On October 16, 2021, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures in the Lunda language was released in digital format during a special program that was streamed to publishers in three African countries. Hard copies should become available beginning in February 2022.

Brother Emmanuel Chiposa, a member of the Zambia Branch Committee, released the Bible during a prerecorded talk. It was streamed to audiences in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.

The Lunda-speaking people are traditionally subsistence farmers growing maize, cassava, and sweet potatoes. In Zambia, they live near the source of the famous Zambezi River, the fourth largest river in Africa after the Nile, Congo, and Niger. Jehovah’s Witnesses first began preaching to Lunda-speaking people in the 1930’s and translating literature into Lunda in 2003.

In September 2019, the Lunda translation team moved into a newly built remote translation office. This move facilitated the work by providing the team with, among other things, a stable Internet connection.

For a number of years, publishers had to rely on expensive Bibles that used archaic language and were hard to find. The New World Translation in Lunda provides greatly improved clarity and understanding. For example, previously available Lunda Bibles pluralized the word “offspring” found at Genesis 3:15. This rendering made it difficult for publishers to explain that the prophecy applied primarily to Jesus. However, the Lunda New World Translation properly renders the term in its singular form.

The translators feel enormous satisfaction with the newly released Bible. One said: “I am confident that when people read this translation, they will feel drawn to their Creator, Jehovah.”

The release of the New World Translation in the Lunda language is further proof of Jehovah’s concern for people of all nations. This Bible will assist Jehovah’s people in continuing to spread the Kingdom message to “the ends of the inhabited earth.”—Romans 10:18.