Jita

Some Jita ladies in the village



Magesa, Jita translator



Magoma, Jita translator



Neema, Jita translator


There are about 205,000 Jita people spread out over a large section of Mara Region. Their land borders on the lake and many Jita people are fishermen. They are one of the largest groups in Mara and in the past they have fought with various other groups and emerged victorious. There are not ongoing problems; those wars were quite some time ago, but the result is that the Jita are a strong group in the area.

The New Testament was translated into Jita in the 1950s, but unfortunately the translation used a mixture of three different dialects/related languages, and so people have a very difficult time reading it. The writing system was also a bit complicated and was not taught to new readers, so that alone prevented people from reading it. Now we are starting the translation project anew and being careful to make sure it is actually Jita!

There has been quite a bit of Christian outreach done among the Jita over the years and now there are many churches in their area. The largest is Seventh Day Adventist, followed by Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Mennonite. There are also Anglican churches and a wide variety of Pentecostal denominations. There are only a few Muslims.

However, just because a large percentage of Jita are Christians in name does not mean that they are not also practicing traditional religion as well. Traditionally, Jita people go to small tree groves and sacrifice animals to pacify spirits. Ancestor spirits are an important part of their worldview and people frequent witch doctors when they have problems to see which ancestor's spirit is causing trouble for them. The spirits can also cause good to happen; they are not only bad.

There are three Jita translators, all of whom are pictured above. Magesa and Magoma are both pastors with Pentecostal Assemblies of God, and Neema is an evangelist and choir leader with the Mennonite church.

Magesa is quite serious and is very focused on his work when at the office. He is married and has six young children. His wife still lives in their village home because she has to take care of Magesa's developmentally disabled younger brother, but he tries to go home one weekend a month to visit. He and his wife are also taking care of their niece, whose father is in prison and whose mother has AIDS. Magesa is very energetic and rarely sits still, and he's a force to be reckoned with on the soccer field when we have office games.

Neema is single, but likes to joke about finding herself a good man sometime soon. She's by far the best of the three when it comes to computers and likes to help the men when they are confused by their machines. She's a cheerful worker and servant - she refills everyone's water glasses in the office, helps the office cook during tea break, and volunteers to lead our morning prayer service when the usual leader is away. Singing is Neema's passion in life and she spends a lot of her free time working with her church choir.

Magoma likes to ask the difficult questions about the Bible. Even if he knows how to translate the verse into Jita, if he doesn't fully understand what the verse means, he wants to ask questions and discuss it until he feels confident that he knows the message behind the words. He's a slow, careful worker who is utterly befuddled by his computer. Magoma is married and has eight children ranging in age from quite young to in their late teens. It costs a lot to take care of a large family and he is often stressed by financial problems.