This Liberian woman is reading her new Bassa-language Bible.
Liberians rejoice over new Bassa Bible
There was great rejoicing in Liberia in 2005 when the United Bible Societies (UBS) finally released the entire Bible in the Bassa language. Bassa is spoken by over 350,000 Bassa people in Liberia (its second largest ethnic group) as well as by an additional 5,000 in neighboring Sierra Leone.
For many years an indigenous script, called Vah, developed by Thomas Flo Narvin Lewis was used. It included 30 consonants, 7 vowels, and 5 tones indicated by dots and lines inside of each vowel.
In the 1970s, the UBS published a translation of the New Testament. June Hobley, of Liberia Inland Mission, was primarily responsible for that translation. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), instead of the Vah script was used, mostly for practical reasons related to printing. See the sample below showing the first few verses of John’s Gospel.
The Bassa people quickly adapted to the new script, and thousands learned to read and develop a deep hunger for God’s Word.
Then came the vicious and prolonged civil war that decimated almost a third of Liberia’s population. The new Bible translation team had to be relocated, and their work continued under extremely dangerous and difficult circumstances.
The Bassa people had to wait 35 years to get the complete Bible in Bassa, printed in the easy-to-read IPA text. So great was their excitement when it was finally published! Now—finally—they could read the entire Old Testament as well as New Testament in their native tongue!
The 2005 version was sponsored by the Christian Education Foundation of Liberia, Christian Reformed World Missions, and the UBS. Don Slager headed a team of translators that included Seokin Payne, Robert Glaybo, and William Boen.
Dr. Abba Karnga, a highly respected Bassa linguist and friend of All Nations Bible Society, contributed to the early development of this new Bible.