Rev. Dietrich Wassmann to Mission Director Christoph Schomerus in Hermannsburg, dated May 22, 1932.
(1) English translation (excerpts)
[page 1]
Lallo Shalliotta, May 22, 1932
Dear Pastor [= Mission Director Christoph Schomerus]
First of all, thank you very much for your kind letter of March 3, 1932, which I received when I returned to Bedelle from my trip with the Doctor. […]
[p. 3] Now that the Doctor has left and we have been able to free up a room where I can work and teach undisturbed, I have decided to finally take up the long-awaited real mission work. On the first day of Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian church, I began the regular church services in the name of the Triune God in our large central room. The services now take place every Sunday at 10 a.m. In the week before Pentecost, I managed to get [p. 4] the liturgy translated and practice it in a makeshift wary with the people of the village.
I had hoped to be able to start classes on Tuesday as well. But there was no blackboard, we had to make our own chalk, and many other things had to be prepared, so I had to wait another week. This morning I started with two school beginners. With great joy but also with trembling, we were allowed to make a new beginning with the Lord’s help. May He now bestow also His blessing on it.
Medjid’s stepson [i.e., Dafaa Jammoo] from Gore, who was confirmed in Addis, is a help to me to some extent and has now come here. On the one hand, it is a pity that he can no longer enjoy regular classes. He still lacks many things, and I have to tutor him. For the time being, I teach him Bible studies, catechism, church history, catechetics, German, arithmetic and essay writing.
For now, I instruct the school children in Bible stories, reading and writing every day, then 4 hours of arithmetic, 2 hours of singing and 1 hour of catechism every week. Every Monday evening, I practice hymns with the people of the village and hold a short devotion at the end. I want to set up one evening hour for reading and writing lessons so we can have a singing congregation. And I hope I can still arrange this hour, although I am now busy all day since I still need a lot of time to prepare for the Sunday service.
The beginning isn’t easy, especially since I don’t have any books in Oromo apart from [Barth’s] biblical stories. The catechism has been translated by Onesimus. However, it is the Reformed one that I do not wish to introduce. I will try to translate it [i.e., Luther’s Small Catechism] for my use.
I also have to translate all the hymns before I practice them. I have a small booklet by the Swedes, but I can hardly use it because we don’t have the melodies. And it is undoubtedly also desirable if we have our German hymns as in South Africa.
Other missions hardly publish an Oromo hymn book since these organisations work almost exclusively in Amharic or with an interpreter. Today I got the hymn “Abide among us with Thy grace” [German: Ach bleib mit deiner Gnade] translated and already practised one verse tonight. Practicing goes slowly because people have to memorise the text first. But it is still a pleasure.
I would like to make a wish. Copying all the translations takes up a lot of my valuable time. A small duplicating machine would be of great value to me. A small and very simple one would suffice.
In the mission and school work, other missions and our work in Addis have a significant advantage in that they have teaching material available in Amharic and therefore do their work in this language. But it would be a pity if we, too, wanted to do our work in the countryside in Amharic for the sake of this one advantage. Only a few dignitaries speak Amharic in our area, but the people would first have to learn this language like any other. However, to be able to work in Oromo — although we will not be able to avoid a few lessons in Amharic later, and our work will probably always be bilingual —a lot of preparatory work is needed to create teaching material. In the first decade, it will probably only be by handwriting. […]
Just as we had to build our house under the most basic conditions, we now have to plough a whole new land in missionary work and start under the most rudimentary of circumstances, just as we did with the school beginners. The Oromo have lost much of their language and do not understand Onesimus’ Bible translation or put a wrong meaning on it. For example, Onesimus translated our word “hell” as siol, probably imitating Sheol. In Oromo, siol means “above you”. The Oromo can’t imagine anything when you tell him, “The rich man [in Luke 16] was siol = (1) above you = right in the air, or (2) superior to you. The word “priest” has been translated [by Onesimos] as luba. In Oromo, luba and buda are synonymous with the most dreaded evil spirit that turns people into savage beasts and by which [p. 5] the magic priest (qalu) is possessed […].
For the approaching mission feast, I wish you strength from on high and the spirit of Pentecost for all involved.
With best regards
Yours,
Dietr. Waßmann
(2) German text
courtesy ELM Archives (Hermannsburg)
Cross-references
Wassmann. Duplicated Oromo hymns (almost all translated from German). [View online]
- In 1932, there seem to have been virtually no copies of Onesimos’ hymnbook (1886) west of Nekemte. Numerous copies may have been lost when Onesimos’ house in Nekemte was set on fire. The “booklet” mentioned by Rev. Wassmann could be a mimeograph with selected hymns that he received in Nedjo.
Nordfeldt to Mission Director Dahlberg (1927). Letter mentioning duplicated Oromo hymns. [View online]