Eyes to See, Ears to Hear

Kinga Songs

You may remember from these two posts (To Makete and Beyond, Project 2) that I’ve had the opportunity to record some Bible-based songs in the Kinga language.  Did I write them?  No.  Did our translators write them?  No.  The old man in the picture has written them all… wait, I can’t say written because they aren’t written down.  He has inscribed them upon his heart for more than 50+ years… thought them up… made them without pen and paper.  See if you can comprehend what he’s put into this task and the path which God’s Word has travelled…

These songs (I wouldn’t doubt there are at least 100 in his memory) are every single one in his heart language, a language which has never been in written form until within the past 6-8 years or so.  He told me his first song was from his teenage years.  He is 70+ now.  That means all of his songs have come from him hearing stories from the Bible in another language, probably Swahili.  Go further… the Bible didn’t exist in Swahili when he started creating his Kinga songs.  So, the person the old man heard speaking about the Bible in Swahili heard it from yet another bilingual person who told these stories to him in a language he knew.  I’m going to ask the old Kinga man from where the stories came by which he has made all of his songs.  I can tell something extremely interesting is to be discovered.  I like where this is going…

See the video from the studio recording of a Kinga song here.

My intention is to make sure all of his songs are recorded before he meets the One which they are all about, if you catch my drift.  So, hopefully next month I’ll be able to travel to Makete again to record all of the rest of the songs he knows and the books of Ruth and Jonah in Kikinga.