Bible in Borgu Fulfulde for first time

By Robert James  

An SIM translation team, working with the UEEB (Union des Églises Évangéliques du Bénin) and The Seed Company, has now completed the translation of the Old Testament into Borgu Fulfulde (a Fulani dialect from Benin), completing the translation of the Bible into this language! 

The more than 750,000 Fulani in Bénin speak a unique dialect of the Fulfulde language – Borgu – and so have long needed a unique Bible translation. 

With a heart for these people, teams set about such a translation several decades ago teams, aiming to allow the word of God to speak in the heart language of hundreds of thousands of Fulani.  

In 2011, the New Testament was translated and published. And at the start of 2024, the translation of the Old Testament was completed by SIM team members in collaboration with The Seed Company and SIM’s church partner in Benin. union of Beninese churches originally planted by SIM. 

We are very grateful to our long-standing partners, who are doing an incredible job.

An SIM worker, who is close to the project, said: “We are very grateful to our long-standing partners, who are doing an incredible job. Up to now, the Fulani people in Benin have been using the Fulfulde Bible from Cameroon in their Bible school in N’Dali, which has portions of Scripture that were the closest to their dialect.” 

The translation teams sincerely hope that this Bible will be a resource that will reach many Fulani people in Benin, in their heart language. It is up to the local churches working among these people to make use of this resource. In 2020, it was estimated that up to 10.000 Fulani people in Benin were attending the UEEB churches.  

This article was first published by SIM France-Belgium in French.