Month: November 2015

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My journey in ethnodoxology

Ghanaians composing songs in their language

Ghanaians composing songs in their language

Ethnomusicology is the study of the music of different cultures. Christian missions have created a specific type of ethnomusicology called ethnodoxology. According to the International Council of Ethnodoxologists:

Ethnodoxology is the theological and anthropological study, and practical application, of how every cultural group might use its unique and diverse artistic expressions appropriately to worship the God of the Bible.

The parts of the word illustrate its meaning – “ethno” refers to people of different ethnic backgrounds and “doxology” means praise.

Even as a missionary, I initially considered ethnomusicology and ethnodoxology nothing more than interesting sidelines to real mission. But when I saw how people connect to God when they worship in their own music styles and what happens when they don’t, I changed my tune (pun intended). When Ghanaians sing Western hymns, they are subdued. When they switch to their own languages and music styles, worship comes alive. One missionary observed that when people sang in their own language and musical styles:

“the whole church starts singing—even the children”

I used to think that ethnodoxology was about people singing the kind of songs they prefer, or the kind that brings back great childhood memories. I eventually came to realize that it is about worshiping in the language and music styles that allow people to express their deepest emotions and thoughts. Translators for the Lala language in Nigeria reported that when Lala youth started singing worship songs in their language and musical styles, many repented and became Christians. Jesus said:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37)

Singing brand new songs

Singing brand new songs

Music is an important way that people express their deepest things in their hearts and souls, especially in places where music is less what people consume and more what they do. I came to realize that it must be difficult, if not impossible to express “all your heart” or “all your soul” (emphasis mine) in a language or in music styles a person does not fully master. If it is necessary to have the Bible in the heart language, then it must be necessary to worship in that language as well. Furthermore, songs do much more than express emotion. A Christian song – We Shall Overcome – galvanized the civil rights movement in the US and in other places. Martyrs singing worship songs while being burned to death caused an explosion of Christianity in Uganda.

The opposite is also true.

I found that when people are only allowed to worship in other languages and in music styles that are foreign to them, they can start to feel like they have become like others to worship God. They may start to believe that God doesn’t like their music – that he prefers the way others do it. The idea that “God doesn’t like worship in my language and musical styles” becomes “God doesn’t like me” or even “The Christian God has cursed my people and me”. That is so sad.

Joseph Gyebi and family

Joseph Gyebi and family

A Ghanaian musician and friend, Joseph Gyebi, wants to change that. He has already helped Christian musicians from two language groups in Ghana develop worship and praise music in their languages and music styles. He is doing that while being a full-time student and serving part-time as a pastor to a congregation in Accra. The Ghanaian organization we work with wants to help him do more. We’re working on that.

There won’t be preaching in heaven, because we will know in full. But ethnodoxology? Oh, there’ll be lots of that!

And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain,
and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation, (Rev 5:9)

“Missions exists because worship doesn’t. – John Piper

Here’s a video of some believers (not in Africa) worshiping to the first praise songs in their language.

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What value for unity

Road to Siwu country

Road to Siwu country

Shortly after we arrived in Ghana, we travel to the Volta Region to participate in the launch of a reprint of the New Testament in the Siwu language, the first printing had sold out. The Siwu are a small, people group in Ghana’s Volta Region. They number about 36,000. In spite of being small, they were a divided community. At some point, a number of them had moved some distance away where they established new Siwu towns and villages. Even though it was not that far, the new and the old Siwu communities did not have that much contact with each other.

Then rivalries developed. Siwu from one community did not go to the yearly festivals in the other, which is rare, Worse, they no longer went to the funerals in the other community. In Ghana, everyone goes to funerals. People go to the funerals of distant relatives and even the family members of people they work with. They even go to the funerals of people they don’t like or get along with. Not going to the funeral is a powerful statement of separation. The Siwu were very divided.

Siwu New Testaments being auctioned

Siwu New Testaments being auctioned

What brought the two Siwu communities back together was the process of translating the Bible – not the teachings of the Bible mind you, but the process of translating it. The two sides collaborated on the translation. People from both Siwu communities started coming to translation events. Both communities sent people to be involved in the translation. The same translation was distributed in both communities. Literacy was organized in both. And then, of course, they started coming to other events in each others’ communities.

I have heard this story over and over with variations. The most usual is Christians and church leaders saying that the effort to translate the Bible into their language caused churches to work together who had not cooperated ever. At dedications of Bible translation, the most often cited impact of the translation program I have heard is the unity the translation program brought between churches.

Siwu chief at the launch

Siwu chief at the launch

At first I did not think that much of an impact. It was not one which motivated me personally. Other results, like people coming to faith, church growth, reduced drunkenness, and less domestic violence are big motivators for me. But unity as a motivation kind of fell flat. On the other hand, Africans have a high value for unity. This does not necessarily mean that they are more united. It does mean that they have strong feelings of loss when unity is absent, and they rejoice more when it is regained. The repeated and joyful comments about unity regained at that Siwu event confirmed their value for unity and gratefulness at its return.

Jesus prayed for unity for his followers:

I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me. I have honored my followers in the same way that you honored me, in order that they may be one with each other, just as we are one. (John 17:21-22)

Young Siwu man with traditional drums

Young Siwu man with traditional drums

Unfortunately, Jesus’ value for unity hadn’t rubbed off on me. I’m too American, valuing individualism more than unity. Also, I’ve been taught to be wary of approaches to unity which negate Jesus’ teaching. But years of hearing the joy of Africans at regained unity among their churches has finally rubbed off on me. Unity is one of the wonderful results of translating the Bible. It is one of the ways Jesus’ prayer for unity among believers is worked out in practice.

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The Doctor

Rev Dr Browne (right), at a conference on translating the Bible

Rev Dr Browne (right), at a conference on translating the Bible

Doctor Browne is a real doctor. By that I mean a medical doctor. But these days he is also a minister of the Gospel with Lighthouse Chapel International, a church that was started in Ghana, and is found throughout Ghana and in other countries. Doctor Browne is a doctor’s doctor. Before becoming a minister he taught at a medical school and consulted on difficult cases. For a while, he was responsible for all the churches belonging to Lighthouse Chapel International in northern Ghana.

As soon as he was given that responsibility, he started learning one of the most important languages of northern Ghana – Dagbani, the language of the Dagomba people.

That is an interesting thing to do. Northern Ghana is not as prosperous as the part of Ghana Doctor Browne is from. Many Ghanaians with credentials not nearly as impressive as Dr. Browne’s don’t want to work or live there. Also, learning Dagbani is a big step down the social ladder. But Dr. Browne saw value in learning Dagbani, of identifying himself with them. In a few months, Doctor Browne learned Dagbani better than others in his church who had been there for much longer.

Doctor Browne’s actions are all the more amazing when compared to the actions of others. For example, some ministers in Ghana will only use English because it is prestigious. They preach in English even when they know that people don’t understand. They would never learn Dagbani, or any other Ghanaian language. Also, many Ghanaians with his education and credentials dread, as I wrote above, being assigned to northern Ghana because of the lack of services. Instead, many are emigrating to the USA or to Europe.

The continued use and impact of translations in the languages of Ghana depend on ministers of the Gospel like Doctor Browne who are more interested in communicating the Gospel than in prestige or their careers.

While others are heading up, Doctor Browne is going the other direction. Actually, his direction is the real up – the direction Jesus took:

Think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God. But he did not try to remain equal with God. Instead he gave up everything and became a slave, when he became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross. Then God gave Christ the highest place and honored his name above all others. (Phil 2: 5-9)

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Banns

Announcement in a church bulletin

Announcement in a church bulletin

In Ghana, some churches announce banns of marriage. Three Sundays in a row there is a public announcement of the names of the couple to be married with the planned date of their wedding. The announcer tells the congregation that if they know of any reason why the couple should not be married, they should inform the church leaders If the couple are from different churches, the banns are announced in each church.

If the church uses a projector, the name of the couple is projected and sometimes a photo. If the couple is present, they are asked to stand. At that point, it is not uncommon that people in the congregation cheer, whistle, clap their hands, trill or otherwise show their joy. There may also be laughter or giggles.

The word “banns” comes from a middle English word meaning “proclamation”. So “banns of marriage” is just an archaic way of saying “public announcement of plans to get married”. One might think that the word banns would be dropped in favor of a more up-to-date word, especially given how close “banns” is to “bans” – the spelling is different, but the pronunciation is the same.

Churches tend to be very attached to certain words, like banns. That can have an effect on translation.

©2013 GospelGifs

©2013 GospelGifs

Imagine a place where the Gospel has never been preached. Missionaries come and preach to the people through interpreters. The missionary doing the preaching uses the word “sin” and the interpreter has to find the equivalent word in the language. Very often and unfortunately, the interpreter has to find the word on the fly with no preparation. So he chooses a word. It might be a good choice and it might not. Unfortunately, few missionaries take the time to consider what words their interpreters are using for key Bible concepts. The interpreter picks words for other key ideas – salvation, savior, heaven, Holy Spirit, etc. using this same haphazard process.

It was in this hit and miss way that specific local words for key Bible concepts were “chosen” in some places. And sometimes those first choices stuck and became tradition, just like banns. In contrast, the method used to chose key terms for English was quite different. Many of them were chosen by an Oxford scholar who knew Hebrew and Greek – the languages in which the Bible was written. That scholar was William Tyndale.

Places where there are Christians, but not yet a translation of the Bible, the accidental process by which words are chosen for key Bible concepts sometimes had the result that different churches use different words than others for the same Bible concept.

Bible translators have to sort this out. Each church may be quite attached to the words it uses. It may not even have thought about the slapdash way the words were chosen nor have considered that there are better words than the ones they use. As we have seen with banns, church tradition in the use of words can be very important to people. If the translators are not careful, some people might reject at translation if it does not use the words they prefer, even when their those words do not have the right meaning. In insisting on their words, church leaders and Christians will say that they are protecting good teaching. In reality, they are protecting their tradition.

Pray for Bible translators. In the matter of key Bible terms, they not only have to find the best words, they often end up having to be negotiators and peacemakers to the get best words accepted over church tradition.