People Group Definitions

Below are some important definitions to help us think about making disciples of all nations in Africa.  A people group is a distinct tribe, ethnic group, or race. Examples in Africa are the Fulani, Xhosa, Hausa, Yoruba, Oromo, Berbers, Larim, and Somali’s. There are 100 million Arabs in Africa, and over 65 million Berbers. There are 30 million Hausa in Nigeria, Ghana, Chad, Niger, Cameroon, Sudan and Ivory Coast. There are 30 million Yoruba in Nigeria and Benin.

- An “unreached people group” is a people group that does not have a sufficiently strong church among them to evangelize every person within their tribe/race/people. For a people group to be reached, a reproducing church must be planted in that group that is strong enough to evangelize every person in their group.

- An “unevangelized people group” is one where every person has not yet heard the gospel in a language they can understand. For a people group to be evangelized, every person must hear the gospel.

- An “unengaged, unreached people group” is one that no one is committed to reaching with the gospel. For a people group to be “engaged”, some person or some other people group or a church must commit to reaching that people by planting a growing, multiplying indigenous movement of churches among them.

- There are 926 distinct unreached people groups in Africa’s 55 countries. There are approximately 1.1 billion people in Africa. Over 300 million people in Africa are Muslims who have never heard the good news of Jesus.