brother, and the husband of the woman I just mentioned (with the song)-- was dying. Death seems to be everywhere, it seems that everyone I talk with here has had an immediate relative die.

Death is a major aspect of the culture here… should we leave their culture alone and say we are respecting their differences? And as some would ask “who am I to judge what other people do”? Or should we recognize that we humans are sinful beings, and that culture is created by us, therefore much of what we do in our culture is rooted in sin and should be changed? It is my personal prayer that through the teaching and understanding of Christ in God’s word, we will see a culture redeemed. That the sinful aspects of the Zulu culture will be repented of and the beautiful ones will be redeemed- and that is life.