Mother Tongue Advocacy Platform

J U L Y MOTHER 2016 TONGUE NEWS FROM GILLBT GHANA INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS,LITERACY AND BIBLE TRANSLATION (GILLBT) Serving Ghana Through Language Development, GILLBT Literacy And Bible Translation www.gillbt.org e National Ownership Question Content: Page 2 MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR Page 3 AN EXPERIMENT IN LOCAL OWNERSHIP – THE NYALOTA STORY Page 4 A PARTNERSHIP FOR THE TIMES: THE GILLBT-SEED COMPANY RELATIONSHIP A (PERSONAL) REFLECTION ON THE SEED COMPANY –GILLBT RELATIONS. Page 5 By Prof Akosua Adomako Ampofo INTERVIEW: THE CHALLENGE OF LOCAL (KONKOMBA) OWNERSHIP Page 6 Page 6 A TYPESETTING UNIT TAKES SHAPE AT GILLBT Page 8 RETHINKING THE GILLBT - WYCLIFFE UK RELATIONSHIP Page 9 DEDICATION OF THE KASEM, GONJA, KUSAAL, NAFAANRA AND DEGA BIBLES Page 13 GILLBT LAUNCHES A NATIONAL MOTHER TONGUE ADVOCACY PLATFORM Page 13 GILLBT AND WORLD VISION GHANA (WVG) SIGN PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT Page 16 CELEBRATIONS HONOURING MARY STEELE AND THE MISSIONARY CONTRIBUTIONS TO GHANA HONOURING THE MEMORY OF UNCLE JOHN AGAMAH Editor in Chief Dr. Paul Opoku Mensah Editor Arthur Otabil Abraham Graphic Designer Mike Ewusi Arthur MESSAGE FROM THE Director Dr. Paul Opoku Mensah ow does an institution established by an international organisation, whose expertise has largely been expatriate, Hand whose funding is from the outside become a national organisation? Is such a transition possible? If so what are the mechanisms for making this possible? Concretely, how is GILLBT making this transition? source of energy: the sun. Such an understanding opens up, and legitimises, the participation of non-national workers. In sum, These questions are at the heart of some of the major changes we embeddedness speaks to the issues of national ownership, have made in GILLBT since 2010, including the transition from a relevance, sustenance, and legitimacy of our mission. While it does member-based Executive committee to a majority external Board of involve national workers, it nonetheless shifts the emphasis away Directors. These changes are all aimed at addressing what we have from them to the mission of the organisation. It is for this reason that termed the “National” question, involving three analytically distinct we have consistently argued that while the legitimacy of our work but interrelated sets of issues: National Ownership, National should be derived, rst, from the quality of our relations to national Relevance, and National Cohesion. All these are aimed at ensuring institutions, the workforce should nonetheless be multinational. This that GILLBT becomes an organisation that is embedded in the is a much more difcult task to accomplish than simple indigenisation. national context; whose legitimacy is determined, rst, by the quality But ultimately this is what is needed to build a viable national of its relations to Ghanaians and their institutions; and whose organisation! relevance is linked to its ability to respond to the aspirations of Ghanaians and their institutions, in particular the Church. These, we In this issue of Mother Tongue, we introduce and/or assess some believe, are three of the necessary conditions for making the of the measures, including partnerships, that we are developing to transition. embed the work in the Ghanaian context. This ranges from local initiatives, to regional and national ones. The spirit within which we The discussion on transitions such as what GILLBT has to make from present these is that of “work in progress” to which we would a foreign established organisation to a national one is often focused appreciate your feedback. on indigenisation, often framed in zero-sum terms with the call for national involvement including simultaneous calls for an end, or at least a reduction, in non-national involvement. The discussion tends to conate “embeddedness” with “indigenization”. The two are different, and it is possible to clarify this through the use of a tree BOARD OF DIRECTORS analogy. Specically, to bring out the difference, GILLBT could be likened to a tree originally planted by foreign missionaries. In the Rev. Thomas Sayibu Imoro - Chairperson discussions about involving nationals, the strategy has often been one Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo - Deputy Chairperson of indigenisation involving the inclusion, or in some cases even the Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah - Executive Director replacement, of some of the branches and leaves with Mrs Comfort Ocran - Board Secretary Ghanaian/African faces. This need to involve “nationals” in the work has been part of our organisational strategy, at least the discussions. Mr. Francis Kusi - Member Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah - Member The challenge of embeddedness, however, goes beyond adding national faces to the leaves and branches of the tree, even though this Professor E.V.O. Dankwa - Member is important. Rather it means going beyond the leaves and branches Rev. Dr. Solomon Sule-Saa - Member to the trunk and roots of the tree. Embeddedness, therefore, Rev. Ko Okyere - Member involves a deeper form of national involvement. It is one in which Rev. Professor Abraham Berinyuu - Member accountability is, rst, towards the national constituency. An embedded organisation is one whose vision responds to the Rev. Dr. Isaac Ababio - Member aspirations of the national context, and in which strategies and Dr. S. M. Zachariah - Member strategic orientation are oriented inwards. Additionally, it means Rev. Samuel Otu-Appiah - Member that the sustenance of the organisation has a critical national component, with the roots feeding on the 'national soil.' But as a tree, it is also part of a global ecosystem which is sustained by a common News from Ghana Institute of Linguistics Literacy and Bible Translation (GILLBT) 2 An experiment in local ownership THENYALOTA STORY he Volta Region is one of the most linguistically diverse Chiefs from Nyagbo, Logba and Taﬁ communities regions in Ghana hosting about 30% of Ghana's estimated 70 languages. A GILLBT language survey report in 2001 T Managing and resourcing the NYALOTA project indicated that little academic work had been done on the Nyagbo, Logba and Ta languages and proposed further research to A management committee for each language project ensures document their linguistic patterns. The research ndings sparked a community ownership and is primarily responsible for mobilising desire in the three communities to develop their mother tongues community members and local resources to support the work. Two into written form and they formally asked GILLBT's assistance to do full-time translators for each project and a team of Translation this. Reviewers for each language play critical roles to ensure that the project is well-rooted in the community and the translation schedules Since these (3) three languages are similar in various aspects and properly coordinated. geographically close to each other, the communities proposed using Uniquely assigned to this project is a National Bible Translation a multi-translation or cluster model following its successful Consultant, Dr Fabian Dapila, former consultant from the Bible implementation on another project by GILLBT member, Dr Andy Society of Ghana and a member of the United Bible Societies. The Ring. The cluster model which ensures that two or more language Technical Advisor to the project is Rev Prof Gilbert Ansre, a veteran translations are done simultaneously, is superseding the traditional Bible translation consultant with broad national and international model of Bible translation projects where one expatriate missionary experience. translator initiates and sustains one 'lifelong' project. The project Manager, Michael Serchie, has over 10 years' eld work The essence of a cluster project includes close working relationship training and wide experience managing Bible translation cluster amongst language groups and communities which promotes mutual projects. learning, unity and national cohesion. The idea of ensuring national and local ownership of translation projects was endorsed by the Building a national movement on local foundations traditional authorities and so each language group nominated a It is projected that by 2018, the Nyagbo, Logba and Ta communities translation team for training in language development and Bible will have the entire New Testament in their mother tongues. This will translation. Recognising that mother tongue speakers are experts in enable understanding of God's Word from within their worldview their languages, the Nyagbo, Logba, Ta (NYALOTA) cluster project and promote spiritual growth. The cluster model not only provides a is designed to train mother tongue translators to become experts in holistic eld based approach to training and empowering the whole process of language development and Bible translation. communities, but also aims at building up a strong national movement of Bible translators with expertise in translation, Unlike the traditional GILLBT translation projects, a formal launch to consultant checking, leadership, translation project management, commence work was held on 15th June 2014 for the NYALOTA administration, nancial management and fundraising. These open project. As an innovation in commencing new GILLBT projects, a the way for serving other language groups in Ghana and beyond. grand ceremony which brought together traditional authorities, the Going forward, GILLBT envisages that the NYALOTA cluster project clergy, political leaders, youth groups, GILLBT leadership, and will ultimately become a platform for mobilising national and international partners has become

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