Mandingo

“Who is the most unreached people group in Liberia?” The answer rung forth from a dozens of blvrs all over Liberia, “The Mandingo.” The Mandingo? They were not even on our list… no they were not there once but twice and neither entry said “Mandingo.” Errors are made while collecting information about people groups, each group has several different names for themselves, some people groups have sub-groups who cannot even understand the original dialects, some groups go by the name of their language others do not. It gets confusing, and sometimes people make mistakes. But what a mistake to make! To write off an unreached group as reached or to allow them to be forgotten because you mistook their language name for their tribe name and then entered a non-existent group on to your files. That’s a pretty sad mistake. I pr we are diligent in our work, for those who come after us, for those who glance at stats to find out where Gds work is needed. The Mandingo live in the north-eastern section of Liberia. They migrated there from bordering Guinea. They are Muslim, staunchly Muslim. The native Loma tribe in the region welcomed the enterprising Mandingo’s in gradually. Slowly they migrated down, married Loma women and then asked their fathers for field to provide for their daughters. Soon the Mandingo people owned large portions of land and now are considered one of the 17 tribes of Liberia. Since the Liberian civil war there have been tense relations between the Muslim Mandingo and the surrounding “Xian” tribes. We met with some Loma pators in the north-east and they told of us the past “massacre” between the Loma and the Mandingo. Through a series of misunderstandings, and a missing person hunt, things were said, rocks were thrown and in the end several Mandingo Muslims were killed inside a mosque by their Loma neighbors. This event brought in more Imams and stauncher Muslims from other countries to help fortify their brothers. Since the event which occurred in 2010, all outreach to the Mandingo had stopped. “We were afraid to speak to the Mandingo, but we are not afraid anymore. We need to teach them.” The pastors in Voinjama know it is their duty to teach the good news to their neighbors. A young evangelist has begun to set up preaching points in the Mandingo villages. “They want us to come, the older people say, please come and teach our children and build them schools and build a church. All the surrounding villages have churches and schools, why shouldn’t our children?” The young evangelist, John, speaking at 5 different villages, he goes to a different village each Sunday and teaches the good news. But because he is just one person and the villages are spread out, he only makes it to each village about one Sunday a month. John does not speak Mannya (Mandingo Language)as a result many Loma Muslims living among the Mandingo have come to faith but very few Mandingos. In all the 50,000 Mandingo people, the pastors we spoke with could only count less than 20 Mandingo blvrs. Many times, when older Muslims hear the truth, they understand and they know it is true but all of their heritage and family is tied up in their old beliefs so they refuse to change but many are willing to allow their children to be taught the new way. One of the local pastors in Voinjama has started a primary school in which the truth is being taught, he is proud to be teaching both Loma and Mandingo students about the Way. The Mandingo need to be taught the way in their own language, I am pr that Gd sends more people to teach them the way. I am pr that Gd sends them someone committed to teaching them the truth in their own language.