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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Kuku of South Sudan

The Kuku of South Sudan, numbering approximately 65,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an Eastern Nilotic people who crossed the Nile to absorb the Sudanic Moru-Madi clans of Kajo-Keji, founded by Bari migrants seeking farmland in the early 1800s and named for chief Kajok-Koji They are an Indigenous people, with Bari (Nilotic) as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Nilotic people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Bari is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: South Sudan
People Cluster: Nilotic
Primary Language(s): Bari (bfa)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 65,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012076
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Pray for the Kuku of South Sudan

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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

70%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bari
Language Family: Nilotic

100%
%
Bari Speakers

Media Resources in Bari:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Bari:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
1979 Bible Society of South Sudan✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Bari bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Kuku are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Kuku:
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

Pray specifically for the Kuku of South Sudan

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
readPsalm 19:1

Pray that those who are lost will look to the heavens and see the glory of God displayed, leading them to seek Him and know Him as their Creator and Savior.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."
readIsaiah 1:18

Pray that God will make a way for the gospel to reach many through means they can understand and access, that they will receive the good news with joy, and that they will experience complete forgiveness and cleansing from their sin that Jesus offers through His sacrifice.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
readJohn 14:3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have hope in trials because they know that Jesus will one day take them to be with Him forever.

And thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's foundation, but as it is written, "Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand."
readRomans 15:20-21

Pray that God will send believers to cross cultures and proclaim the gospel where Christ has not been named, so that the nations might glorify God for His mercy.

Bari, Kuku Across Countries (ROP3 - 105363) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion ▼
KukuPG012076KukuSouth Sudan65,500Engaged yet UnreachedBariEthnoreligion

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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