Namwala

A project to translate the Holy Bible into the Ila language has been launched under the auspices of the Bible Society of Zambia. During the 1920s/30s the New Testament and a few passages from the Old Testament were translated into Ila. 

 

A Committee has been formed in Lusaka to spearhead the project. Its goal is to have the entire Old Testament translated and revise the New Testament. The project is expected to take up to 10 years.

 

The Committee has secured an office with a computer in Maala and raised some money for translators to work for about one year. The translation of the Bible will not only provide an opportunity for wider evangelization, but will preserve the past, celebrate the present and ensure the future of the Ila language.

 

Methodist missionaries arrived in Ilaland in 1893 and established the first mission station at Nkala in present day Itezhi-tezhi District, but moved to Nanzhila in 1895 due to poor health conditions. In 1910 a second permanent station was established at Kasenga. The schools that were set up at Nanzhila and Kasenga were the first centres of learning for Africans in the Southern Province.