A Re-Evaluation of People Group Categorization with ‘Borana’ and ‘Wolof’ Case Studies

Abstract

The current Missiological methodology for classification of people groups has focused on ethno-linguistic factors that were appropriate and useful for motivating a new generation of missionaries to venture out for the glory of their lord. Presently that methodology needs to be adapted to make it relevant to the every changing field of anthropology. The torrent of changes and modernisation brought about by the global mass media, generation Z and mass urbanisation has accelerated normal levels of worldview shift. The extent of this phenomenon is that the smartphone generation of Borana and Wolof Muslims share more worldview assumptions with their urban townsmen, of varying ethnicities, than they do with their ethnic rural kinsmen or even family members. This phenomenon requires new methods of group classification for a new generation of people groups who don't fit into the old group categories used to describe their forbears. Starting with a study of the unreached people group movement in Lausanne 1974 and examining case studies from the Wolof people of West Africa and the Borana of northern Kenya, this paper examines a way forward in this important anthropological discussion. The discussion will be pertinent to anthropologists looking to form emic group classifications, missiologists seeking appropriate outreach methodology for emerging people groups and students of God’s word seeking to understand the great commission and its application to us today.