By: Eunice Maina,
The Mwaghavul Bible Translation Committee (MBTC), Mwaghavul Mother Tongue Initiative (MMI) in Partnership with Nigerian Bible Translation Trust (NBTT), celebrated its centenary and God’s faithfulness for all the years that the missionaries brought the gospel of Christ to Mwaghavul land.
The epoch ceremony took place on the 26th September, 2021, at Panyam in Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State and had in attendance dignitaries, sons and daughters of Mwaghavul land.
It is on record that the missionaries from Britain first brought the gospel of Christ to Mwaghavul land in 1907. The missionaries started the translation of the Bible in Mwaghavaul language with the help of the Bristish Committee and Foreign Bible Society.
The Chairman of the occasion Prof. Pandang Yamsat in his goodwill message said, “I feel excited and happy with the large gathering, everyone from a status of life are here to celebrate with us”.
“If you don’t know your language and speak your language, you will not appreciate yourself, you will deny yourself your identity, English and Hausa will not make you have a sense of identity. It is your language and will also help you achieve great things because you will know your root and it is your root that enables you to achieve great things”. He added.
Pandang also disclosed that, unity of Nigeria cannot be achieved, until each tribe has a sense of identity.
“My heart is full of gratitude because God is for the people of Mwaghavul and the Word teaches me that, the people of Mwaghavul can live in unity because that is our heritage and name.May God help us to live in unity with one another, in Plateau and Nigeria at large”.
Dr. Peace Isaiah Longdet, a partner with the Bible Translation on her part said that, it is a promise fulfilled on the completion of the Bible in Mwaghavul language.
“I stand here to say it is a promise fulfilled, four years ago when there was “PuusCinPlang”, I was here and that was the beginning of the project, which was when we were going to the field to collect our data.
“If you check around the world people are getting interested about their oral literature and many of us felt that if we discuss our oral literature we remember we come from the village, it is said that if you forget your language, you have forgotten your identity, so one way to keep our identity alive is to go back to those things that made us the Mwaghavul people.
“So I discovered that, the literature of the Mwaghavul people need to be told to the world, we need to tell the world that we have our oral literature that was the beginning of the project.
“Today, we have the first language project and this is a publication of 38 stories, folktales and it was published in the United States of America.”
Peace reiterated that, the vision team continuous by working together with the team in order to make publication of children books, animations such as cartoon, and literature.
According to Peace,“This is just a tip of the iceberg, more celebrations are on the way come September 25, 2022, which is another day set for the Mwaghavul nation to come together to celebrate God’s faithfulness and thanksgiving service.
“The day will be as a custom for the Mwaghavul people to remember their covenant with God annually and to leave a legacy and heritage to the generations unborn.”
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