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Amharic - አማርኛ | Arabic - عربي
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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Arabized Africans of Saudi Arabia

The Arabized Africans of Saudi Arabia, numbering approximately 555,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Swahili-origin diaspora community in Saudi Arabia whose identity derives from the Waungwana tradition of the East African Swahili coast. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Swahili (individual language) is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Swahili Arabized African

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Saudi Arabia
People Cluster: Bantu, Swahili
Primary Language(s): Swahili (individual language) (swh)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 555,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG011916
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Pray for the Arabized Africans of Saudi Arabia

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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

75%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Swahili (individual language)
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Swahili Speakers

Media Resources in Swahili (individual language):

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
The SaviorView Film

4 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Swahili (individual language):

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Habari Njema (Interconfessional)✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Swahili (individual language) bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), 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

Next steps for the Arabized Africans:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Arabized Africans of Saudi Arabia

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
readRomans 1:20

As God's creation declares His glory, pray that multitudes who don't know Him will see the works of His hands and desire to know more about the Creator.

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
read1 John 1:5

As mobile phones, radio, and satellite television, and other technologies become more available worldwide, pray for people who are developing digital gospel resources so that others can easily access the gospel.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
read2 Corinthians 5:17

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will understand and experience the truth that in Christ, they are a new creation, and the old has gone and the new has come.

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
readPsalm 96:4

Pray that God will raise up believers to declare His glory among the lost, so that they may know that He is great and greatly to be praised, that He is exalted above all gods.

Swahili Across Countries (ROP3 - 109644) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

17 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
Coastal SwahiliPG015047Coastal SwahiliTanzania1,095,000Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
Arabized AfricansPG011916Arabized AfricansSaudi Arabia555,000Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG047306SwahiliUnited States82,000No Longer UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
Central SwahiliPG014535Central SwahiliCongo, Democratic Republic of the64,500Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
Coastal SwahiliPG033493Coastal SwahiliKenya60,000Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
Bantu SwahiliPG011942Bantu SwahiliSomalia55,000Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015634SwahiliZambia39,000No Longer UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Ethnoreligion
SwahiliPG012145SwahiliSudan34,000Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
Black AfricansPG012226Black AfricansUnited Arab Emirates31,000Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG014886SwahiliRwanda20,500Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015420SwahiliMozambique18,500Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Folk Islam
SwahiliPG014471SwahiliBurundi14,500Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015372SwahiliMayotte10,500Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG043480SwahiliCanada9,300Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015141SwahiliUganda5,500Unengaged and UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015279SwahiliComoros1,200Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam
SwahiliPG015482SwahiliSeychelles600Engaged yet UnreachedSwahili (individual language)Sunni Islam

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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