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Nupe Version of the Scriptures

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Nupe is spoken in a territory of Central Africa situated between Yoruba on the south-west and Haussa on the north, divided into two portions by the river Rowara, which runs through it from a north-westerly direction, till it winds its way southerly after it has cleared the bases of the Rennell mountains. The south-west portion of Nupe is a belt of land not more than twenty-five miles from the river's bank to its boundary with Yoruba land at Saregi, formerly a mutual place of meeting in their hunting expeditions between the two tribes, but now it is an important town, inhabited by both tribes, the Yorubas, however, being the more numerous and influential. The breadth of the northern portion of Nupe is much larger, or some three or four days' journey across, or about sixty or seventy miles broad towards Haussa from the river's bank. The extreme length of the country from Kpatatshi, the last town of Nupe on the boundary of Busa, on the upper parts of the river to the tribes of Isitakotsi, next to Muye, and Bidon of Kakanda, on the lower parts of the river, is about one hundred and sixty miles. Such is the geographical position of the Nupe country, as described by the Reverend S. Crowther, who, in connection with the Reverend J.F. Schon, translated the first seven chapters of Matthew in the Nupe, which, at the request of the Church Missionary Society, were published in 1860 by the British and Foreign Bible Society as the first instalment of an entirely new translation in a language spoken over a vast extent of country. At present there are extant the gospels of Matthew and Mark in the Nupe. (B.P.)