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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Tsonga-Shangaan of South Africa

The Tsonga-Shangaan of South Africa, numbering approximately 2,610,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group indigenous to southern Mozambique and the Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces of South Africa and can also be known as Gazankulu. They are an Indigenous people, in the Bantu, Central-Southeast people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Christianity - Protestantism. They primarily speak Tsonga.

Tsonga in Mozambique photo
Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: PaulAnn Baptist Church

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-saharan Africa Peoples
Country: South Africa
People Cluster: Bantu, Central-Southeast
Primary Language(s): Tsonga (tso)
Primary Religion(s): Christianity - Protestantism
Population: 2,610,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG015542

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Christianity - Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

%
Christianity - Protestant… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Tsonga
Language Family: Niger-Congo

%
Tsonga Speakers

Media Resources in Tsonga:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Tsonga:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

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Next steps for the Tsonga-Shangaan

The Tsonga-Shangaan 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 Tsonga-Shangaan

The Tsonga-Shangaan 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 Tsonga-Shangaan

The Tsonga-Shangaan 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 Tsonga-Shangaan of South Africa

For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
readPsalm 47:7

Pray for those who live for idols that will never satisfy their hearts, asking that someone will tell them that God is the King of all the earth so that they will turn to Him in repentance and praise.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
readLamentations 3:23-23

Pray that they will have hope in the Lord, knowing that His compassions never fails and that His mercies are new every morning.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
readJohn 10:28

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have assurance of eternal life, knowing that no one can snatch them out of the loving hand of Jesus.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations.
readPsalm 57:9

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who will boldly go and share the gospel with people nearby and with those far away.

Tsonga reported in the following countries (ROP3):

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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