People group profile · PG033499
The Makwe of Tanzania
The Makwe of Tanzania, numbering about 161,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a coastal people of southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique formed from groups who migrated to the coast in the late 1800s and stayed to form a new identity, their language sharing roughly half its vocabulary with Swahili, Mwani, and Yao.
They are an indigenous people in the Bantu, East-Coastal people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. Their primary religion is Sunni Islam, and they primarily speak Makwe.
Fast facts
- Country
- Tanzania
- Population
- 161,000
- Affinity group
- Sub-Saharan African Peoples
- People cluster
- Bantu, East-Coastal
- Primary language
- Makwe (ymk)
- Primary religion
- Sunni Islam
- Strategic Progress Index
- Engaged yet Unreached
- Evangelical
- No Known Evangelicals
- GSEC
- Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
- Lostness priority
- Frontier Unreached People Group
- Region
- Eastern Africa, Africa
Where they live
Gospel status
The Makwe 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 No
- Church planting in the last two years No Churches Planted
Next steps for the Makwe
- 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
Sunni Islam · Islam
80% adherents
Primary language
Makwe · Atlantic-Congo family
58% speak Makwe
Gospel resources in Makwe
- Bible not available
- JESUS Film not available
- Radio programs not available
- Gospel recordings available
- Audio resources not available
- Bible stories not available
Find more at the JESUS Film Project, Bible.com and Faith Comes by Hearing.
Pray for the Makwe
- Psalm 27:1. Pray that new believers will be strengthened in the face of persecution, with the Lord as their stronghold.
- 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.
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