Shekgalagari (and Setswana) don’t have gender distinction in the third person. You can refer to a sibling of the opposite sex, but that depends on the gender of the speaker to be clear. This feature of the language makes calling Jesus the “Son of God” impossible in Shekgalagari. Instead, we use Ngwana wa Morimo “Child…

Today we were in Xhauga, another village in the northwest region of Botswana. When we first arrived there, only 4 people had gathered for the community checking. After yesterday’s 25 people, I will admit to being a bit disappointed. The kgosi (chief) had only managed to start reminding people of the meeting yesterday, so I…

Today I am in Nxamacere doing community checking with the Bakgalagari here. We are going through the Gospel of Mark and it is fascinating to hear the discussion going on among the people. We took 15 minutes to talk about how to translate “convulsing” when used in relation to demonic possession, complete with several people…