The Ndali of Malawi

The Ndali of Malawi, numbering approximately 128,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Bantu farming people native to Tanzania's Ileje District who expanded southward into northern Malawi over the past century in search of new farmland, cultivating maize, millet, and cassava alongside cattle and goats. They mostly adhere to Ethnoreligion and Ndali is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Ndali

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Malawi
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Tanzania
Primary Language(s): Ndali (ndh)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion
Population: 128,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG048116
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Ndali of Malawi

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

97%
%
Ethnoreligion Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Ndali
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Ndali Speakers

Media Resources in Ndali:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Ndali:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Ndali bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Ndali 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 Ndali:
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 Ndali of Malawi

During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
readExodus 2:23-24

As the lost among them labor, groan, and cry out under false religions and sin, pray God will have mercy on them and hear their cries, that He will be their Rescuer from the kingdom of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of light.

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
readPsalm 66:5

Pray that many here will come and see what the Creator God has done on their behalf.

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
read1 Peter 3:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will always be prepared to share the reason for the hope that they have in Jesus with gentleness and respect.

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
readMatthew 9:37-38

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will raise up believers to send out into His harvest field, which is ripe and ready.

Ndali Across Countries (ROP3 - 107148) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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.

Scroll to Top