The Datooga of Tanzania

(It looks like To Every Tribe Tuesday switched to Wednesday -just for this week! Next week it will be back to normal. :) )

 

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The Datooga people live in the midst of a volcanic mountain region in northern Tanzania near Lake Eyasi.

grey highlights the Datooga areas

Throughout history they have resisted change and have kept themselves together living as nomads. They moved with the cattle they raised and lived off of.

Much of their traditional lifestyle has remained to this day yet many have now become farmers planting corn, millet, beans and the like.

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They are known to be a proud people, resistant to change, isolated and fierce (they still carry spears!).

Approximately 1% of the population is literate making Bible translation a difficult and slow process. Only the Gospel of Mark has been translated into the Datooga language. The Datooga language is a Southern Nilote language which has roots in Kenya. Only about 5% speak Swahili, the national language of Tanzania.

They live in low huts held together by a combination of sticks, grass and mud.

 

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 The Datooga are animists and rely on divination, prayers to ancestors, witchcraft and sorcery while at the same time they believe in one supreme creator they call Aseeta. Mt. Hanang, the most significant of the local mountains, is enveloped in their tribal myths, legends and superstition.

Throughout the years the light of the Gospel has rarely shown through to these poor people and they are left unreached with a small percentage of Christians near 1-2% .

Mt. Hanang below

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They need schools, hospitals, clean water, clothes and food, but far surpassing these temporal things they must be made right with God.

Please pray for missionaries to be sent to tell them the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ who alone can free them.