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The Shona of Botswana

The Shona of Botswana, numbering approximately 61,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily living in Zimbabwe where they form the majority of the population. They mostly adhere to African Traditional Religion and Shona is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Botswana
People Cluster: Bantu, Shona
Primary Language(s): Shona (sna)
Primary Religion(s): African Traditional Religion
Population: 61,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG015234
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Pray for the Shona of Botswana

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: African Traditional Religion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

—
%
African Traditional Relig… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Shona
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Shona Speakers

Media Resources in Shona:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

3 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Shona:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Union Shona✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Shona bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Shona 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 Shona:
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 Shona of Botswana

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.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, “Follow me.” And leaving everything, he rose and followed him.
readLuke 5:27-28

Prat that God will prepare many hearts to meet Him when He says, “Follow Me!” and that they will respond in faith, leaving everything behind to follow Him.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
readPsalm 51:10

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will quickly repent when they sin and walk with clean hearts and right spirits as they grow in their relationship with the Lord.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
read2 Corinthians 5:20

Pray that those God sends to cross cultures will be His ambassadors, faithfully imploring people on Christ's behalf to be reconciled to God through Jesus.

Shona Across Countries (ROP3 - 108959) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
ShonaPG015234ShonaBotswana61,000Engaged yet UnreachedShonaAfrican Traditional Religion
ShonaPG015532ShonaSouth Africa437,000No Longer UnreachedShonaProtestantism
ShonaPG015630ShonaZambia35,000No Longer UnreachedShonaAfrican Traditional Religion
ShonaPG015673ShonaZimbabwe8,750,000No Longer UnreachedShonaProtestantism
ShonaPG047448ShonaCanada3,000No Longer UnreachedShonaAfrican Traditional Religion

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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