Malawi

Malawi has long been known for its association with Christianity. Some estimates indicate that over seventy-five percent of the country’s population identify as Christian.[1] With a clear majority of Malawians choosing to follow Christ, one can easily see the relative success of the Gospel in the country. The message of Christ was first brought by missionary David Livingstone in the mid-nineteenth century and perpetuated by the British colonial government. The country’s first president, Hastings Banda, was himself a Presbyterian. 

However, long before Dr. Livingstone brought the Bible to Malawi, Arab Swahili slave traders had come to the region and developed a mutually beneficial relationship with one particular group of people, the Yao. The Yao became involved in the business of slave trading, helping the Arab traders from the coast capture and transport fellow human-beings for profit. Needless to say, that practice of raiding neighboring tribes to gather slaves isolated them rather severely among those surrounding populations. Beyond that, the Yao gradually began to adopt the Islamic faith of their business partners which, after the influx of Christianity, served to isolate them even more. They have, for the most part, resisted the efforts of Christian missionaries to evangelize them. Even today, one hundred and fifty years after the Gospel first came to southern Malawi, less than one percent of the Yao have accepted Christianity as their religion.[2]

Among the peoples of Malawi, the Yao are an anomaly. They have historically demonstrated a marked resistance to nearly all efforts of Christian missionaries and field workers. How can this be in a nation that considers itself Christian? What factors have led to such a strong attraction to Islam? Why has there been such fierce resistance to the influence of outsiders? What obstacles must Christian organizations and workers overcome to see their work succeed? These are the questions that beg to be answered.  

After more than a century and a half of exposure to the message of Jesus Christ, still only one percent of the Yao would identify as Christian and only one-half of that one percent would be considered evangelical Christians.[3] This figure, though interesting in and of itself, is amplified when compared to the remaining twenty-five people groups in Malawi. The other people groups in Malawi combined, exposed to the Gospel for relatively the same amount of time, prove to be over seventy-five percent Christian.[4] 

The Yao themselves, in today’s world, would not be considered as the same adherents to Islam as would Muslims in the Middle East. In other words, they are not radical. Some would say they are not Muslims in the true sense of the word, but rather Africans who have adopted Islam. They have taken the teachings of the Qur’an and mixed them in with traditional African religion, ancestor worship and witchcraft. An attempt to describe them, in terms of religion, could simply be to call them “confused.”  

On the other hand, they are some of the kindest, most welcoming people on earth. Their very nature, as Africans and Malawians, is to be hospitable and once they are aware that your intentions are not to cause them harm, they welcome strangers with open arms. 

Our prayer and sincere hope is that you will pray for these beautiful people, simply pray! Pray that God will do an amazing work through the missionary community to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Pray that God would anoint those missionaries who have given their lives to reach them. Pray that God would have favor on our family as well as we invest all we have into God’s work to bring them into a right relationship with Him!

 

[1]“Malawi,” The Joshua Project, accessed 1/16/18, https://joshuaproject.net/countries/MI

[2]Ibid.

[3]The Joshua Project, https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/15988/MI, accessed 1/19/18.

[4]Ibid.