Script Choice, Politics, and Bible Agencies in West Africa

Warren-Rothlin, Andy

doi:10.1177/026009350906000106

Cited by 29 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…By the late 19th century, European missionaries, who recognized grassroots literacy in West Africa, were showing interest in writing passages from the Bible and sermons in ʿAjamī in their efforts to capitalize on its use to create Christian converts in Africa (Hodgson, ). Some missionaries later adopted the Arabic script to translate Genesis, the Psalms, the New Testament, and other parts of the Bible into African languages (Decker & Injiiru, ; “Deftere Futtorde”, n.d.; Warren‐Rothlin, ; “Injiil Kitaaboo”, ). More recently, some cell phone companies have begun to use ʿAjamī to market their products in areas with high rates of ʿAjamī literacy (Ngom, , p. 157–159).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond African orality: Digital preservation of Mandinka ʿAjamī archives of Casamance

Ngom

Castro

2019

History Compass

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This article focuses on the digital preservation of African sources written in Mandinka ʿAjamī, i.e., the enriched form of the Arabic script used to write the Mandinka language for centuries. ʿAjamī writing has been utilized to document intellectual traditions, histories, belief systems, and cultures of non‐Arab Muslims around the world. ʿAjamī texts have played critical roles in the spread of Islam in Africa and continue to be used for both religious and nonreligious writings. However, African ʿAjamī texts such as those of the Mandinka people of Casamance in southern Senegal are not well known beyond local communities. ʿAjamī texts in Mandinka and other Mande languages are among the least documented. Only a few Mande ʿAjamī texts are available to scholars. Thanks to the British Library's Endangered Archives Programme (EAP), Africa's rich written heritage in ʿAjamī and other scripts previously unavailable to academics is being preserved and made universally accessible.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond African orality: Digital preservation of Mandinka ʿAjamī archives of Casamance

Ngom

Castro

2019

History Compass

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“…Muslim idiom is also typically peppered with Islamic formulaic phrases and interjections and qur’ānic allusions. Bible translators may choose to use these when appropriate in the translation, and even include in paratext full qur’ānic citations in support of reading the Taurāt , Zabūr , and Injīl (e.g., Q Al-Māʾidah 5.46-47 [Robinson and Robinson 1894; Warren-Rothlin 2009]).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bible translators may use these in the pursuit of naturalness (of the translation and the product as a whole), with special fonts and typesetting (e.g., graphic honorific ligatures), graphic design (e.g., text borders) and production (off-white paper, red-print divine titles, etc. ), as well as Arabic script in digraphic contexts (Warren-Rothlin 2009), and even for purely graphic effect in some cases. Other distinctive features of MIT products attempt to respond to Islamic claims of the تحريف taḥrīf “corruption” of biblical texts—special introductions, footnotes, and glossary entries; images of ancient Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, and Arabic manuscripts; and interlinear editions presenting a glossed Hebrew or Greek text alongside a contextualised translation (e.g., Yoruba, Persian, Balochi, Saraiki, Urdu, Turkish).…”

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confidence: 99%

Linguistic Equivalence in Muslim-Idiom Translation

Warren-Rothlin

2023

The Bible Translator

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Muslim-idiom translations use a range of strategies to properly contextualise biblical messages and to engage their audience. Most of these are not new or unusual. The rendering of divine titles may be subject to various different kinds of legitimate equivalence, as well as semantic and social constraints, and these issues are part of biblical history. Similarly, euphemisms, fundamental to human interaction, have always been a part of biblical textual history and cannot be banned from modern translations. And the formulaic key expressions of Islam, closely paralleling those of the Bible, contribute valuably to the literary stock which can be used to achieve engagement. Concerns about these issues are ultimately a matter of trust in translators’ loyalty to the biblical source text.

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“…Schools were built by both Christian missionaries and the colonial administrative authorities. Reading and writing in schools were done majorly in English and Hausa(Usman 2014;Warren-Rothlin n.d.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Communicating meaningfully with Muslims: Analysing the Melkite language shift in the light of Christian-Muslim relations in Northern Nigeria

Buys

Nwokoro²

2019

In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi

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The Melkites were one of the eastern Christian communities that came under Islamic rule following the Arab conquests. To stay in conversation with their Muslim codebaters and political leaders, the Melkites were the first among the Christian groups in the East to have their theological works appear in Arabic. One of the eras of rich interfaith exchange in the history of Christian-Muslim interaction came from this period. Today, Nigerian Christians exhibit a rising level of Islamophobia due to violent Islamic practices that have gone on in recent times. It is equally true that Muslims may have their levels of suspicion about Christians in the country. In any case, the Melkite-Muslim interfaith history indicates that there could not be a more critical time for differing faith groups to stay in communication than a period of sustained tension. Keeping this in mind, what could Nigerian Christians, in a time of interreligious relational strain, learn from the Melkites about interfaith communication? This article provides an answer to this question by drawing on lessons in the evaluation of the strategic use of the Arabic language by eastern Christian-Muslim communities of late antiquity (7th to the 10th century).

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Script Choice, Politics, and Bible Agencies in West Africa

Cited by 29 publications

References 1 publication

Beyond African orality: Digital preservation of Mandinka ʿAjamī archives of Casamance

Beyond African orality: Digital preservation of Mandinka ʿAjamī archives of Casamance

Linguistic Equivalence in Muslim-Idiom Translation

Communicating meaningfully with Muslims: Analysing the Melkite language shift in the light of Christian-Muslim relations in Northern Nigeria

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