Matayo Matar: Gang. [The gospel according to St. Matthew, translated into the Gang language from the Greek.]

The translation of the Gospel of Matthew into the Gang language, published as Matayo Matar, emerged from the concerted efforts of 19th and early 20th-century missionary linguistic projects in East Africa. The Gang language, more commonly referred to as Acholi, is a Nilotic language spoken in northern Uganda and parts of South Sudan. This work was produced as part of the initiative by the Church Missionary Society to provide scripture in the mother tongue, facilitating local literacy and religious instruction among the Acholi people.

The publication represents a significant moment in the cross-cultural exchange between European mission societies and the Nilotic-speaking communities of the Upper Nile. By transliterating the Greek text into the phonetic structures of the Gang language, the translators aimed to bridge a vast theological and linguistic divide. While these early translations served as foundational texts for the growth of local Christian communities, they remain historical artifacts of colonial-era linguistics, illustrating the complex intersection of global evangelism and indigenous language preservation.