The Bodi of Ethiopia

The Bodi of Ethiopia, numbering approximately 11,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are an ethnic group of southwestern Ethiopia, living primarily in the South Omo and Bench-Maji areas near the Omo River. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Me'en is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Bodi

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Ethiopia
People Cluster: Nilotic
Primary Language(s): Me'en (mym)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 11,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG011556
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Bodi of Ethiopia

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

90%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Me'en
Language Family: Surmic

85%
%
Me’en Speakers

Media Resources in Me'en:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Me'en:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2020 Kale Hiwot Church and BS Ethiopia✓

1 entry

Or check out the Me'en bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Bodi are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Bodi:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Bodi of Ethiopia

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
readRomans 10:14

Pray that those who haven't heard will hear the Word of Christ and believe in Him, calling upon the name of the Lord to be saved.

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
readGenesis 2:7

Pray that Christians will be able to share the hope of Christ with suffering people and that He will breathe new life into their souls.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
read1 Corinthians 9:19

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have hearts that want to serve the lost around them so that many might come to faith in Jesus.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
read1 Corinthians 15:10–11

Pray that God's people will preach the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and that it will spread among the lost through the selfless witness of believers.

Bodi Across Countries (ROP3 - 106524) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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