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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Gokana of Nigeria

The Gokana of Nigeria, numbering approximately 197,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are one of the six traditional kingdoms of Nigeria's Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, whose communities survived the slave-trade era without losing members to enslavement, formally separated into its own county council in 1956. They mostly adhere to Protestantism and Gokana is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Nigeria
People Cluster: Benue
Primary Language(s): Gokana (gkn)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 197,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 5% or Greater but Less than 10% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG013806
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Pray for the Gokana 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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

98%
%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Gokana
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Gokana Speakers

Media Resources in Gokana:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Gokana:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Gokana bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Gokana 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 Gokana:
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 Gokana of Nigeria

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
read1 Timothy 6:9

Pray for those, rich and poor, who have put their trust in worldly things, and ask that they will be honest with themselves, acknowledge their need for God and turn to Him.

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
readPsalm 96:7

Pray that entire households will come to faith in Jesus and that God will bless their families with faith in Him for generations to come.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
readJohn 10:27

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will hear God's voice and will have the great assurance that no one can snatch them from the Father’s hand.

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.

Gokana Across Countries (ROP3 - 103418) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
GokanaPG013806GokanaNigeria197,000No Longer UnreachedGokanaProtestantism

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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