--Transmission January/February 2010, Myriam Pozzi, World Mission Broadcast South America

Dje da zu?

Don’t be frightened. When read correctly, it says, “What’s Next?” in the Fang (fawn) language. Fang is from the Bantú family of languages and is spoken among the peoples of the ethnic group Fang that inhabit the central African countries of Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Southern Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Saõ Tomé and Principe. The most recent census calculates that nearly 1 million Africans speak Fang.

Equatorial Guinea, one of the smallest countries in Africa, is also the only Spanish-speaking country on the continent. Six years ago, the South America Region in cooperation with the Africa Region sent missionary Mario Martinez, a pastor from Paraguay, to open the work in the city of Bata. Bata is the second largest city after Malabo, the state capital, with 110,000 inhabitants.

One of the first converts in Equatorial Guinea was Daniel Mifumo Ncuna Esono and his wife, Mercedes Susana Nchama Ela. Through the discipleship and mentoring of Pastor Martinez, Daniel grew in his relationship with the Lord and was called into ministry. Two years ago, Daniel was encouraged and supported by Martinez to prepare for ministry. Daniel and Mercedes left Africa for South America to study theology at the Southern Cone Nazarene Theological Seminary in Pilar, Argentina.



Daniel and Mercedes recently completed their first year of studies. During Daniel’s time in Pilar, he has become fascinated with the communications ministry at the nearby regional communications center. Equatorial Guinea has no daily newspaper and only three FM radio stations in the country. Daniel wants to return to Equatorial Guinea to not only pastor a church, but to plant the first Christian radio station in his country, spreading hope through the good news of the gospel of Christ.

Recently, the World Mission Broadcast South America team began recording the first radio program in the Fang language. The program, Dje da zu?, is the translation of the Spanish regional young adult radio program ¿Qué Sigue? (What’s Next?). ¿Qué Sigue? has aired throughout Latin America for six years and has been produced in Portuguese for four years as Revolução Jovem.

Thanks to the vision of Africa Regional Director Dr Filimao Chambo and South America Regional Director Dr Christian Sarmiento and with the support of World Mission Broadcast, we have partnered to create this resource to “make Christlike disciples in the nations.” Africa provided the human resources, while South America provided the technical resources and training.

Throughout 2010, Daniel and the WMB South America team will be recording an entire year’s worth of the Dje da zu? programs. Daniel will take these recordings back to Equatorial Guinea when he completes his studies this December. Daniel will also be the first student to graduate from the initial Intensive Communications Seminar being held in April at the South America Regional Communications Center.