The Sangu Project
News & what's next
The burning Land Rover &
reached almost 5000 people
"No, leave them alone," my passenger Mponzi called out to me, "the water is boiling!" "No, that's not water!" I bravely open the hood and see a cable burning next to the engine. The borrowed Land Rover, oh no! Right in front of a small bridge I had suddenly pressed the brake pedal into the void. "Cable broken," I thought and looked down from the bridge in amazement, "Oh, there's a small water source!" Here? Where there is no water for miles? After the bridge the heavy purple Land Rover rolled out. And as we got out we saw the smoke. Cable broken and at the same time a fire in the engine compartment, the car packed full of wooden scenery for the Joseph theater performance in the village of Lualaje, the last very distant village on our 12-village tour through the Sangu region. It would have only been 20km to our destination. First we pour all our drinking water on the fire, a motorcyclist and his passenger come by and run with us to the only source of water in this arid region. The fire spreads to another hose further down in the engine compartment, which now continues to smolder from the inside and which we can only extinguish after what feels like half an hour. If the cable had broken 500m before or after the bridge and we had had to run that far to get water, we might not have been able to put out the fire...
Then the second off-road vehicle and the two buses with 25 actors and 24 musicians arrived at the scene of the accident. After a short stop, I sent the whole group on to unload the other transport vehicle, start setting up the sound equipment and come back as quickly as possible to collect the set pieces from the Land Rover. One of the bus drivers, who is also a car mechanic, Mponzi and I stayed behind. The car mechanic drove to the nearest larger village to get spare parts, Mponzi and I folded our hands to thank God for protecting us so wonderfully. We arrived in Lualaje in time. The performance that day was ultimately the only one that we were able to start on time and it was the best! At some point towards the end of the performance I saw the makeshift fixed Land Rover roll up. We were able to load everything into the cars as usual and set off home that evening, November 1st, after a total of 25 days of joint rehearsals and performances in 12 villages. Almost 5000 people had seen the Joseph play, and we had covered well over 2000 km, about half of which were on unpaved roads, some of which were only passable at walking pace. We were able to sell Bibles and the newly produced family calendars at a reduced price and gave them away here and there.
The feedback was very positive. The audience followed the story with great interest. Loud laughter at Potiphar's reaction when the strangest slaves were brought before him, deep shock at the injustice that Joseph suffered, exuberant jubilation at the traditional dances and songs that conveyed profound truths from the story of Joseph and touched on current issues, astonishment at the tears that flowed down the face of the Joseph actor when he sang a song in prison about how he had been betrayed and forgotten several times in his life, ultimately also by the Pharaoh's cupbearer, but still held on to the God of his ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and his father Jacob.
Spectators in the village of Mahongole. They are laughing because Potiphar teaches the Ishmaelite slave trader his language, the Sangu language, but he twists the classic greeting several times.
Here are a few highlights from the three-hour performance as a video
Not everything went smoothly
...during the tour: Apart from the fire in the Land Rover, there were conflicts to be resolved or other problems to be solved almost every day. Once we were in a village about four hours' drive from where we were staying. A small cardboard box with the remote stage microphones had been left behind. A motorcyclist had to be found in the place where we were staying who was willing to bring us the microphones "quickly". -- The bus drivers of the bus company apparently had no money left for petrol and so they went on strike in the middle of the tour. Only a meeting with the bus company, the drivers and us led to a solution. -- The efforts of this tour also revealed what is hidden in the hearts of individuals. I myself only got wind of part of the conflicts on the buses. An important artist got off the bus on the way to a performance venue because of such a conflict and simply did not come with us. But before the performance she suddenly showed up. -- At the end of the tour, in a quiet moment, I asked an artist how he was doing. He had attracted attention for his alcohol consumption and for repeatedly arriving late for performances. I heard from him how much this tour had challenged him, particularly because of the different views of the tour participants. -- Illness had paralyzed some of the participants. -- Despite years of preparation, the cooperation with the local churches did not go as we had hoped.
We had some real challenges, but the Lord helped us through everything and in all 12 villages all the artists acted, sang and danced. For me, this was a pure miracle of God! After the performances, some pastors reported back that they would have done a lot more advertising if they had only known... We received requests from several other villages asking if we could come to them too. No, we will not be touring anymore. But we are now observing that the demand for Bibles has increased. Many more people now know that the New Testament and Genesis are available in their language.
We are very grateful to God for some wonderful feedback from our artists, four months after the tour. Written here by Meshak, who played the slave trader among other things:
"Since I have been attending the various workshops we have done since the beginning of the Joseph Project, I have noticed a change: when we started, I was not a great Bible reader; but in the workshops, Daniel never started without starting with the Word (of God). This made me a great reader of the Word and I joined various groups to read the Bible. I have seen the benefit and also realized that there is a lot I did not know, but now I understand a lot better.
Through the performance of Joseph, when people saw what we did, they understood the teaching and they became interested and want to watch (the drama) again carefully to learn more. It helped many, especially the mothers, and they have not forgotten it. They always ask when the play will be released (as a video). And I discovered this method (of drama), it is good for teaching people and they can understand it in a different way than by reading or listening.
There was a young woman… as I said, when we started reading the Word of God, whenever we started reading, it touched me very much and I started to be interested in learning. When I started reading, God brought this inquisitive woman to me, she asked me questions about the Bible, I should also read the Scriptures when she could not read. And she regularly asked me to help her. When she read the Scriptures, she did not understand them. Now she reads and understands, although she has only studied some of the books, but I believe she will learn more.
About the people outside (the church): they didn't watch it to the end, so they could have learned more, but in the parts they saw, they learned something. And at the moment they have nicknamed me 'Msulukhali' (= soldier). I think if they see the play again, they will not remain as they are and we will see more changes."
We are very touched by Meshak's testimony. He was someone who caught my attention during the teaching sessions at our theater workshops as an attentive listener. God has lit a fire in him that is still burning four months after the tour ended and it is infecting others. How wonderful!
Check out this other feedback here in the form of two videos. One artist who contributed here initially didn't want to go on the theater tour because he was convinced that traditional arts and Christian faith were incompatible. He came along and both he and others give testimony of what happened.
Kitambi, who plays Joseph, also reflected on his experience with the Joseph Project. His testimony is very encouraging. We can also see from his report how important it is to have a relationship with people over a longer period of time so that they can get closer to Jesus:
These videos are meant to be a thank you to God and to you for all your prayers and financial support.
What happens next?
The piece, which has been developed over several years, does not end with the tour. We have archived around six terabytes of audio and video material from the performances and are currently editing a three-hour Joseph Theater film. This will also contain scenes that we did not show at the performances, but which we filmed on a special recording day. From all of this material, we are producing not only the large Joseph film but also more than thirty shorter videos. These are enriched with the original Sangu Bible text to listen to and read, and the most important thing is the application questions that challenge the audience to connect the story of Joseph with their own lives. We have been developing these application questions from January to the end of April with the two Bible translators Mponzi and Chapaulinge and other very committed Bible listening group leaders.
This short film video material with application questions will be posted online and made available to the Bible listening and reading groups. We believe that the play will continue to have an impact and touch people for many years to come. The stories and songs will spread and become anchored in people's hearts. And when this work is done, we are planning a closing party for all the actors and artists. At this party, we will watch the play together. And we will give each village at least two USB sticks with the Joseph film so that it can be distributed to local video stores. People there buy Bollywood, action and horror films. It's a good thing that from 2024 there will also be the first two films in the people's language: the Jesus film and the Joseph theater film adaptation. In September 2023, we asked you for financial help and we didn't know whether we would raise the money for the theater tour. But I had to make a decision about how many towns we would print on the posters. The tension was great. I simply decided to have all 12 villages printed on all advertising media and also announced on the radio. And the next day we received an email saying that Wycliffe Netherlands was interested in supporting the Sangu project. Wycliffe Germany also promised us the donation from the Wyliff Day in Holzhausen. A few days later we saw everything you had donated, every name, every amount, and we could only rejoice and cry before God. All the money we needed for the entire tour was there or promised. Between the two tours, in mid-October, the Wycliffe Netherlands employee responsible for project financing visited us in Mbeya. We talked about continuing the Sangu project and we were assured that we could count on donations from the Netherlands for another year. It will be used for further training for the small group workers in the Sangu area, for another song composition workshop and for further village visits. Thanks to this commitment, my closest colleague Mwa sandube can also remain employed in the Ethnoarts office until the end of September 2024. Without him, I would only be half as fast and the work would actually be much more expensive, and it would be much less fun, because Mwasandube always brings a laugh, good ideas and a big heart for work to the office.
daniel.kliemt(at)wycliff.de
255 743 938 744
Address in Germany:
Siegenweg 32,
57299 Burbach, Germany
Address in Tanzania:
Karibuni Center
POBox 6359
Mbeya
Tanzania
www.wycliff.de