My placement is in Nkwanta, a rural town in northeastern
Ghana. Nkwanta is the market town in its district and is home to about 20,000
Ghanaians from several different small ethnic groups. I will be working
primarily with the Akyode, an ethnic group of about 15,000 who live in Nkwanta
and nearby villages. I am interning with the Ghana Institute of Linguistics,
Literacy, and Bible Translation (GILLBT) which is an organization that works to
provide translated Scriptures for the 60+ languages in Ghana. They have several
focuses which include promoting literacy and using translated scriptures in
different ministries to promote discipleship. The promotion of literacy is
important because many of the smaller language groups have difficulty surviving
because of their size. When these languages die, people lose some of their
cultural framework and are less capable of interpreting the word of God in a
culturally meaningful way. I am entering this context as an arts advocate in
order to help people develop culturally appropriate forms of worship.
In
Nkwanta, I am working with a branch of GILLBT which is called the Gikyode
Language Project. This branch consists of three men who are working with the
Akyode to translate the Bible and promote literacy. These men form a powerful
community as they accomplish everything through collaborative work and strive
to make all decisions together in unity. They have graciously adopted me into
their team and I am hoping to add an artistic element to their translation
work. We are starting by meeting with church leaders in the area to discuss
their needs for new Scripture songs. Since there are not many Akyode Scripture
songs, we are asking these chuch leaders whether they have certain Scripture
passages that they would like to see put to song. Our hope is that these new
songs could help expand the church’s worship vocabulary and strengthen people’s
faith because the Akyode songs will touch their hearts in a different way.
I
will also work in collaboration with different composers in the area in order
to create these new songs. Some of these composers are in the church while
others are well-known for their musical abilities but are not Christians. We
hope that this collaboration will lead to interest in the Scriptures being set
and that good discussion will come about as a result of these songs. It is exciting
to think of what might be accomplished through this work.
Last
night I went to my first event associated with GILLBT. Four times a year they
host a prayer night for all Akyode people at a village. It was programmed to
start at 8pm and end at 12pm but I knew well enough that the scheduled times
would not be followed. What I did not know was what a prayer meeting would be
like in this context. I was excited and ready to spend time in prayer since my
time here has not been easy so far, and I hoped to learn from the faith shown
by the people in this community. However, the prayer meeting was different than
I expected. First of all, I felt so conspicuous as tons of children crowded
around me and stared at me, one of the first white people they had ever seen.
When the meeting finally started after 9, worship began with drumming, singing,
and dancing. I felt lost as people sang strongly in languages I did not
understand and with music that did not touch my heart. For a minute, I was
disappointed because I did not know how to participate and actually felt
distracted from communicating with God. However, I soon remembered what I was
here for and was able to celebrate that Akyode are using worship forms that
speak to them culturally! The fact that I felt lost and disconnected proved how
important it is to translate the way we worship across culture. In America, we
often forget that the way we worship would not mean so much to people in other
contexts. We forget that the songs that speak to our hearts might feel lifeless
to others. It is so important to express our love for God in ways that connect
the heart and the mind. As I experience being a minority and learning to
worship in a new way, I hope this will strengthen my desire to see all nations
worship God in beautiful diversity.
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