Page 17 - 2020 SoMJ Vol 73 No 2_Neat

8 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

therefore, was premised on the assumption that the various Nyanja dialects could
be homogenized into one common language. A common Nyanja dialect would be
of great advantage to both missions and their African converts, as Africans
migrating to new areas would not experience communication difficulties. For
missionaries, this would ease the burden of translating Christian literature into
multiple languages, an expensive and time-consuming process. A number of
missions complained that the existence of multiple languages within a mission’s
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sphere of work made it difficult to reach out to large groups of people. Therefore,
it was desirable to have one main language. However, in the process, missionaries
sacrificed cultural diversity with efficiency.
A call for revision and translation of the Bible into Nyanja appeared in the
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LM magazine, The Aurora, in April 1898. Following consultation between the
missions, before the article’s publication, a consensus was reached that missions
should engage in translating the Bible into ‘Common Nyanja’. It appears that two
years after Laws’ request to W. H. Murray, opinions were shifting within LM.
Writing in October 1898 in The Aurora, LM published an account of their projects
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on the Nyanja Bible. The article explained the work already completed on their
Nyanja Bible and expressed support for the ‘Common Nyanja’ Bible. They
justified the quality of their Nyanja Bible on the basis that it was compiled ‘by
writing down the conversations of natives from different places’.
40
This acknowledges African agency in the translation work. However, mission
sources are silent on the identities of the Africans who contributed to this project.
In the absence of such pertinent details, it is hard to predict women involvement
in the translation projects. However, considering missionaries’ attitude towards
women, it is almost certain that missionaries used African men than women. For
example, W. H. Murray once suggested that girls ‘should be taught under their

37 Livingstonia Manuscripts, “The Nyasaland United Missionary Conference Report of
the Meeting Held at the Livingstonia Missionary Institution.” (Christian vernacular
Literature., October 17, 1900), 41, ACC 7548 71D National Library of Scotland,
Livingstonia.
38 Mvera Manuscripts, “Bible Translation and Revision” (The Aurora, April 1, 1898), KS
1165 Kerkargief Stellenbosch It should be mentioned that the Bible translation committee
was initially led by Alexander Hetherwick. However, W.H. Murray, together with his
wife played a critical role in the translation of the Bible to the extent that in 1903 the
General Committee in Cape Town decided that W.H. Murray, then head of the DRCM in
Nyasaland, should be set aside to work full-time on the Bible translation. In addition to
missionaries, Africans were also part of the translation team. It was stated that ‘what they
lacked in formal education they made up for with their wide knowledge of the Chinyanja
dialects’. However, it was noticed that there were disagreements amongst Africans and
that each gave interpretation which was seen to be in contradictory with others.
39 Mvera Manuscripts, “Nyanja Bible Translation” (The Aurora, August 1, 1898), KS
1165 Kerkargief Stellenbosch.
40 Mvera Manuscripts.