Leaping Lutheran Legwork in Leipzig _!! Help Needed !!_ Swahili Catechism

In Leipzig? Going to Leipzig? Know someone in Leipzig? Your help is needed.

Interest in the Christian faith in Africa is high. There are places where copies of Luther’s Small Catechism fly off the tables, leaving more people wishing they had a copy than there are copies to give out.

Part of what we can do to help this situation is to find a translation of Luther’s Small Catechism from German to Swahili that anyone can use for free. LutheranCatechism.com has a lead on one possibility. The lead is in Liepzig.

In The Digitized Records of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania in Moshi, 4th Edition, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 3-935999-61-5, University of Leipzig Papers on Africa (ULPA), Mission Archives No. 28, there is the following entry on page 7:

C3/1-4 Luther’s Small Catechism. Correspondence 1937-38 + notes by Krelle on Rother’s translation

That sounds like it is talking about a translation in the 1930s by German missionaries from German into Swahili. That could be the treasure we need. And that is where you come in.

LutheranCatechism.com needs someone to go to the library at the University of Leipzig, talk to one of their reference librarians, and have the reference librarian show you the materials referenced above. The materials could include the translation, or if not, point to where we can find the translation. Those materials also could tell about the translation process and document that there would be no copyright problems in using the translation.

If you are willing to help, please contact the Editor of LutheranCatechism.com through the Contact by Email page.