The world is home to around 7000 languages, but most people only speak a small fraction of them. The three largest language groups are Mandarin, Spanish, and English, which are spoken by more than 1.5 billion people. Linguistic diversity can help create more inclusive and empathic societies.
The absence of diversity in languages has been said to leave some ethnic groups unreached with the gospel of Jesus Christ,a situation which prompted local preachers and gospel musicians to adopt the use of different languages in advancing the gospel of Jesus Christ citing that it helps in reaching many souls across the globe.
Speaking about the approach, Zimbabwe-based Rwandan Preacher and gospel minister Jean Dieu B Niyonzima revealed the significance of multilingualism in the gospel landscape as a catalyst to ensure that all tribes receive the message of salvation without discrimination or challenge.
He further said that he has already began singing and releasing songs in Kinyarwanda, English, Shona and yet to begin in Ndebele, French and Swahili in order to reach different societies with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“The gospel of Jesus Christ should reach all corners of the world despite the language being used. This brings an assignment to us as preachers and gospel singer that we should start making sure that in all our efforts to preach the gospel either through music, crusades or outreaches, we should try by all means to use different languages.
“The bible in the book of Psalms says; Let us proclaim the goodness of the Lord in the song to the nations. It also says go ye therefore, preach and baptize in the name of the Son, the Father and the Holy Spirit. We can only reach nations as gospel ministers only if we embrace multilingualism,” said Niyonzima
Minister Niyonzima was born and bred in Rwanda and later moved to stay in Zimbabwe. He discovered his calling in gospel music when he was 14 years of age, began to sing in church choirs and other choral groups. To date he has released one album on which he also did a popular Shona song titled “Nyasha dzenyu.
Meanwhile, another Zimbabwe-based preacher and gospel singer Felix Mpande who sings using Tonga and Shona concurred to the notion saying that especially in Zimbabwe, the use of minority languages is key to spread the message about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ to remote and marginalised communities.
“I am originally from Binga and I have decided to sing using Tonga because I realised that very few gospel musicians and preachers use minority languages in our country. The reason why we have few churches in those remote areas it is because of the lack of these languages.
“More so, preachers should improve on translation services especially when they go for gospel outreaches and crusades. People in these ethnic communities need to worship and serve God but they usually face language barries because when these gospel outreaches are done, they are most of the times in Shona or English. It is high time that as gospel preachers we adopt different languages in all our efforts to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ,” he added.
Victoria Falls Methodist Church in Zimbabwe member Stella Mpofu said “Surely the gospel of Jesus Christ should be preached in different languages depending with the place. For example, when Shona preachers come here we struggle a lot to comprehend the message especially if there is no interpretation so I want to encourage all churches to be diverse in terms of language,” she said.
Zimbabwe with an estimated 75% of the population speaking Shona has 16 official languages namely: Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, Sign Language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda and Xhosa.
