The Book of Common Prayer
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Kitamo Cha Kuomba
Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Taveta (1894)

 

Taveta is a Bantu language spoken in Kenya by about 24,000 people mostly located along the Tanzanian border, just east of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

William Muss-Arnolt provides the following biography of the first translator of portions of the Book of Common Prayer into Taveta in The Book of Common Prayer among the Nations of the World (1914):

The translator is the Rev. Albert Remington Steggall, a graduate of Durham University, B.A. 1883; Lic. Theol. and M.A. 1886. He went out in 1889 as a C.M.S. man to Nochi, on the Kilimanjaro, in German East Africa, whence he was transferred to Taveta in 1892. He laboured here from 1892 until 1905, made of Taveta an oasis in the East African wilderness, and established a station which has come to be known as Mahoo (Happy Land). His work has been exceptionally interesting and hopeful. From 1905 until 1906 he was acting secretary of the C.M.S. in British East Africa, acting archdeacon of Mombasa, and bishop’s commissary. He resigned his mission work in 1906 and returned to England. In 1895 he published, through the S.P.C.K., Hymns in the language of Taveta, and somewhat later a Taveta translation of the Psalms of David.

David Griffiths identifies this translation as No. 171:1 in The Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer 1549-1999 (London: The British Library; New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press, 2002). This is the only BCP translation into Taveta listed by Griffiths.

 

 

Title pages, English & Taveta

 

Contents

Kuomba Kwa Heyawo 7-19
  The Order for Morning Prayer

Kuomba Kwa Chamagheri 20-29
  The Order for Evening Prayer

Ulungano Mshenete 30-53
  The Administration of the Holy Communion

Lubatizo Lwa Waana 54-61
  The Public Baptism of Infants

Lubatizo Lwa Wandu Wabaha 62-69
  The Baptism of Such as Are of Riper Years

Katekisimo 70-76
  The Catechism

Kugera Mikono 77-79
  The Order of Confirmation

 

 

 

Web author: Charles Wohlers U. S. EnglandScotlandIrelandWalesCanadaWorld