The translation from English to Ekpeye was done primarily to capture the meaning of the hymn lyrics for the Ekpeye speaker. This style of translation requires the reader to pay attention to hyphens used to separate words which are intended to produce the original tune of each hymn.
Ekpeye is a dialect spoken by people of Ekpeye Ethnic Nationality in Rivers State in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria. Most Ekpeye communities are located between the Orashi and Sombriero rivers in Ahoada West and Ahoada East Local Government Areas.
The translator, Miller Tobia Solomon, was an abstute and educated Ekpeye man who grew up in an Ekpeye family that valued and worked to preserved Ekpeye traditions and culture. Eloquent in English and Ekpeye, Solomon was the first person in Ubie Clan in Ekpeye Ethnic Nation, to complete a secondary school education, when he graduated from the Azikiwe Institute of Commerce in Onitsha in 1955.
This book, Miller's Hymnal, is his effort to help Ekpeye speakers to read and sing their favorite hymns in their own language.
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