The Importance of Ethnic Groups in Africa

By Richard Chowning 1990

How do Ethnic Groups Impact Missions?

The more than three thousand ethnic groups are the most important national social units in Africa, not nation states. They are the webs through which the gospel of Christ moves most easily. In the past fifty years hundreds of entire ethnic groups have been moved from traditional African religion into the saving grace of the Savior. Others are just beginning to make such a transition.

Ethnic Groups Respond Differently

The five million of the Sukuma ethnic group of Tanzania are presently more than ninety percent followers of African Traditional Religion. In that last eighteen months the Bentley and Newton families have planted ten congregations totaling more than three hundred members. Sukuma villagers meet these missionaries with petitions from signed by fifty of their neighbors asking them to come a begin congregations. This is just the beginning of a movement to the Lord. The families have learned the language and studied the culture so that they can present the gospel message in an understandable manner to the Sukuma. Not all ethnic groups are so receptive to the gospel. For four decades missionaries have attempted to convert the Digo. They remain almost solidly Muslim.

Research has brought understanding

At Abilene Christian University we have taken the challenge of studying the ethnic groups of Africa with a view to identifying and prioritizing those that are unreached and receptive for targets of future mission teams. We have examined books and periodicals and constructed databases which assist in discovering the ethnic groups which should be targeted.

God is in control of all things. Only he knows for sure how people are going to respond to the gospel. Missionaries and supporting congregations should be in prayer as they attempt to understand where God would have them plant congregations. Research lends understanding of where God has worked in the part. Based upon that understanding some projections can be made for the future. Works begun with prayer and research, such as the Sukuma Team, are bearing fruit.

Unevangelized Ethnic Groups

David Barrett, the renowned missions researcher, classifies the world's people groups as forty-six percent Christian (C World), twenty-two percent evangelized but not Christian (B World), and thirty-three percent unevangelized (A World). He has a listing of the categories of the African ethnic groups by country. We have taken Barrett's data and applied it to mission efforts in Africa. A chart showing the percentage of workers working among the unreached is very revealing. The chart below charts his recent study of the ethnic groups of the world with specific reference to the 12,193 unevangelized groups which make up thirty-three percent of the world's total. A slightly higher thirty-seven percent Sub-Sahara Africa's ethnic groups are unevangelized.

However, of the countries where North American Church of Christ missionaries are now serving, the unreached proportion almost mirrors that of the world. On the other hand, in countries where there is presently no North American Church of Christ missionary presence a much higher forty-one percent of the ethnic group's are unevangelized. In the six countries targeted as priorities by Abilene Christian University's African Mission Fellowship Strategy Group a significant forty-three percent of the ethnic groups are unevangelized. The target countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote de'Ivoire, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Togo.

What Does this Say About Future Deployment of Missionaries?

If we are to preach the gospel to those who have not heard, then we will begin to target that part of Africa that has had the least contact with gospel. Many of the predominantly unevangelized countries are areas of extreme human suffering. The suffering comes in the form of hunger, war, or political oppression. Islam has many followers in many of these regions. The Muslims have been resistant to the gospel in previous decades, but in the last five years churches have been planted among them. English has been a lingua franca in most of the countries where missionaries have worked. That is not so in the unevangelized areas.

Those who are deployed by churches into these unevangelized areas will be taking on great challenges. They will be called upon to trust the Lord in a mighty way as they enter into these new frontiers. This challenge has already been responded to by a team from ACU planting churches among the Fon people of Benin and another team group Harding soon to begin work among the Ouachi of Togo.

Population size and receptivity to the gospel are two important factors to consider when looking at the vast set of unevangelized ethnic group in Africa. ACU's African Mission Fellowship Strategy Group maintains a database of African ethnic groups. The fifteen largest unevangelized ethnic groups in Sub-Sahara Africa are almost equally divided between those groups which are predominantly Muslim and those that follow traditional Africa religion. All but one have scriptures.

The Sukuma and the Fon have resident teams (all graduates of ACU) now serving among them. Both teams desire additional workers. Receptivity is a difficult factor to determine. There is never any absolute certainty, but on-site research and comparisons have proven to be extremely valuable. Each summer Richard Chowning and students from ACU study two or three target areas, usually a combination of ethnic groups and cities. The research team interviews missionaries of various denominations and agencies, conducts surveys, and observes the culture of the people. From the analysis and investigations the areas researched are place in a pool of previously studied areas and priority targets are determined.

Five years of documentary, database and on-site research have resulted a the highlighting of for priority ethnic groups (see map to the right). The Mossi people live in the arid regions of Burkina Faso. They resisted Muslim conquers in the seventeenth century and have now begun to show signs of openness to the gospel. They are the largest unevangelized ethnic group of French speaking West Africa. The Aja are a sister tribe to the Fon in Benin. They are densely populated and practive intensive agriculture. The Makua/Lomwe cluster of ethnic groups number well over five million. These people of have suffered severely during more than twenty years of war. The Sukuma, as mentioned on page one, are extremely receptive to the gospel. They are so numerous that a team is needed to locate at the extreme eastern edge near Shinyanga. Pray for workers to enter these receptive and neglected, African harvest fields.

Appropriate Strategies for Working Among Africa's Ethnic Groups

Each ethnic group deserve a strategy specifically designed for their circumstances and view of the world. Granting that, there are some basic components that all works among Africa's ethnic groups would do well to employ. Long term planning and commitment are a must. The initial time commitment should be to language and culture study. When the missionaries accomplish these skills they will have a better opportunity to teach and preach an understandable message. Credibility comes not only from an appropriate message, but out of a close relationship with the people. This closeness is bridged by the missionaries going out to the people, eating, sleeping, and bonding with them. Mission compounds and institutions seldom bring about the necessary relationships of trust and commitment.

Hand and hand with relationship building, the strategy should envision the planting of scores of congregations. If receptivity to the gospel was one of the criteria that figured in the choosing of the target ethnic group, then there is the potential for thousands coming to the Lord. African ethnic groups in rural areas seldom have the transportation available to regularly gather with Christians who live more than ten miles away. Congregations can be planted in each village, as the gospel is accepted by friends and relatives.

Selected Resources for Further Study

Mother Tongues: Breaking the Language Barriers

Ethnologue: Africa

Books Unreached Peoples: Clarifying the Task, Harley Schreck and David Barrett, editors, Pasadena: MARC, 1987. Ethnologue: Languages of the World (12th edition), Barbara F. Grimes, editor, Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1992. Periodicals AD 2000 Global Monitor, David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson, editors, Global Evangelization Movement, P.O. Box 129, Rockville, VA 23146. Monthly four page newsletter. Mission Frontiers, Ralph D. Winter, editor, U.S. Center for World Mission, 1605 Elizabeth, Pasadena, CA 91104. Monthly 20-30 magazine. Organizations Peoples Information Network, Ron Rowland (Coordinator), SIL-Strategic Information Office, 7500 West Camp Wisdom Rd., Dallas, TX 75236. Share Fellowship, Roy Wingerd (Chairman), P.O. Box 26535, C) 80936-6535.

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