NORTHERN GHANA, October 13, 2003 — Bible translators have empowered tribespeople in Ghana to understand their own constitutional rights -- which now means that fewer chickens are being ritually slaughtered.
In the new edition of Enough Magazine Dave Pearson, of Wycliffe Bible Translators, explains how his charity is helping to bring many kinds of freedom to far-flung parts of the world.
Wycliffe works with some of the millions of people in the world who speak rare tribal languages. In many cases, these languages have never been written down, with no alphabet to work from. Here Wycliffe's work, which ends with the production of a Bible in the language, begins from scratch, and the subsequent process has some unexpected and rewarding side-effects.
Recently, Wycliffe translated the constitution of Ghana into 22 languages in the north of the country. In doing so, they brought unanticipated liberation.
"People from the Deg tribe in northern Ghana didn't realize that they didn't have to pay the police to have convicts released" says Pearson, "and they also didn't know that it was illegal for them to be detained in the cells for over 48 hours without being charged."
And now we get to the chickens.
In another people group in northern Ghana it's obligatory for each person to give a chicken for sacrifice to the ancestral spirit. Pearson explains: "Once the constitution had been translated into their language the tribespeople realized that freedom of religion is their constitutional right and that they weren't obliged to sacrifice a chicken."
The secret world of Bible translation is revealed in the November issue of Enough magazine, which is out now.
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