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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Yao of Zimbabwe

The Yao of Zimbabwe, numbering approximately 65,500 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a major Bantu ethnolinguistic group indigenous to the southern coastal area of Lake Malawi in Malawi, Mozambique, and Tanzania. They are an Diaspora people, in the Bantu, Makua-Yao people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African affinity bloc. Their primary religion is Islam - Sunni. They primarily speak Yao.

Yao in Mozambique photo
No photo available

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-saharan Africa Peoples
Country: Zimbabwe
People Cluster: Bantu, Makua-Yao
Primary Language(s): Yao (yao)
Primary Religion(s): Islam - Sunni
Population: 65,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG015686

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Pray for the Yao of Zimbabwe

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Islam - Sunni
Religious Affiliation: Islam

%
Islam - Sunni Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Yao
Language Family: Niger-Congo

%
Yao Speakers

Media Resources in Yao:

Films:

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Yao:

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Yao bible resources at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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Next steps for the Yao

The Yao 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 Yao

The Yao 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 Yao

The Yao 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 Yao of Zimbabwe

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
read1 John 4:10

Pray for those without the hope of Christ to understand the depth of God's love and the sacrifice He made for them.

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
readRomans 2:4

Pray that, in God's kindness and according to His nature, He will lead many to repentance.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
readIsaiah 53:5

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will find comfort and spiritual healing as they remember the wounds of Christ, who understands their suffering because He also walked through suffering on their behalf.

Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
readActs 17:29

Pray that God will send out laborers to tell people of the one true God and, as the good news is shared, bring about repentance and belief as they turn from idols and follow Jesus.

Yao (ROP3 - 110980) 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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