Raising a Bible Translation Workforce for Nigeria: a Review of the TCNN Programme

Nigeria remains the country with the highest Bible translation need in Africa. Nigeria has about 192 languages that need Bible translation to start and about 202 Bible translation projects in progress (Progress Bible website). The Theological College of Northern Nigeria (TCNN) offers Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degree courses in Linguistics and Translation. TCNN has become a place for raising and reskilling local translators and upcoming consultants, and preparing people for other areas of Bible translation.

I have been a mentee under experienced mentors at SIL Nigeria in the area of Discourse Analysis and Bible Translation. I have been involved in training and mentoring local translators and upcoming translators from over 28 languages both at SIL Nigeria and at TCNN in the area of Discourse Analysis to help them produce a natural translation.

Teaching experienced translators at TCNN shows that it is possible for translators to be involved in translation work for over twenty years and still need more academic training and mentoring like the one being offered at TCNN to be more effective. TCNN teaches students to go from theory to application – this is against the occurrences described by Olsen regarding the training in Africa in her paper. For reasons highlighted in this paper, many translation organizations would still prefer workshop training to academic training.

This paper assesses the impact of TCNN on Bible translation work in Nigeria, some of the problems that are being faced by TCNN and how to address them. This paper may help to enhance mentoring and training in other institutions as well.