The Belide of Indonesia

The Belide of Indonesia, numbering approximately 87,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic Malay community of South Sumatra that maintains a distinct Belide identity through river-centered settlement patterns and a regional dialect closely related to neighboring Musi and Ogan speech communities. They mostly adhere to Sunni Islam and Musi is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite: Belide

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Malay Peoples
Country: Indonesia
People Cluster: Ogan of Sumatra
Primary Language(s): Musi (mui)
Primary Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Population: 87,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG022488
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Belide of Indonesia

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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Sunni Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

100%
%
Sunni Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Musi
Language Family: Austronesian

100%
%
Musi Speakers

Media Resources in Musi:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Bible Resources in Musi:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Musi bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Belide 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.

Next steps for the Belide:
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

Pray specifically for the Belide of Indonesia

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
readRomans 5:7-8

Pray for the many who don't yet understand the hope of the gospel, and pray that God will reveal to them that while they were in darkness, Christ died for them.

Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
readPsalm 66:5

Pray that many here will come and see what the Creator God has done on their behalf.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
readRomans 10:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be eager to proclaim the good news of peace, knowing that the Lord has called them to this task.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
read2 Corinthians 3:16

Give thanks to God for believers around the world who are willing to cross cultures to share the gospel with those who are perishing. Pray that He will work through their witness to draw many to turn to Him.

Belide Across Countries (ROP3 - 101235) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

1 people group

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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