Becoming Literate in Swo

Swo is a well-developed language, by which I mean that its speakers find no problem in dealing with all the issues of life without recourse to other languages. It has a "mature" morphological system, both for nouns and verbs, as well as a highly complex and structured sound-system. That does not mean the speakers can write it, however. I know one speaker who has tried to write personal names in the language and gotten all tangled up in writing the phonetic form of the language rather than its phonemic form. He has not proceeded very far. Others have tried to use the writing system of Bulu. That, too, has been frustrating. In order to help show the Swo people the path forward, we have made a 1-page "alphabet chart" that shows the letters in alphabetical order on one sheet of paper. For each letter, there is a word that exemplifies the use of the letter, and an illustration of the word. Its enduring virtue will be serving as publicity for the innovation, written Swo. It also helps desensitize people to the "funny" characters. This teaches them the number and identity of the characters in their language, and their order in the Swo alphabet, but it is not otherwise pedagogically useful. For them to become literate, however, we will have to write primers for the various audiences: a primer series for complete illiterates and a slim and simpler volume those who are literate in French or in Bulu but who want to read and write Swo. This is a transition primer. We have organized its contents and will be now starting on the first lessons.

Nzime literacy work well engaged

These pictures shows how younger readers and older alike are catching on to the idea of literateness. Here is one page of a book on the importance of learning to read:

Our coworkers in Lomie have done an good job in this regard, helping the Nzime move more and more in the direction of literateness. This is under the direction of Francois MEDJO, who is a Badwe'e who has moved into the Nzime community as an other-tongue African missionary. He is teaching a group of others to revise AIDS materials, bringing them into a new, simpler writing system.

This Nzime man is proud of his newly-acquired ability to write.

This Nzime coworker, Ghislain Nka'ala, would like to become a pastor to serve his people better. He is looking for a school that has a program suited to his needs, and for people who have finances to share with him in this endeavor.

There is nothing trivial about getting a nation of people, or a people-group, started down the path of literateness, where numeracy and literacy are known about, and where they are expected to play a role in the life of all but the youngest and the blind.

Advocacy for the Badwe'e

One of our abiding concerns is to assist the Badwe'e to acquire the contacts and the confidence to receive help of all kinds from interested parties. I have been thinking mostly of the Badwe'e in the cities of the world who have an interest in seeing their relatives progress in various positive directions. They can send money to the hard-working Badwe'e we work with through the Abong Mbang branch of Express Union. Moneygram is based in many of the countries around the world, and they can send money to Express Union. They should send it to Ferdinand Elanga, +(237) 99358209, or to Maurice Mvolo Ekoalea, +(237) 94838322. Ferdinand is directing literacy work among the Badwe'e, while Maurice is working on Bible translation and Scripture Impact. You can reply to this post and let me know if something is on the way from you and if you want to designate it for them. They will received 100% of the gift and send you a report and a thank-you. Soon, we hope, Ferdinand and "Janvier" Ekoalea will be able to manage their own blogspot, which they have expressed interest in doing. That day may be fast approaching.