African slavers kidnapped Hika from the Oromo region of western Ethiopia in the late 1800s when he was four. After years of being sold between owners, he was freed at age sixteen by Werner Munzinger, a French vice-consul. Around 1870, the Swedish mission at Massawa educated him, introduced him to Christianity, and baptized him as Onesimus Nesib. In 1876, he was sent to Sweden to train as a teacher and minister.
After five years of study, Nesib attempted to return to the Oromo, but war and illness prevented him. He instead began translating Christian materials into Oromo, using the Ge’ez script to gain acceptance among Ethiopia’s Orthodox clergy. With the help of Aster Ganno, a gifted linguist, he compiled Oromo literature and produced an Oromo reader. His greatest achievement was translating the Bible into Oromo.
When Nesib finally returned home, the Oromo eagerly embraced literacy in their own language. However, he faced opposition from the Ethiopian Coptic Orthodox Church and government authorities, who preferred Amharic and opposed his teachings. Church leaders accused him of blasphemy, the government confiscated Oromo Bibles, and Nesib was eventually arrested and chained.
Restrictions later eased, and Nesib continued ministering among the Oromo until his death on June 21, 1931, at age seventy-five. Sensing he was near death while traveling to preach, he went to a doctor’s home, where he suffered a fatal stroke. Today, many Ethiopians worship in the evangelical tradition because of the pioneering work of Nesib and his colleagues.
Also On This Day
1591: Saint Aloysius Gonzaga died at age 23 in Rome. A young Italian nobleman who renounced his wealth to join the Jesuits, he died from the plague after contracting it while voluntarily nursing the sick. He is venerated in the Catholic Church as the patron saint of youth.
1607: Settlers at Jamestown, Virginia, held their first communion and founded the first permanent Anglican (later Episcopal) parish in the American colonies.
1892: Reinhold Niebuhr, the influential American neo-orthodox theologian and ethicist, was born in Wright City, Missouri. He authored foundational texts like Moral Man and Immoral Society.