Pray for a Fellowship for Every People in Central and Western Africa

West and Central Africa embraces 24 countries with more than 500 least-reached people groups remaining. The countries of Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Mauritania, and Niger lead the way with over 80 percent of their populations still least-reached. Still, in terms of the number of people, Nigeria has over 45 million people still considered least-reached, although they only represent 34.7 percent of the total population of that nation.

In West Africa, you will find Voodoo, fetishes, ancestor worship, and idolatry. But most of the least-reached peoples are adherents to Islam. There are historical reasons for this.

For many centuries Islam was the religion of chiefs, sub-chiefs and the elite. Arabs who were making huge profits in the slave trade were not interested in making converts as the Koran explicitly forbids the taking of Muslims as slaves. When slavery was forbidden by the colonial powers, Islam spread faster in 50 years than it had in the previous eight centuries.

In plotting the progress of Islam across Africa, one becomes aware that Islam followed the established trade routes and pilgrimage route of Muslims on the hajj to Mecca, which is required of all Muslims once during their lifetime. Often they settled for several years in a town to make enough money to continue their journey. They were quick to start Koranic schools with paying students. Africans were attracted to their affluence and sent their children to school.

If a prominent African converted to Islam, he was given many substantial gifts and assured that he had a trade route to the north and the west. If he was a tradesman, he could break the barrier into trades, which had been monopolized by Muslims.

Islam in Africa can best be described as only the Five Pillars of Islam on top of their Animistic traditional religions. In a unique fashion, Islam is very appealing to the tribal people of Africa as it does not require the giving up of any of their customs or culture.

What does Christianity have to offer people bound by fear of curses and illness, misfortune or death brought on by interpersonal relationships gone awry? We have a God who is greater than all the gods. We have a God who is all-knowing, all powerful, present everywhere, and able to take a broken sinner and create a new creature with eternal life who no longer needs to fear the ancestors or nature spirits. Pray that the folk Islamic peoples of Africa will see the need to recognize Jesus for who He is, and turn their allegiance to Him. Pray that God empowers our brothers and sisters in this region to rise to the challenge with good news and good works leading to the personal transformation of many.

The Fulani: The Peoples Who Define West Africa
- by Mike Hughes

With a population of about 20 million, the Fulani peoples of West Africa are generally considered the largest nomadic people group in the world, although being nomadic it is hard to have an accurate estimation of their numbers. They are geographically spread across the width of West Africa from Senegal in the West to Chad and Cameroon in the East. No one is sure of their origins. Many think they may have migrated from the region around Egypt or Somalia, as they have a much stronger resemblance to these people than to their other West Africa neighbors. In more recent history they have spread East from Senegal under the Sahara Desert and generally have embraced Islam from the Arabic traders coming across the desert.

The Fulani are traditionally cattle herders and have lived nomadic or semi-nomadic lives taking their animals to find pasture, hence their dispersion across West Africa. While there are many similarities between the Fulani who live in different countries, they have also adapted to each locality. Depending on who is counting, there are around 14 different dialects of the language spoken by the Fulani, but all have a common root. Generally the Fulani are proud of their culture, and Islam is firmly embedded as part of this culture. Because of their nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle they live in hard to reach places. Both of these factors contribute to making the Fulani peoples unreached with the gospel.

My wife and I work amongst the Fulani of Niger, so I will share some of the distinctive attributes of this sub group of the Fulani people. The Fulani of Niger are thought to number around 1,000,000 (about 10 percent of Niger’s population) and are spread right across the country. Linguistically and historically they can be split into two groups, the Western Niger Fulani, who live around the Niger River Valley and migrated from Mali through Burkina Faso; and the Eastern Niger Fulani who took a longer migration path from Mali via Benin, Nigeria and then up into Niger. Both groups number about 500,000 and would only have several hundred Christians amongst them. Two separate Bible translations are under way with a joint partnership between SIM and Wycliffe Bible translators. To date several books of the New Testament have been published in both dialects. Last year the JESUS Film was produced for both dialects. There have been two national Christian conferences for workers among the Fulani and Fulani believers. At one of them there were around 200 believers from all over the country gathered for worship, teaching and encouragement.

A number of mission groups work amongst the Fulani. However, all of us feel insignificant amongst a large population of dispersed people. There are few places where the Fulani are a majority. In the same way, there are only one or two churches that could be called Fulani. Most Fulani believers are isolated from one another. Many join churches from other people groups. Literacy rates in Niger are about 14 percent, but they are even lower among the Fulani, so oral methods of evangelism and discipleship are necessary to form the development of the church amongst them.

The Fulani have a strong sense and adherence to their particular cultural values, and are often described as proud people. Even in the face of increasingly difficult climatic conditions for their farming and herding lifestyle, they stick tenaciously to their way of life and values. Islam has become part of this value set, although it was not always this way. Consequently, the Fulani of Niger are often amongst the poor and marginalized and are slow to adapt or change. This means Christianity has been slow to take root amongst them. Outwardly many would admit that the claims of the Bible are good and true, but it is a different thing to face social ostracism for becoming a Christian when there are very few others modeling what it means to be a Fulani believer.

Niger was featured in the world news last year when they had a food crisis. This is not a new thing for Niger, and the Fulani are always badly affected by the variances in the rainfall. Many Fulani families lost most or all their animals and most are still in debt from having to pay very high prices for grain to feed their families. The Fulani of Niger, and for that matter the Fulani right across West Africa, are a needy people in all senses of the word.

Please pray that they will soon experience the truth and peace that only comes through Christ, and that a Fulani church would rise up amongst them that would reflect Christ in a way that also is Fulani.