Some Things Just Translate Easily

from Elliott
Well there weren't any isiXhosa words to confuse me. The message on the side of a house along a road in a remote part of our ministry area was clear. It was in the international language of sport. I think I knew what the resident was saying by the design that he had painted on the side of his one room house. I wonder if Nike would be upset if he had painted it on the outhouse just to the right of the house.

Perhaps he was expressing an affinity for a well know sport franchise or perhaps he was suggesting that he was an athlete of some local regard because just down the dirt road was a sport field Africa style – grass cut by local cows and goats and a rudimentary goal of scrap 2 X 4’s .

It reminded me of one of the talks in the Small Business Development course we offer to budding entry level entrepreneurs. We talk about marketing and branding and we show a series of logos (Nike, Shell, KFC, Puma, McDonalds, etc) without the name and see if the learners can guess the company and the product. Even in the remote rural areas of Africa everyone in the class got the right answers.

Not so sure how I feel about that! I have to admit sport does have a universal appeal. I can think of some other more significant messages that have more eternal consequence that do not seem to have such universal appeal but perhaps that is why God sent us here! We have work to do….