This entry was posted on Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Africa, Mbeya People Groups, Tanzania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
The Sangu
The tenth and last people group in the region we’ll be working is the Sangu. Here is information on them taken from www.thetask.net.
About 99% of the Sangu people follow traditional religion. Neither Islam nor Christianity has penetrated in places away from the main roads. Some people may follow one of these religions, but likely have not given up their own traditional practices either. The Sangu are a very proud people and do not easily receive anything new from the outside.
In many areas there are no churches at all. The church leaders are very exhausted in their work of evangelism and church planting. They appreciate any help they can get to draw their people to Jesus. Bible Translation is one way to help to reach the Sangu with God’s Word in the language they understand.
Geography and Climate: The area is extremely dry for about 8 months of the year and then the plains are flooded during the rainy season.
Population: 75,000
Cultural Information: The Sangu people are the original pastoral inhabitants of the vast area of flatlands towards the southern end of the Great Ruaha River System. More recently a large rice project sponsored by the Chinese was introduced. Some of the Sangu people have learned the art of planting rice from them and now have their own smaller rice paddies. The Sangu also plant millet and maize but often experience hunger. Some own cattle, goats, and sheep. During the rainy season flooding is common; rains are sometimes so strong that the rice gets completely flooded. In the dry season water supplies may be up to twelve kilometers away. The villages are far apart, spread over an immense area. Even the individual homesteads are at a distance from each other with people living quite independently of one another. Most houses in the Sangu area are built of mud and sticks or mud bricks. Generally each village has a school, but many of the children in the more remote places do not get to attend.
Very few Sangu have received higher education and there are very few Sangu pastors and evangelists.
One Response to “The Sangu”
July 2nd, 2007 at 4:19 am
Sounds like it will be an extremely interesting challenge to get the Word to these people effectively.