Africa reflections: Youth potential, and training

Strategies to bring the youth into the Bible translation movement and how to redefine consultant development were some of the issues discussed by Africa Area leaders Friday during Global Gathering 2024.

Johannesburg, 2 November 2024 — Africa has the world’s youngest population – with 70 percent of the continent’s people under 30. Yet, Bible translation is largely in the hands of older generations. To address this, Africa Area Director Wairimu Irungu led a reflection Friday (1 Nov.) on what the involvement of the youth could look like.

‘In some of the organisations we have seen the impact that the youth have created,’ Wairimu said. ‘We want to see a movement of young people leading Bible translation in Africa and beyond. They have the energy and make up a big segment of the African population. Christianity is on the rise in Africa and the youth are a vibrant part of this people.’

Table Group Discussion

After table-group discussion, the African leaders shared a few ideas:

• ‘We envisage a movement of young leaders that comes from local to global levels. And Bible agencies can support this by providing the needed resources. We can do this by taking advantage of youth movements who are Christians and already want to serve God. We can target youths in schools, and their parents as well. We should also sensitise them on marginalised communities, especially for those based in town.’
• ‘A movement of youth needs to be built by the youth.’
• ‘We can empower them on the value and things of God. It will not be skewed to one gender – we should bring all the youth together. It will be ideal if we work with youth up to the age of 30.’
• ‘We should get the youth to strategic levels. We realised that while we talk about them, we leave them out of decision-making platforms like leadership and board settings.’
• ‘Organisations that have succeeded tapped on the youths while they were still in the university. We need to do that.’
• ‘We need to involve them in ministry, train them, and allow them to work. We should create deliberate positions for youths. And when adults are given roles, we can assign the youth to assist.’
• Youth like technology and there is a need to leverage that and give them a chance to participate.
• ‘Youth love music. We can leverage this to bring them in. We can pray with them, and involve them in missions so they see the necessity of being there.’

Consultant training and certification

Paul Kimbi, the Alliance’s Bible Translation Consultant and Africa Area Translation Coordinator, led another reflection on what success in Bible translation should look like. Drawing from an adage, ‘the surgery was successful but the patient died’, Paul raised questions for further reflection.

‘If Bible translation was a surgery, what would be the success? Who will be the patient?’ he asked.

‘Successful consultation involves more than knowledge of techniques and technical skills. It is more than knowing what to do—it is knowing how to get it done. We need to develop a training curriculum that addresses the needs of the local population. We should localise our curriculum and make it more relevant,’ Paul stated as he sent the delegates into discussion groups.

Questions emerging from the discussion:

• What is the content of the growth plan of a Bible translation consultant and how can we review that content so it can be relevant, efficient and pertinent?
• How can organisations collaborate in the development of consultants?
• What are the current barriers to the development and certification of Bible translation consultants in Africa?
• How can we assure the quality of a translation?
• What training does a Bible translation consultant need in order to be certified?
• What is the role of technology in the development of translation consultants?

Story: Isaac Forchie. Photo: Daisy Kilel.