News! Read the latest update: Excerpt from Report on Kyangonde and Tumbuka follow up outreach by Chikumbutso Lunda & Dallion Chitekwere - July 2019.
The people group or ministry location
The Nyakusa Ngonde live in the Northern tip of the country Malawi, south of the Lambya, west of Lake Malawi.
Population: 526,000 http://joshuaproject.net/languages/nyy
Literacy rate: L1: 0%. http://www.ethnologue.com/language/nyy
Project Description
The Nyakusa Ngonde people group live in Malawi and Tanzania.
This project proposes to produce audio recordings known as the LLL (Look, Listen & Live) series for the Nyakusa Ngonde people group living in Malawi.
According to the Joshua Project (www.joshuaproject.net/languages/nyy), 92% of the Nyakusa Ngonde are professing Christians. However, there are very significant problems of syncretism (the blending of two or more religious belief systems into a new system) of their ethnic religion with Christianity.
Witchcraft can be pertinent in the world view of the Nyakyusa. It is believed that certain people fly on pythons, harming people and cattle at night. These witches inherited their power and pythons from a parent, and greed is the typical motive for using these powers to harm men and cattle.
Some people in a village can sometimes see and fight witches in their dreams and are called 'defenders', the most important being besides the village headmen. The visions and power of the defenders came from the same source as the witches and pythons.
Most Nyakyusa have a lively fear of witchcraft, lasting a lifetime.
Traditional beliefs about reward and punishment need to be addressed. Many Nyakyusa fear punishment on this earth. For example, they can believe that a woman's barrenness is the result of her failings. Often Nyakyusa have no understanding of the afterlife and the reality of heaven and hell.
The Gospel needs to be communicated very carefully. Some Nyakyusa can think that Christianity is about doing good, and have no understanding of a relationship with Christ.
There are two primary resources currently available to the Nyakyusa.
- The Jesus Film has been produced in the in Malawi Ngonde. It is a good useful resource, but doesn't address all of the current needs of the people.
- The Bible is available in Tanzanian Ngonde, in both written and audio forms. Tanzanian Ngonde can be understood by the Malawian Ngonde, but it is not easy for them.
Expected benefits of production of the LLL series in audio form for the Malawi Ngonde include:
- Directly addressing many of the issues of syncretism.
- Preparing them for Bible engagement.
- The Malawi Ngonde people need the stories of the Bible presented in a simplified form, a format that can help the people to move towards effective Bible engagement. We've seen over the years the difference that the GRN LLL audiovisual teaching materials have made in this regard. It prepares people to digest the content of an audio Bible much better.
- Non-readers have no frame of reference of the Bible and its content. The LLL series helps them to form that frame of reference while looking at the pictures and listening to the Bible stories. The Ngonde lacks this and we desperately want to close that gap. The LLL is the most wonderful tool to do this.
- The audio Bible is in Tanzanian Ngonde. We expect people to understand it much better after working through the LLL1-8 in Malawian Ngonde first.
Follow-up and Updates
We hope to do another follow-up trip later in 2018/2019 to get feedback on the materials already in use and to give out more of these evangelism packs. The aim is to visit existing study/listening groups and plant 30 more evangelism story sets combo with audio Bibles. We estimate the cost at 45,000 ZAR =4,790 AUD . This figure includes the cost of 30 sets of material for 30 new villages and the costs to get the materials to their end destination in Malawi, find the right contacts and coworkers.
This time we plan co-load Kyangonde and Tumbuka on the same players, because both languages are used by people living together in the same settlements - this to try and reach even more people.
Links to reports and updates are below this article, in 'Related Information'.
If the Lord leads you to contribute towards this project, in order for us to undertake a follow-up trip in 2018/19 to monitor the use of our placed materials, to service/replace players, to answer questions and to place a second batch of 30 evangelism sets in new villages, you may make a donation here, or click the 'Donate' button, designating your gift 'KyaNgonde Project'. Donate KyaNgonde and Tumbuka