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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Shona of Zambia

The Shona of Zambia, numbering approximately 34,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primarily living in Zimbabwe where they form the majority of the population and can also be known as Gova. They are an Indigenous people, in the Bantu, Shona people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Ethnoreligion - African Traditional Religion. They primarily speak Shona.

Photo courtesy of Joshua Project. Photo Source: Steve Evans - Flickr Steve Evans - Flickr Licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-saharan Africa Peoples
Country: Zambia
People Cluster: Bantu, Shona
Primary Language(s): Shona (sna)
Primary Religion(s): Ethnoreligion - African Traditional Religion
Population: 34,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG015630

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Pray for the Shona of Zambia

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Ethnoreligion - African Traditional Religion
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

%
Ethnoreligion - African T… Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Shona
Language Family: Niger-Congo

%
Shona Speakers

Media Resources in Shona:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Shona:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

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Next steps for the Shona

The Shona 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 Shona

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.

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 Shona

The Shona 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 Shona of Zambia

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.

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.
readPsalm 22:27-28

Pray that entire families will turn to the Lord in repentance and faith, and that they will worship Him and declare His righteousness to the nations.

Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
readMatthew 18:19

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they find other believers to pray with, and that they will trust God to answer their requests according to His will.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
readMatthew 28:19-20

Ask God to bring people among this group to faith in Jesus who will be obedient to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded.

Shona 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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