Rishiwa in Nigeria

Introduction / History

Rishiwa is a stable indigenous language of Nigeria belonging to the Niger-Congo class. The people call themselves Ashiwa. They migrated from Sudan to Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria. After that, they moved to the town of Rishi, in western Bauchi state. Later, they settled on Kaibi mountain. But there was insufficient space for farming, so they moved down to the plain at the foot of the mountain.

Rishiwa is spoken in seven villages in the Karua Local Government Area (LGA) in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

What Are Their Lives Like?

Each of the seven Ashiwa villages, Kubanti, Rikpoboh, Upereh, Kudugu, Rigili, Kigonno, and Kikurku, has a head, and their paramount chief lives in Kubanti. The Ashiwa also gather in Kubanti for their cultural festivals.

Farming is their major occupation. They raise livestock and grow maize, rice, beans, corns, guinea corn and millet. They sell their surplus at local markets. Cotton and peanuts (groundnuts) are common cash crops. Some people engage in trade and others work as civil servants.

What Are Their Beliefs?

Nearly all of the Ashiwa claim to be Christians. A small percentage follow Islam and some still practice African Traditional Religion. Some denominations among the Ashiwa include Living Faith Church, the Church of Christ in Nations, Evangelical Church Winning All and Roman Catholic. Jehovah s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventist are also present in the language area. Hausa tends to be the dominant language used in the church because people from multiple language groups attend.

What Are Their Needs?

Rishiwa is used as the first language by all in the ethnic community. Most adults are multilingual, using English and Hausa. Some adults also speak the neighboring languages of Vori, Vono, and Kinuku.

Rishiwa is taught as a subject in some schools. But most literature is only available in English or Hausa. Children tend to use Rishiwa in school when speaking among themselves. During a recent survey, people stated that they have already set up a committee for Bible translation. They are working with Nigerian Bible Translation Trust to make Christian Scriptures available in their own language. This shows that the Ashiwa leaders have a significant interest in language development. Some audio recordings in Rishiwa are available at globalrecordings.net. These are a collection of related Bible stories and evangelistic messages, which explain salvation and basic Christian teaching. Community leaders may be interested in other language development projects such as literacy.

Prayer Points

Praise God the community has taken the initiative to begin translation work in the Rishiwa language.
Pray for wisdom to develop an initial translation project.
Ask God to call the right people to be translators and staff members for such a project.

Text Source:   Joshua Project