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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Xhosa of Lesotho

The Xhosa of Lesotho, numbering approximately 26,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Xhosa-speaking Bangu ethnic group indigenous to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. They are an Indigenous people, in the Bantu, Nguni people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Protestantism. They primarily speak Xhosa.

Xhosa in South Africa photo
Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Xhosa

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Lesotho
People Cluster: Bantu, Nguni
Primary Language(s): Xhosa (xho)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 26,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG015284
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Pray for the Xhosa of Lesotho

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Xhosa
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

%
Xhosa Speakers

Media Resources in Xhosa:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Xhosa:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Xhosa bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Next steps for the Xhosa

The Xhosa are Unengaged and Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Next steps for the Xhosa

The Xhosa 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.

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

Next steps for the Xhosa

The Xhosa 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.

Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Xhosa of Lesotho

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
readRevelation 4:11

Pray that the good news will advance and people will recognize and worship the One who created all things by His will, giving glory and honor to Him alone.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
read2 Corinthians 5:17

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will understand and experience the truth that in Christ, they are a new creation, and the old has gone and the new has come.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.
readPsalm 139:14

Praise God for His creativity and power, and pray that He will raise up men and women from among them who are in awe of all He has done and want to go share the hope of Christ with others.

Xhosa (ROP3 - 110893) reported in the following countries:

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 Definitions page.

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