Who the Fulani are
The Fulani are a vast, widely scattered people stretching across West and Central Africa, many of them cattle herders whose way of life has carried them across borders for centuries. They speak many related dialects of Fulfulde, and Islam has been central to Fulani identity since the jihads of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Fulani believers are few and scattered. Conflict over land and water between herders and farmers — many of them Christian — has made the relationship between the church and the Fulani painful, and in the Sahel jihadist groups have recruited among some Fulani communities. Yet there are Fulani believers, often reached through radio, audio Scripture and patient friendship.
Signs of hope
Audio Scripture and radio in Fulfulde reach a mobile people where they are, and Fulani believers do exist.
The honest difficulty
A nomadic, scattered life; deep links between faith and identity; and violent herder-farmer and jihadist conflict.
What "Frontier" means
Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian.
This describes access to the Gospel, not the worth of a people or the sincerity of anyone's faith.
How to pray for the Fulani
Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.
- Pray for the Fulani, scattered across more than a dozen nations.
- Pray for peace and justice where herders and farmers are in conflict.
- Ask God for Christians who will love Fulani neighbours despite the pain of conflict.
- Pray for Fulani believers to be protected and multiplied.
Where the Fulani live
Each nation profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about the Fulani
Who are the Fulani people?
The Fulani (also called Fula, Fulbe, Peul) are a people group of roughly 40 million, living mainly in Mali, Nigeria. They speak Fulfulde / Pulaar and are predominantly Islam (Sunni). The largest nomadic people on earth, spread across the Sahel from Senegal to Sudan — and among the least reached in Africa. Population figures for people groups vary considerably by source and by how a group is defined.
Are the Fulani an unreached people group?
The Fulani are classified as frontier. Fewer than 1 in 1,000 follow Jesus, and there is no indigenous movement large enough to grow on its own. Most people in this group will never meet a Christian. Scripture status: Varies by dialect — full Bible or New Testament in several.
How can I pray for the Fulani?
Pray for the Fulani, scattered across more than a dozen nations. Pray for peace and justice where herders and farmers are in conflict. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.