Receiving the Good News among the Tiv

The Nigerian people share warmth, hospitality, and a joy of life even under the most difficult circumstances

By Sr. Patricia Kay, O.L.M.
Summer 2003

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What good news can possibly come out of Africa these days?

In North America, most news about Africa is bad news indeed. Through the television, radio, and newspapers we learn about civil wars, wars among states, famines, floods, violence, corruption, increased ethnic conflict and religious tension, and massive displacement of peoples both within countries and across borders all over the continent. We also hear about widespread disease such as TB, malaria, and particularly AIDS, which is wiping out an entire generation and leaving millions of children orphaned. Most Africans are poorer now than they ever were. Africa is a continent in great distress.

According to a Nigerian woman, Dr. Ayesha Imam, there is a need to look deeply into the causes of Africa's misery. Dr. Imam was in Montreal recently to receive the John Humphrey Freedom Award from Rights and Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development), awarded jointly to her and to BAOBAB, a women's rights group she co-founded. She also made a speaking tour of Canada.

Convinced of the West's part in the poverty of Africa, she spoke of the structural adjustment program demanded by the World Bank and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) as a prime factor. To qualify for loans in the 80s and early 90s, African countries had to cut back on social spending for their populations and switch from subsistence farming to cash crops for export. Many clinics and schools were closed. This led to an increase in child and maternal mortality, illiteracy, and created a greater opportunity for religious extremism.

Yet this is not the whole story. Those of us privileged to be living in Africa for some time have seen the other, often untold, side. The African's warmth, humour, generosity, hospitality, spontaneity, and joy of life even under the most difficult circumstances can amaze any Westerner.

Meeting a poor woman on the path in our village in the morning and asking how she is, her reply will invariably be, "Thank God Sister," meaning, "Last night, I didn't die, nor did my baby die." Such is their gratitude for every moment in life.

In my own work in drama with Tiv young people since 1983, I have experienced their amazing physical qualities-their beauty, intelligence, ease and grace of movement, and their natural abilities in drumming, dancing, and dramatization.

Since my first adaptation of a Bible story in the Tiv language into a stage play, together we have gone on to do video productions. These included a series of stories from both the Old and New Testaments, and videos on AIDS awareness, in both Tiv and Pidgin English.

The production process developed as I adapted each story and wrote the script in the Tiv language, struggling to make the change from stage to video. A native speaker then corrected my use of Tiv. Over time, the actors and I held numerous sessions leading to changes in treatment and in script, most of which they themselves suggested. At last all the scenes were videoed.

From 1993 to 2000, I was able to collaborate with Sr. Ruth Kidson, a Holy Rosary Sister and an experienced videographer. She came to our village and completed the recording of each story in three to four days of intense work and then had literally days of editing to complete each video.

These videos are taken out to churches, compounds, and locations, where they are shown with the use of a small generator, a TV and a VCR. Many in the audience do not read or write and the videos are a marvelous means of communication and teaching. In our local area, many people have seen these videos over and over, their favorites being the tales of Job, of the well-loved Joseph, and of the Prodigal Son. Those of the Apocrypha, such as Tobit, Judith, and Susanna, are less popular. Yet in all these stories, the people identify with the content more readily than we do. For example, their understanding of marriage rights in the extended family is similar to that portrayed in the books of Ruth and Tobit.

Looking back, it is amazing to see how together we were able to give our audiences the opportunity to glean the deeper message for their daily lives from those marvelous parables, novelettes, and other Scripture stories. This creative work revealed to both actors and audience their own profound beauty and incredible abilities.

A happy confluence of factors made possible my part in this project-my interest in drama since early childhood, a love of the bible, an enjoyment of working with young people, and my fascination with the Tiv language. And of course, I had the expertise of Sr. Ruth. Moreover, I had financial support from the Canadian Church, friends, and relatives, as well as the indispensable backing of my mission community in Canada and in Vandeikya, Nigeria. However, nothing of this nature could have been accomplished without the talent and dedication of a core troupe of Tiv actors who worked with me over the years, a number of whom have already died.

Here in Vandeikya, at times you see a Tiv woman carrying hot coals in a container on her head, insulated by a thick band of cloth. She is carrying fire to another member of the community-fire that will be used for the day's cooking. That fire is like the "the good news" that we are all mandated to carry to one another (Isaiah 61:1). I am deeply grateful for the live coals of "good news" I received from these young people and their audiences over the years.

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