Prayer Points
- That God will bring spiritual breakthroughs a midst the Muslim majority.
- For the few evangelical believers to persevere while boldly living out their faith.
- For indigenous churches to be planted among many unreached people groups.
- That the Church in Senegal will take hold of its identity in Christ.
LOCATION
Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean, between Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania
POPULATION
16 054 275 (2017 est.)
RELIGION
Muslim 95.4% (most adhere to one of the four main Sufi brotherhoods)
Christian 4.2% (mostly Roman Catholic)
Animist 0.4% (2010-11 est.)
INTERNET USERS
3 647 939 (2017)
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
48% (2007 est.)
MISSIONARIES
Sent: 100
Received: 1200
LEAST REACHED PEOPLE GROUPS
26
KEY CITY
Dakar
Population of city:
2 476 400
Urbanization Rate:
3.59% annual rate of change (2010-15 est.)
Majority religion in city:
Muslim
We Pray...
Father we pray for Senegal. Lord, we ask that You will bring spiritual breakthroughs amidst the Muslim majority, many of whom are powerful, well-organized and increasingly aggressive.
Lord Jesus, we pray also for the few evangelical believers to persevere while boldly living out their faith and for Muslims to come to Christ as a result.
We pray for indigenous churches to be planted among many unreached people groups scattered throughout the nation. We also ask of You, Lord, that the Church will take hold of its identity in Christ and powerfully demonstrate its outworking to the nation. We ask this in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
State of the Church
Almost all Senegalese people subscribe to a syncretized religious system that combines African traditional religious practices with some forms of Islam. Over 95% of the population self-identify as Muslims; those few in the Catholic church also tend to blend their beliefs with ancient animistic practices.
The core belief that underlies all religious activities is that salvation may be attained if an individual’s good works outweigh the bad. Daily life is dominated by superstitions and often includes power encounters with the spirit world. People depend on their religious leaders, called marabouts, to obtain blessings, curses, and even salvation. These intermediaries with the spirit world are the chiefs of religious experience in Senegal and the door through which people believe they must pass to get to God.
Many of the churches are made out of foreigners. Many people travel there for work and to study. The cities have become a place of different cultures from all over West Africa, making Senegal a strategic place to empower people in order to go back to their communities and reach their people through training.
Overview
Senegal is one of the more stable democracies in Africa and has a long history of participating in international peacekeeping and regional mediation. Since the 1980’s they have however experienced unrest with in their borders. The Movement for Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) has led a low-level separatist insurgency in southern Senegal. They started this because they feal that the government is only looking after certain people groups in the country.
Senegal played a large role in grooming African academics thanks to Léopold Sédar Senghor, their first president. He wanted to show the world that Africans were more than just slaves, but that they were people who can think, debate and run their own countries according to their own African political systems.
The country is ethnically and religiously diverse. Although there is significant integration of all groups. Muslims are concentrated in the north, Christians are in the west and south, while groups who practice indigenous religious beliefs live mainly in the east and south.
More Resources:
- African Prayer Initiative: Pray Africa
Bibliography
- INcontext ministries – http://incontextministries.org/
- CIA World Factbook
- Atlas of Global Christianity – Todd M.Johnson & Kenneth R. Ross (Published by – Edinburgh University Press) (Missionaries and national workers: Africa 2010, page 267)
- Prayercast – http://prayercast.com/
- Unreached people groups – http://www.joshuaproject.net
- The voice of the Martyrs – http://www.persecution.com/
- Jul-Dec, 2010 International Religious Freedom Report – http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2010_5/index.htm
- Operation World – http://www.operationworld.org/african-countries