The General Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Bible Society of Nigeria, Samuel Sanusi, during a courtesy visit to PUNCH Place, spoke with JOSEPHINE OGUNDEJI on the challenges of printing hard copies of the Bible in the country, among other related issues
[…] Now, some years ago, we had a challenge with the Hausa Bible. In the first translation by the Bible Society of Nigeria, the word Allah was used to represent Almighty God. Later, new translators came in and called a consultation meeting. We told them, ‘We didn’t insert that term; we’re not native speakers of the language.’
But the whole Hausa-speaking community in the northern region agreed to change the word from Allah to Meduka. So, we changed it. But some people didn’t follow that change and went ahead to print Bibles using ‘Allah’. Now, wherever there was Allah, we replaced it with Meduka. And then the problem started.
Can you tell us how the problem began?
Some people began to ask, ‘Bible Society, why did you change Allah to Meduka?’ All of that created unnecessary drama. So, what’s the solution? I wrote a press release saying that Nigeria does not need more religion. What we need now is a way for people to live peaceful, blessed lives.
Who told us that the word, ‘Olorun’, which the Yoruba use to refer to God, or Obatala, doesn’t represent God? Or that Chineke, used by the Igbo people, is not valid? These are all words that people use to describe the Almighty based on their context and understanding.
What you call Olorun might mean something else in another language. But to you, it represents the Almighty God. So, if someone says, ‘The translators must have used the characteristics of Satan to choose the word Esu’. As we know Satan is about evil, about bad things. The one who does wickedness is called Esu.
If you go to the root of the word Satan in English, the translators likely asked themselves, ‘What word can we use to represent this being?’ And they chose Esu because it represents, in Yoruba thought, the worst personality, one who rebels against God. He was called Lucifer before he became Satan, the devil. So, what other word could be used for the worst of God’s creation?
Now, perhaps that’s why the editors said: ‘In our language, if we use Sango, people may attribute some good qualities to him. But Esu, that’s the real one for evil.’ Yet, don’t you think there is still a mischaracterisation here because the devil existed before Esu?
If that is the case, then it’s up to church leaders to carefully consider these things, so we don’t face the same controversy we had with Allah and Meduka. If Yoruba church leaders say, ‘Let’s use this word,’ the day it’s changed from Esu to something else, people will begin to say, ‘This Bible is a demonic Bible.’
Remember the Tiv Bible? In the first edition, there was no mention of witches and wizards. The Tiv community said they didn’t have such concepts. Others asked, ‘How can you say there are no witches and wizards when the Bible says, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live”?’ It caused a major uproar. So, in 2018, we released a revised edition. To this day, both versions—the old and the new—are still in circulation.
What was the effect of releasing a revised version of the Bible?
The revised edition corrected some errors, and in it, the word Satan now appears in their own language. We produce these translations to defend our faith. Every local translation is subject to the nature of the language and its concepts. By the grace of God, we work with certified Hebrew scholars on our team. For every translator we engage for any project, they are trained by both local and international experts.
Besides understanding their native language, they must understand Hebrew principles, translation theory, and consensus theory, and apply that knowledge when translating from the Hebrew text. That’s why, when we do translations, we bring together speakers of different dialects from the community, along with church leaders, for what we call a community review.