People group profile · PG014965
The Kisi of Tanzania
The Kisi of Tanzania, numbering about 37,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Bantu people of Lake Malawi's northwestern shore in Tanzania, sustained by an Iron Age pottery tradition traded inland to the Sangu for cattle, alongside fishing and canoe ferrying, before adopting Nyakyusa as a second language around 1900.
They are an indigenous people in the Bantu, Central-Tanzania people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. Their primary religion is Animism, and they primarily speak Kisi.
Fast facts
- Country
- Tanzania
- Population
- 37,500
- Affinity group
- Sub-Saharan African Peoples
- People cluster
- Bantu, Central-Tanzania
- Primary language
- Kisi (kiz)
- Primary religion
- Animism
- Strategic Progress Index ?
- Engaged yet Unreached
- Evangelical
- Less than 2%
- GSEC ?
- Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
- Lostness priority ?
- Pioneer Unreached People Group
- Region
- Eastern Africa, Africa
- Location
- Njombe region: Ludewa district, Mwambao division, Lupingu and Makonde wards, Lifuma, Lupingu, Makonde, and Nindi are main villages; Lake Nyasa northwest shore
Where they live
Gospel status
The Kisi are Engaged yet Unreached, which means fewer than 2% are evangelical Christians, but there are sustained efforts to establish self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. In GSEC terms, this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years.
- Congregations exist Yes
- Church planting in the last two years No Churches Planted
Next steps for the Kisi
- Continue prayer and fasting for this group
- Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
- Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people
Primary religion
Animism · Ethnoreligion
54% adherents
Primary language
Kisi · Atlantic-Congo family
75% speak Kisi
Gospel resources in Kisi
- Bible available, published 2023
- JESUS Film available
- Radio programs not available
- Gospel recordings not available
- Audio resources not available
- Bible stories not available
Films
- JESUS (Kisi)
Find more at the JESUS Film Project, Bible.com and Faith Comes by Hearing.
Pray for the Kisi
- Romans 12:4–5. Pray that believers from many cultures will work together as one body so that the church is built up.
- Revelation 7:9. Pray for the day when people from this group stand before the throne with every nation, tribe, people and language.
- John 17:3. Pray that many will come to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
- Psalm 27:1. Pray that new believers will be strengthened in the face of persecution, with the Lord as their stronghold.
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