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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Birwa of Zimbabwe

The Birwa of Zimbabwe, numbering approximately 16,500 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Sotho-Tswana Bantu tribe indigenous to Botswana. They mostly adhere to Animism and Birwa is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Zimbabwe
People Cluster: Bantu, Sotho-Tswana
Primary Language(s): Birwa (brl)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 16,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 2% or Greater but Less than 5% Evangelical
People Group ID: PG015649
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Pray for the Birwa of Zimbabwe

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: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

60%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Birwa
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Birwa Speakers

Media Resources in Birwa:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Birwa:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Birwa bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Birwa 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 Birwa:
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 Birwa of Zimbabwe

Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life"
readJohn 4:13-14

Pray that those who don't know Jesus will drink of the living water that only Christ can provide and never thirst again.

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
readLuke 2:17

Pray that the lost will receive the good news of salvation in God's Son, have hearts eager to share it with others, and that all who hear will respond with wonder and faith!

"...I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
readMatthew 16:18b

Pray that God will build and grow His Church among this people.

He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
readJohn 1:7

Pray that God will raise up witnesses to testify about Jesus so that all might believe, knowing that He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

Birwa Across Countries (ROP3 - 101485) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▲Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
BirwaPG015649BirwaZimbabwe16,500No Longer UnreachedBirwaAnimism
BirwaPG015215BirwaBotswana21,500Engaged yet UnreachedBirwaAnimism

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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