Ezra Baya Lawiri

Ezra Baya Lawiri (c. 1917 – 29 March 1991) was a Sudanese teacher, Episcopalian priest and scholar, responsible for translating The Bible into the Moru language.

[1] In 1965 the Anya Nya War in Sudan intensified and reached Mundri causing Ezra and students from the college to flee into exile in Uganda.

At about this time he started translating The Bible into the Moru language while working in the Nabumali Secondary School in Mbale, Uganda.

In March 1991 the government army retreated from Mundri towards Juba taking 2000 civilians including Ezra Lawiri and his family.

[1] On Good Friday, March 29, 1991, Lawiri was fatally wounded by an artillery shell; his daughter Cecilia Baya was also killed the next day.

[1] In July 2008 a statue of Lawiri was installed in niche 174 on the Great West Front of Salisbury Cathedral.