West Africa

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Introductory Post - Jason Benedict

By Jason Benedict ⋅ June 18, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

I cut my teeth on missions in West Africa, where my wife and I were involved in leadership training and church planting. In 1994 while working in large urban slums in Abidjan we encountered unreached peoples from the African Sahel and began developing strategies to reach them. It was in this laboratory that we began [...]

Dusty Paths and Thirsty Souls

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

The Hausa Bible is fueling church growth in West Africa

Survey of West Africa: Peoples Summarized

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Adamawa-Ubangi
The entire cluster is found largely within Nigeria. The largest groups include the Mumuye (545k), Yungur and Vere. The vast majority are ethnoreligionists, but there are small numbers of Christians among them. Three of the smaller groups are least-reached: the Awak, Kugama, and Magdhi.
Anglo-American
Several thousand American expatriates are to be found in Liberia and Niger.
Anglo-Celt
Over [...]

Survey of West Africa: The Peoples

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

West Africa’s 265.6 million people are divided into 1,273 distinct peoples. Of these, 366 or slightly less than one-third of the groups are considered “least-reached.” The groups break out amongst the religions as 350 Christian, 408 Islamic, 508 Ethnic religions, 4 Hindu, and 2 Non-religious. These can be grouped into 47 distinct clusters which we [...]

A survey of West Africa: a Chronology

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Before Christ (BC)
300. The Bantu live along the Niger River. Fertile land is found in a small zone between the Sahara desert and the rain forest. As the population of the Bantu grows, they become crowded and begin spreading south and east to the grasslands.
. West Africans in the area of modern Nigeria are smelting [...]

A survey of West Africa: Key Statistics

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Population (2005): 264 million
Births per 1,000 people: 43 (world average, 21)
Deaths per 1,000 people: 18 (world average, 9)
Rate of natural increase: 2.5% p.a. (world, 1.2%)
Projected population, 2025: 404 million
Projected population, 2050: 601 million
% of population under 15: 44% (world, 29%)
% of population over 65: 3%
Life expectancy at birth: 47 (men, 46; women, 48)
% Urban / [...]

A Survey of West Africa: Introduction

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

In this issue, we’ll be exploring West Africa in depth. This region features 16 countries scattered over 20% of Africa’s landmass: northern deserts bordering the Sahara, central savannahs and grasslands, and southern coasts dusted with rainforests.
The region’s population is exploding: from 27 million in 1900, it has risen to 233 million today and will likely [...]

Seizing Tomorrow

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

Three issues–and how African believers respond to them–will determine what the African church of tomorrow looks like.

Agape Global Ministries

By Justin Long ⋅ January 1, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

One U.S. pastor who realized that the old way of doing missions wasn’t working anymore is Larry Nelson.
Nelson moved to Kingsport, Tenn., 20 years ago and planted Agape Life Church. The church soon grew to 500 members, and four daughter congregations were planted.
As Nelson was flying back from a missions trip to Africa in 1991 [...]