Uduk Bible (UDUSIM)

Overview

The Uduk Bible (Gwo Ma Arumgimis) contains the New Testament along with Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms from the Old Testament, published in 2005 by SIM International. [1] The Uduk people live in the Kurmuk district of Blue Nile State in southeastern Sudan, near the Ethiopian border. [2] Bible translation among the Uduk began in the 1940s when SIM missionaries Mary Beam and Betty Cridland moved to the Chali station in southern Sudan in 1943 to work among the previously unevangelized Uduk, who had no written language. [3] Beam and Cridland spent years reducing the Uduk language to writing before beginning translation work, and Betty Cridland used her first furlough to research the suitable Uduk term for "Holy Spirit." [3] Their efforts, together with mother-tongue translator Rasha Angwo Paul, produced an early Uduk New Testament (Gwon this ki 'twam pa mo) in 1963 through the Sudan Interior Mission. [4] The 2005 edition represented here is a later revision incorporating Old Testament portions. In 2014, Samaritan's Purse distributed 2,000 freshly printed copies of the New Testament (with Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms) to Uduk refugees from Blue Nile State living in the Doro refugee camp in Maban County, South Sudan. [5] Refugee pastors Solomon, Jima, and Rubin were among those involved in ongoing Uduk translation efforts. [5]

Translation History

SIM missionaries Mary Beam and Betty Cridland arrived at the Chali station in southern Sudan in 1943 and began linguistic work among the Uduk people, who had no prior written form of their language. [3] They developed an orthography and began Scripture translation. Together with Rasha Angwo Paul, they produced an early New Testament published in 1963. [4] The anthropologist Wendy James of Oxford University extensively documented the Uduk people and their encounters with Christianity in her ethnographic trilogy, including The Listening Ebony: Moral Knowledge, Religion, and Power among the Uduk of Sudan (1988) and War and Survival in Sudan's Frontierlands (2007). [6] The 2005 edition published by SIM International includes the complete New Testament plus Genesis, Exodus, and Psalms. [1]

Translators and Contributors

  • Mary Beam — SIM missionary; led the Chali station and pioneered Uduk literacy work from 1943 [3]
  • Betty Cridland — SIM missionary; worked alongside Beam on Uduk language development and translation [3]
  • Rasha Angwo Paul — Uduk mother-tongue translator; co-produced the 1963 New Testament [4]
  • Solomon, Jima, and Rubin — Uduk refugee pastors involved in later translation work at Doro camp [5]

Language and People

Uduk (ISO 639-3: udu) is spoken by approximately 22,000 people in Sudan. [Glottolog: uduk1239]

Publishing and Organizations

Published by SIM.

References