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BIBLE TRANSLATION AND THE FORMATION OF CORPORATE IDENTITY IN UGANDA AND CONGO 1900–40*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2017

EMMA WILD-WOOD
EMMA WILD-WOOD*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Engaging debates around ethnic nationhood and knowledge production, this article examines the influence of Bible translation on corporate identity formation in Toro and Ituri (1900–40). It studies translations instigated by one individual to investigate textual agency wherever it leads. The translator Apolo Kivebulaya promoted adherence to Christianity as an inclusive and linguistically-plural global community. His translation for the Mbuti, which had limited circulation among its intended audience, shows an aspect of this global community at work, remaking the international image of the Mbuti. His earlier Runyoro-Rutoro translation, however, encouraged a local and political form of corporate identity in which translation and Old Testament stories helped to form an ethnic moral economy. In focusing upon Bible translation among the Toro and the Mbuti, the article moves from the politically influential Ganda, the focus of much historiography of Christianity in East Africa, and explains the roots of later revivalism and patriotism.

Keywords

Congo – The Democratic Republic of theUgandaEast AfricaChristianityethnicityidentitynationalismliteracy
Type
Mission and Text in Eastern Africa
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , November 2017 , pp. 489 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful to Joel Cabrita, David Maxwell, and two reviewers for their helpful comments. Author's email: ew273@cam.ac.uk

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