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Missionaries and the Standardisation of Vernacular Languages 7

suit. Conveniently, there was a need to reach out to the Tumbuka converts who
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had joined LM as most of them did not understand Ngoni. Despite their
hegemony, this shows that the success of mission work was also depended upon
the agency of Africans.
As far back as 1895, Elmslie envisaged the inadequacy of Ngoni to gain
widespread reach. He wrote to Laws advising him of the need to change the
medium of instruction from Ngoni to Tumbuka. Elmslie cautioned Laws that they
‘will require to get Tumbuka books printed. The children cannot pronounce
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Ngoni’. This shows that between 1895 and 1914 Tumbuka was not used as an
official language; instead it was yet another vernacular language used alongside
Ngoni and Nyanja. Nyanja may have been useful in the Kasungu district, which
was predominantly Chewa, as during this period Chewa was considered to be a
dialect of Nyanja. Additionally, there were Nyanja people who had settled
amongst the Tumbuka. Nyanja literature was thus used to reach out to these
Nyanja speaking peoples; nevertheless, Nyanja and Ngoni were dropped in favour
of Tumbuka. The mission continued to use Tonga for their Tonga converts. The
multiplicity of vernacular languages used by LM gives evidence to the fact that
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there was ethnic intermixture in the northern region .
Thus far, no single study charts the exact dates at which the switch from
Ngoni to Tumbuka occurred, and I have not encountered any document in the
archives containing such details. It is more likely that the change was gradual as
opposed to an abrupt policy change. Be that as it may, the Bible translation project
reignited debates on the suitability of Nyanja as a language to be used across the
missions. Most missions were in favour of translating the Bible into a ‘Common
Nyanja’. It is, therefore, necessary to discuss the Bible translation project and its
impact on vernacular languages, as well as its impact on the construction of
linguistic borders and the resultant ethnic identities.

Common Nyanja Bible Translations
In December 1896 Laws asked W. H. Murray if they could collaborate on
translating the Bible into Nyanja, which would replace the three versions of the
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Nyanja Bible used by UMCA, LM and BM. The Bible translation project,

33 Fraser, 195; Isaac Lamba, Contradictions in Post-War Education Policy Formulation
and Application in Colonial Malawi 1945-1961: A Historical Study of the Dynamics of
Colonial Survival (African Books Collective, 2010), 2.
34 Livingstonia Manuscripts, “Livingstonia. Letters of Rev W. A. Elmslie to Rev Dr
Laws” (June 10, 1895), ACC 7548 67D National Library of Scotland, Livingstonia.
35 See C. Young, “Tribal Intermixture in Northern Nyasaland.,” The Journal of the Royal
Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 63 (January 1933): 1.
36 Mvera Manuscripts, “Letter from Robert Laws to W.H. Murray” (December 4, 1896),
KS 1066 Kerkargief Stellenbosch, Malawi Korrespondensie; Mvera Manuscripts, “A
Common Chinyanja Bible” (Life and Work, October 15, 1898), Kerkargief Stellenbosch
KS 1165.