The Lutheran Missions stressed the importance of African languages and endeavoured to translate the Bible into vernacular and developed the vernacular forms of worship. Yes – this is an important factor. The Berlin Mission Society pioneered translations in Northern Sotho and Venda, while the Hermannsburg missionaries revised Robert Moffat’s 1857 translation into Tswana. The Berlin missionary J. Dohne helped the missionaries of the American Board in the translation of the Zulu New Testament in 1867. The Hermannsburg Mission Society published a Zulu Bible translation in 1883 at Moorleigh. Ngugi wa Thiong’o says, “Language carries culture, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world…” (Decolonizing the Mind, 1986 p.16) The movement of labour from rural to urban areas has necessitated the usage of English as medium of instruction. Mr Sentsho Modise opined in The Star newspaper dated 09 Feb 2009 that “the Chinese, Japanese, Germans, Portuguese, Spanish and others have learned through their mother tongue very successfully, with very little or no English at all – but they managed to produce engineers, scientists, accountants.” The most challenging thing is to make a decision whether we want to teach the Catechism in English and ensure that a great number of Catechumens fail to understand or produce the necessary number of confirmed Christians with appropriate English skills. Yeah, ministering to a diverse people pose a challenge to the minister of the Word.
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