The Dza of Nigeria

The Dza of Nigeria, numbering approximately 135,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are described as a Jenjo people, called Dza after their language, numbering around 100,000 along the Benue River's north bank where Taraba, Gombe, and Adamawa states meet, whose speakers only developed a standard writing system for their language in 2008 They are an Indigenous people, with Janjo as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Adamawa-Ubangi people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Dza is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Nigeria
People Cluster: Adamawa-Ubangi
Primary Language(s): Dza (jen)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 135,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013311
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Dza of Nigeria

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

55%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Dza
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

58%
%
Dza Speakers

Media Resources in Dza:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Dza:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Ndɛ̃ ahu və Fi be Ngwa Idzə✓✓

1 entry

Or check out the Dza bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Dza 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 Dza:
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 Dza of Nigeria

That they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.
readActs 17:27

Pray that those who don't yet know Christ will search diligently for God and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

Sing to God, sing praises to his name; lift up a song to him who rides through the deserts; his name is the LORD; exult before him!
readPsalm 68:4

Pray that many will come to faith in Christ and share the gospel with others so that His salvation will be known among all nations.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
readEphesians 5:32-33

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will grasp the profound mystery of Christ's love for the Church, reflecting this love in their marriages.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
readActs 17:29

Pray that God will send out laborers to tell people of the one true God and, as the good news is shared, bring about repentance and belief as they turn from idols and follow Jesus.

Janjo Across Countries (ROP3 - 104185) 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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