AND SOME CHRISTIAN LITURGICAL BOOKS
By M.Y. NABOFA
Professor of Religious Studies
University of Ibadan, Nigeria
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by permission of Professor Michael Y. Nabofa © M.Y. Nabofa, 1997, 2002 |
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Mrs. Janet Anore Ohwovwiogor, nee Obukohwo-Egide Nabofa. "Oniemo of the Nabofa Family" |
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The
Holy Bible inside a box with lock and key. In the olden days the Bible
was kept inside a box with lock and key. Only the Priest was authorised
to read it during service. He locked it after reading it. Today the
Bible
is now opened for everybody to read.
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CONTENTS
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URHOBO CULTURAL SUBUNITS |
3. The Development of Urhobo Anglican Liturgical Books
4. Some Flaws in the Translation
5. Significance of the Urhobo Bible
6. Postscript
B. Urhobo Traditional Calendar
C. Urhobo Numerals: Ancient & Modern
It is the fact that the earliest well established and organized Christian denomination in Urhoboland was the Church Missionary Society of the Anglican Church of England[8]. The mode of worship and liturgy in the Anglican Church is clearly spelt out in the Church's Common Prayer Book. And every member of the Anglican church is expected to have the book as his companion to enable him worship meaningfully during service by following and responding intelligently to the canticles and versicles." [9] But the Anglican Christian's pattern of worship among the early Urhobo Christians was unable to follow strictly the form set out in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. This was inevitable because the founding fathers of and church leaders were stark illiterates who nevertheless did worship, but whose mode of worship, essentially, took the form of an unorganized Christian prayer meeting.
Thus when the congregation assembled, more often than not, in the Church leader's house or compound, depending on the size of the group the leader recited one or two verses (which most certainly he must have learned from some other Christians) from the Bible. The most commonly thus recited verse was from St. John Chapter 4:24 which says:
God
is
a spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in
truth.
(Authorized
King James Version)
After that they all knelt down and recited the Lord's Prayer. According to Enajero Arawore, "no sentences, no exhortation, no absolution, because there was no priest to read the absolution". [10] And while still in the kneeling position they sang or chanted a verse or two from a Christian hymn. But in some areas of Urhobo, where there were Isekiri teachers, some of the songs were rendered in either pure Itsekiri language or in a mixture of Urhobo and Itsekiri. While in those parts of Urhobo, such as Uwherun and Evwreni, which were closely related to the Niger Mission, which at various times had headquarters at Patani, an Ijo speaking town, and at Igbide, an Isoko town, used Christian songs which had a mixture of Isoko, Urhobo and Ijo words. [11]
This
was
due to cross-cultural influence brought about by Christian evangelism
and
enterprises. This is not to say that they never used songs which were
purely
rendered in Urhobo language. In fact there were many of them and the
following
is one of such songs chanted wholly in Urhobo tongue:
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Ohwo de bri
Jesu
Ko sa
mr'urhukpe roye
Jesu Urhukpe
wo rue
Wa gba yanrhe
re bro
ra.
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If one come
to Jesus
He will then
see his
(Jesus')
light
Jesus, you
are light
indeed
You then come
and let
us
All go to Him
(Jesus).[12]
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We
know
very little about the first attempts made to translate the Scriptures
into
Urhobo. We doubt much whether any attempt was made during the early
missionary
era spoken of above. It is a well known fact that in some parts of
George
Pilkinton and Henry Wright Duta, who were christian missionaries
in
The position was different during the pioneering work of Christian evangelization in Urhoboland. As it has often been asserted by many people who have carried out studies of Christian enterprise in Urhoboland, the people evangelized themselves.[20] The Church in this area was bounded by illiterates and semi-illiterates who could hardly read the Bible, and according to Enajero Arawoye:
the few who could read were unable to translate the Bible. The first teachers mostly Itsekiri elements had no Bible either. The first teachers read and translated the Bible as they understood it.The English or Yoruba Bible was used as a charm by placing it under the pillow toward off evil spirits and juju (sic). Church leaders and some people who attended Bible classes and Sunday schools were made to memorise few verses of the Bible and these they in turn used for preaching and teaching. [21]
Enajero Arawoye further observed that as long as the church remained predominantly illiterate no effort was made at translating the Bible into Urhobo language at this early stage of Christianity in Urhoboland. The effect of this was that it was not easy for Christianity to expand rapidly vertically among the Urhobo.
It is through the Scripture that the divine communicates with the devotee. After reading and meditating or reflecting on the passage read, the believer is able to interpret the true import of the message contained in the portion read. This is successfully done through the divine inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit and such exercise helps the believer to internalize the message of the Gospel.
Both Christian theologians and Church historians always refer to vertical and horizontal expansion of Christianity when they examine the effects of Christian evangelization among a given people. When they speak of vertical expansion they mean how deeply rooted the faith is in the mid of the people while horizontal expansion refers to the geographical spread of the faith and the numerical strength or population of those who profess to be Christians.
Usually, these scholars opine that the vertical expansion of the faith is the more important of the two because it is more lasting and endures to the end. It is possible, therefore, to argue that the early Portuguese Roman Catholic Missionary enterprise in this area failed because they paid more attention to the horizontal than the vertical expression of Christianity. This is the mistake the early Urhobo Christian evangelists wanted to avoid.
Actually, vertical growth and the development of Christianity among a given people call for an examination of the depth of the development of Christian tenets and practices among such a people. It also looks into how unshaken the faith of the people is and how innately strong is the inward part of the believer, and that is to say, to what extent the people have really internalized the message of the Gospel.
Definitely,
it is through constant and meaningful study of the Holy Bible that the
"Word" develops deep roots, strong and unshakeable faith in the
believer.
The Holy Bible is the principal means by which the Christian message
grows
vertically. Thus, one can appreciate the need and rational for the Holy
writ to be translated into a language that is best understood by the
believer.
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COURTESY OF CARROLL E. WHITEMORE AND WILLIAM DUNCAN Beneath the rock is a symbol of Paradise where the faithful are enjoying their eternal reward guarded by an angel. The Urhobo faithful are among those who are in Paradise. |
We can deduce the following from the letters:
(a)the Churches were in an unsatisfactory condition because both the people and their teachers were ignorant:
(b)the teachers were incapable of giving instruction to the people because the Scriptures had not been translated into the language that they (the teachers) understood:
(c)there were on-going Conferences on translation work and Tugwell was anxious to secure the help of the C.M.S. to assist in this work:
(d)it appears that thee were various versions of the Lord's Prayer in these churches - due largely to a lack of a standardised translation; and that,
(e)Tugwell translated a small reading sheet for use of the Churches, content of which is not stated in his letters.
The
notes
that followed these letters state that two thousand copies of that
small
sheet should be sold at a penny each; this price allowing a profit on
the
outlay. Also in the notes, he gave an order that
(2)First
Urhobo Translation
There
was
a lull in the spate of Tugwell's pioneered translation activities when
he left the Delta area. Bishop James Johnson, who later on took charge
of other area, insisted that the Church teachers and Catechists should
learn and conduct the Church services in Yoruba, a language into which
the Scriptures have been fully translated.[23]
Only very few of them were able to meet up with such demand and for
this
reason Church services appeared very formless, meaningless, and
uninteresting
to those who did not understand the Yoruba language. In order to save
the
situation, Mr. Omatsola and a few other
It was at this juncture that the Urhobo felt that the onus lay on themselves to have the Scriptures translated into their language. The first Urhobo person who made some attempt to translate the Bible into Urhobo was Mr. Thomas Emedo of Orogun. He was a C.M.S. (Anglican) Church agent. In a few years before 1920, he had produced a pamphlet known as Obeke. This was the first Urhobo Primer and it contained some stories from both the Old and the New Testaments which became very popular among early Urhobo Christians. Thomas Emedo also translated some sections of the Book of Common Prayer, and about twenty popular songs. These were the most popular sacred books which the early Urhobo Christians used for their worship that gave them no small inspiration.
In about 1920, one W. A. Tadaferua, who was at Idjerhe, Jesse was urged by Thomas Emedo to join an Adult Education class. When Mr. W.A. Tadaferua moved to Warri that very year, he was appointed an instructor in an Urhobo Bible Class. Together with others, including Ikimi Waghoregbo of Ephro-Otor, Philip Abi Oghenekaro of Oghwrode in Udu clan and S. Magi (an Ijo teacher, who was at Ekiugbo, Ughelli), Mr. W. A. Tadaferua worked in a translation class which was later set up. According to Erivwo, this translation class also drew inspirationfrom the Urhobo people in Ikale in Yorubaland. [24] In Ikale, one Ofodidun actively organised an Urhobo Christian congregation under the supervision of Rev. Canon S.C. Philips (later Bishop Philip), who was then based at Ondo. This group yearned for the Scriptures to be taught and expounded to them in their own mother tongue; thence, they actively encourage the group at home involved with the task of the translation of the Scriptures into Urhobo. Jointly in the Tadaferua class, they translated St. Mark's Gospel. They finished this by 1924. This became the major vernacular reader in the elementary schools of those days.[25]
The
choice
to translate St. Mark's Gospel was probably due to its small size and
its
being the resume of the life and Ministry of our Lord, Jesus Christ. It
contains almost all the salient issues discussed in the other Synoptic
Gospels. It contains almost all the salient issues discussed in the
other
Synoptic Gospels. Hence, in 1936, when Agori Iwe, the first Anglican
Bishop
of Benin Diocese, decided to boost the work of translation, in order to
avoid duplication breaking new grounds, he picked up
(3)The
first officially organised indigenous translation efforts.
As the Church grew and developed both vertically and horizontally, the yearning of the people to have more books in the Bible translated into Urhobo became greater. In order to satisfy this yearning and to further enhance the people's spiritual development, Agori Iwe, who was then the only ordained Priest in the C.M.S. (Anglican) Church in Urhoboland in 1945, commissioned three Anglican Catechists: Messrs. J.A. Emofe, Isaac Efedjara and Enajero Arawore to carry on the Urhobo Bible translation work in earnest.[27]
Arawore,
E. was made the co-ordinator of this project. In order to enable him to
function more effectively in this new assignment, he was transferred
from
To use Enajero Arawore's own words:
All these effors at translation were made by the natives, whose determination was to make the word of God available to the Christians in their own language.[28]
The pioneer translation of the entire New Testament into the Urhobo language had a major flaw; it had no tonal marks. Since the Urhobo language, like most other Nigerian languages, for example, Ibo and Yoruba, tones shave significant meanings, their absence in this first Urhobo New Testament version made reading difficult and impared comprehension since the absence of the tonal marks in some words occasioned wrong interpretations of the words. In spite of this flaw, the Urhobo Christians were greatly encouraged by this spectacular achievement and the enthusiasm with which the people received the translation encouraged the translators to take up the more tedious work of the translation of the Old Testament, in addition to reviewing that of the New Testament.
Translation of the Old Testament
(1)Formation of the Joint Consultative Urhobo Translation Committee.
Venerable Enajero Arawore, the Chief Co-ordinator of this Christian enterprise, was not satisfied with the stage reached so far in the translation work. The order of worship in the (C.M.S.) Anglican Church requires that out of the two lessons to be read during every worship, the first one should be taken from the Old Testament. Not only that, at least one ot eh Psalms should also either be read or chanted. As the Old Testament had not been translated, the practice then was for the reader to translate straight from the English text. This was not very smooth and satisfactory. Apart from that, there was no uniformity in the whole process of direct translation.
In order to overcome all these problems, in 1959, Venerable Enajero Arawore who was stationed at Uwherun at that time, convened a meeting of all the clergymen of the various Christian denominations in Urhoboland to plan for the translation of the Old Testament. The first and subsequent meetings of these people were held at Ughelli, which was then the seat of Venerable Agori Iwe, who was at that time the Archdeacon of Warri Archdeaconry in the Niger Delta Diocese, Anglican Communion.
A joint consultative translation committee of all the Christian denominations in Urhoboland was thus founded. This joint effort was to guard against what happened between Agori Iwe and Jovi Aganbi in 1936 and in order to expedite the translation enterprise through team effort. Another reason for the Urhobo Joint Consultative Translation Committee, according to Enajero Arawore, was "to give the translation a national fervour and one acceptable to all (the Christian) denominations[29] in Urhoboland.
The Roman Catholic Church was not, inadvertently, represented during the inaugural meeting, but her representatives attended the subsequent ones. It was resolved in that meeting that all the ordained Urhobo-speaking Ministers of all the Christian denominations should be members of the Joint Consultative Translation Committee. This also implied that all the Ministers that were to be ordained later were automatically to join the committee. In addition it was resolved that the Old Testament translation work should start immediately.
The following were the pioneer members of the Urhobo Joint Consultative Translation Committee:
Anglican
Church
(1)Rev. J.A.O. Emoefe
(2)Rev. Unurhieri
(3)Rev. J. O. Dafiewhanre
(4)Rev. J. Eterhere
(5)Rev. Enajero Arawore
(6)Rev. Mark Forae
(7)Rev. Otubu
(8)Rev. Atikpe
(9)Rev. W. Tadaferua, and
(10)Rev. P. Akposibruke
(1)Rev. J. Okirhienyefa
(2)Mr. Ibuje
(1)Rev. P. E. Onosode
(2)Rev. V. Eghaghe
(3)Rev. Okerentie
(4)Rev. Orikiri
(5)Rev. F. Awetefe
(6)Reve. Otojareri
(7)Rev. P. Ofuoku
(8)Rev. Ariemuduigho
(9)Rev. Agbaluya
(10)Rev. J. E. Ukueku
Roman
Catholic Church
(1)Rev. Father Vincent Obudu
(2)Rev. Father Paul Okudaje
Salvation
Army
(1)Captain Uvwo
The following were appointed as the Executive Officers of the Committee charged with the onus of seeing to its day to day affairs:
(1)Patron: Rt. Rev. Agori Iwe
(2)Chairman: Rev. P.E. Onosode (a post he held until his death in 1976).
(3)Deputy Chairman: Ven. J.A.O. Emoefe
(4)Treasurer: Rt. Rev. Agori Iwe
(5)Secretary and Co-ordinator: Ven Enajero Arawore
Someone who could perform secretarial duties was appointed as a Clerk to handle all duties emanating from the translation committee. His main duties were to handle correspondences, to type would all the translated scripts, mimeograph and arrange them in an orderly manner. He was place on an initial salary of ten pounds per month.
Why
these People were Chosen
These people were chosen for this holy assignment because of their expertise in Urhobo language and culture, and competence in English and Biblical languages: Greek and Hebrew. For example, Venerable Enajero Arawore, who was the coordinator was trained at the Trinity College, Umuahia in the mid-1950's and was priested in 1957, had records of excellent performance in Biblical Hebrew and Greek languages, while he was studying there. All the other clergies had working knowledge of those languages too. This informed their being drafted into human qualities identified in them, which aided their selection, judging from the efficient manner in which they handled the work, it is hard to believe that they worked without the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, for as the Bible is believed to have been written under manner translated into Urhobo under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
(1)Translation
Procedures
During
the translation proper, a number of books were assigned to each
translator.
The arrangement was that a completed book was to be sent to the
Venerable
Enajero Arawore, the Co-ordinator, for scrutiny and correction after
which
it was to be sent to the typist for typing and mimeographing. The
mimeographed
copies were to be sent to some selected laymen, who after reading
through
them were to make their comments and corrections where necessary and
return
them to the co-ordinator, who would in turn read through them again and
pass the draft copies to the typist to effect the necessary corrections
on the semi-final draft copies. The co-ordinator closely supervised the
typing of these fair copies to ensure that no mistakes were made. At
the
end, these copies were sent to the translation department of the
British
and Foreign Bible Society in
The
meeting
of the translation committee was rotated among the following church
centres:
The
business
of the Translation Committee during each meeting was not limited to
translation
work; but the questions referred to the committee by the Bible
Consultants
in
The following are some such foreign words the translators found difficult to render into the Urhobo language.
Incense:It was retained but spelt inces
Door-post:edivu. This is a word derived from Uwherun and Ughievwen dialects
Otentan literarily means smooth and devoid of any filth. It could also mean empty and in this context, it means empty of dirt or filthy. As used in the Urhobo, it means sparkling clean.
White: Ofuafon.Ofuafon is the common Urhobo word for "white" and "clean but in order to differentiate clean from white in the Urhobo Bible, the translators had to use Otantan for clean which is derived from Ughievwe dialect for it.
How to name and correctly translate the four cardinal points into Urhobo also posed a serious problem. However, they came out with the following translations:
East: Obaro-onre which literally means the front or in front of the sun. The expression Ovatsa-ro onre, meaning where the sun rises from, could have been a better and meaningful translation as it conveys a better geographical location of the east, as where the sun rises from. It should be noted that in Urhobo thinking and understanding, if one stands and faces where the rays of the sun are coming from, either from the East or the West, he is described as standing and facing the sun, Obaro-onre which is the ovacha-oren. Hence, the suggestion of Ovacharo-onre as being the more appropriate translation or rendering of East in Urhobo language. West is translated Obuko-onre meaning the back of the sun. Again, this is not too correct arendering because, geographically, the sun has neither back nor front. North is translated Obohwere-onre, which means the left hand-side of the sun. south is translated Oborhe-onre, which means the right handside of the sun.
To
those
of us on the earth planet, we know that the position of the sun is
stationary
or stagnant. Its direction to us in the morning is not the same at
One can see that the translation and interpretations given to the four cardinal points are anthropomorphic because geographically, the sun has neither right nor left. The problems faced by the translators in finding appropriate words and expressions for their work probably arose as a result of their tendency to restrict themselves to the recommended and accepted Agharho dialect as the medium of translation. If they had probed further than they did into other Urhobo dialects, they would have found more suitable words and expressions to solve most of their problems. Nevertheless, it should be appreciated that in reading carefully through the Urhobo Bible, one would discover that it is not only Agbarho dialect, but nearly every Urhobo dialect had considerable input in the translation the Bible.
Meanwhile, as the translation progressed, it was decided that something should be done to wet the reading appetite of those who were yearning to read the Bible in Urhobo language, and secondly, to encourage Urhobo Christians to develop more interest in reading the Holy Scriptures in their own mother-tongue. What they did to satisfy the above objectives was to publish The Book of Genesis, which was among the first books whose translations were completed. This was done in 1963 and not quite long after that the complete Book of Psalms was published.
As we
had
earlier hinted, when each book had been satisfactorily translated, it
was
sent to the United Bible Society in
The translation Committee met for several days in the house of Chief J. E. Ukueku at Eku to proofread it. The committee cop-opted Venerable Professor S.U. Erivwo, an Anglican Priest, and Rev. Father (Dr.) Erhuen, a Roman Catholic Mission Priest, in the final examination of the books. As we had earlier mentioned, the Chief translation consultants, who were Dr. P. Stine; Dr. E.A. Dahunsi and Dr. Eugene W. Bunkowske, did this under the auspices of the United Bible Societies.
The
translation
which was started in 1951, including the Old Testament and the revision
of the New Testament, ended in 1972, a period of thirteen years. In
fact,
Dr. Eugene W. Bunkowske confessed to both G.G. Darah, and my humble
self,
in1976, that this was the longest translation of the Bible into any
language
he had ever handled so far. It was sent to the press in 1972, and it
did
not come out until 1977. That is, the whole process lasted about
eighteen
years. It was a great pleasure to the entire Urhobo people when the
Bible
was launched on
From the previous history of how the Bible was translated into other languages, we learn that it takes shorter period to translate the New Testament than to translate the Old Testament. For example, "Martin Luther translated the whole of the New Testament into German in only eleven weeks, but the Old Testament took him twelve long year".[30] So that of the Urhobo was not an exception. Such delay may be due to both the large volume of that section of the Bible and the technicalities involved in its translation. Thirdly, Christian translators tend to relax their efforts in translation work once the New Testament, which contains the main message of Christianity, has been done completed.
Roles
of the British and Foreign Bible Society (B.F.B.S.) and United Bible
Societies
(U.B.S.)
The B.F.B.S. and U.B.S. played significant roles in the successful translation and launching of the complete Urhobo Bible Consultative Translation Committee, the major decisions taken and how they planned to carry out the translation work were conveyed to the B.F.B.S. which are based in London.
According to Venerable Enajero Arawore, the respond from the B.F.B.S. was very favourable.[31] The reply was also accompanied with a list of questions. The Joint Consultative Translation Committee quickly responded to all the questions and issues raised in the reply from the B.F.B.S. these London based Bible Societies saw the great prospects in the work of the Urhobo Bible Translation Committee and made recommendations to the United Bible Societies (U.B.S.) thee and then undertook to pay the salary of the typist, to provide such facilities as may be needed from time to time, and assigned a specialist consultant to supervise the work.[32]
We
cannot say exactly now how much the U.B.S. spent on this venture. The
U.B.S.
actually sent about N400.00 annually towards the typist's salary. And
this
it did promptly until the whole translation was completed. The U.B.S.
spent
some other huge amount of money towards this translation enterprises.
In
fact, the exact amount which these Bible Societies expended towards the
completion of the Urhobo Bible, we are unable to say and quantify now.
In order for the translation Committee to be well guided, the Bible Society of London arranged for some members of the Urhobo Bible Translation at this instance, Ven Enajero Arawore, who was the Secretary and Co-ordinator of the translation enterprise, and Rev. P. Ofuoku of the Baptist Church, were invited by the United Bible Societies of London to attend a one month workshop on Bible translation in a place called Ali-Baba, which is midway between Duala and Yaounde in Cameroun. They found this course very rewarding. In the words of Enajero Arawore, "We returned with new ideas and techniques in Bible translation."[33]
The United Bible societies evidently demonstrated keen interest in this work. It became deeply involved in it and did everything possible to see that the job was perfectly done. In order to achieve this it assigned, Urhobo Bible Translators the following Bible Consultative Translation Committee:
(1)Dr.
Williams Reyburn who was based in
(2)Dr.
P. Stine, who was based in
(3)Dr.
and Mrs. Eugene W. Bunkowske, who were also based in
(4)Dr.
E.A. Dahunsi, also based in
These specialists met with them periodically to discuss intricate translation problems. They helped in no small measure in straightening the translation of difficult words and phrases. These experts also conveyed to the U.B.S. the problems and requirements of the Urhobo Bible translators. In order to hasten the production of the translated texts, the U.B.S. donated to them a Gestetner Duplicating Machine for the easy mimeographing of the texts typed into stencils.
The
translation
consultant based in
This was a very critical examination of our translation work, and their corrections and comments helped to a great measure the success we have so far achieved in the translation work of the Urhobo Bible.[34]
It
was
when the translation consultant in
The Development of Urhobo
Anglican
Liturgical Books
A close observation of Christian enterprise in Urhoboland reveals that the production of Urhobo liturgical books in the Anglican Church took place almost simultaneously. As we had earlier mentioned above, a few years before 1920, Mr. Thomas Emedo, a native of Orogun who was an Anglican Church teacher, produced a Christian literature called Obeke and an Urhobo Book of Common Prayer, following closely the Anglican Book of Common Prayer of 1662. This liturgical book contained the orders of morning and evening worships and twenty (20) hyms translated from the Hymnal Companion. This liturgical book did not have psalms, no orders of Holy Communion, Baptism, Confirmation, burial and marriage services. However, according to Enajero Arawore, "This was the beginning of the evolution of worship in Urhobo Anglican Churches".[35]
In this aspect of Christian enterprise, Mr. Thomas Emedo could be regarded as the son of encouragement. Following his footstep, but at a higher level, at this time, in 1940, Rev. Agori Iwe, who later became Bishop Agori Iwe, the first Urhobo ordained Christian Priest, produced the second Urhobo Book of Common Prayer. This publication contained a number of Psalms and seventy-two Christian Hymns, most of which were translated from the Hymnal Companion. Some other essential services were also included in this Agori Iwe's translation, but the Orders of Ordination and Consecration Services, and the Anglican 39 Articles of Faith were excluded from this version of the Urhobo Book of Common Prayer. This Book of Common Prayer translated by Agori Iwe remains the officially accepted liturgical Book of Common Prayer among the members of the Urhobo Anglican Church till today.
As membership of the Church increased and many more acts of worship were included, the need to have more Christian hymns increased. In order to minister to the people's need in this aspect, Enajero Arawore assisted by David Eferakeya and Papa Oghenekaro translated more Christian hymns into Urhobo. These were added to Agori Iwe's collection and the number increased from seventy-two to two hundred and fifty-two in 1958.
In its eleventh annual general meeting of 1958, the Christian Council of Nigeria (C.C.N.) had lengthy discussion on how to enrich Christian life and worship. At the end of that discussion, the following resolution was passed:
The Council asks its region committees to arrange for the discriminatory examination of local customs and beliefs with the view to the enrichment of Christian life and worship, and to appoint a sub-committee to collect and examine indigenous musical compositions and the words to which they are set; to assess their worth for use in worship. It is also urged that Christian hymn-writers and composers should be given every encouragement to produce new original hymns for worship and it was suggested that a conference of all those interested and qualified for this work should be called together by the C.C.N. to bring this need more forcibly before gifted members of the Church.[36]
Venerable Enajero Arawore must have tapped the spirit and kernel of the above ideas of the members of the C.C.N. during one of his silent moments and became enthused with the development of Urhobo Christian literature.
The zeal to produce Christian literature in Urhobo language was very great in the mind of Venerable Enajero Arawore, because he felt that that is one of the ways the Word and the Message can be internalized by the Christian. He also felt that the more varied the sources from which these Christian materials were drawn, the better and wider the vision of the Urhobo Christian would be.
The
above
informed Venerable Enajero Arawore's action in taking a more critical
look
at the Urhobo liturgical books; and in 1978, he, working single
handedly,
increased the number of hymns from two hundred and fifty-two to three
hundred
and forty-two. Venerable Enajero Arawore knew that variety is the spice
of life: he therefore made gainful use of as many hymns as possible
available
from the different sources that were at his disposal which included the
collection of Christian hymns in Urhobo that could be found in the
Hymnal
Companion, Sacred Songs and Solos and B.B.C. Hymn Books. The size and
the
volume of the collection made it imperative that the hymns should be
separated
from the Book of Common Prayer. Thus, in April 1981, a separate Urhobo
Christian Hymn Book was developed and printed by the Caxton Press, West
Africa Limited,
(b)The
Roman Catholic Experience
As we had once hinted, the Roman Catholic earlier Christian Missionary enterprise in Warri and as far as to other parts of Urhoboland did not yield much fruits. That was the Portuguese attempt which had been described as "futile, and spasmodic" an attempt which became indistinguishable from the nefarious trafficking in "living tools" that was to last for over 300 years.[37]
It was in 1912, that Revd. Father Louis Cavagnera rode on a bicycle from Ukwuani district, traversing the Urhobo countr