Tanzanian Pastors Share Gospel with Datoga Tribe
By Bryce Whiting, Africa/Europe area director
TANZANIA – In May, our friends Johnson Odoyo and Amos Komanya made another journey to an unreached people group, choosing this time to bring the gospel to the Datoga.
This agro-pastoral tribe is known by different names: Datoga, Datooga, Mangati (in Swahili). They raise their own meat: goats, sheep and cattle and migrate to find grounds for feeding and planting.
Upon reaching a Datoga village, Johnson and Amos found the villagers to be very timid, staying near the doors of their huts rather than welcoming them in. It wasn’t long however, before the warmth of their smiles and the sincerity of their hearts won them over. The Datoga began singing and dancing. Dancing is performed by leaping repeatedly into the air. Some will leap effortlessly two feet into the air, land on their toes and bounce back up again, spending more time in the air than on the ground. Someone passed a long spear to Johnson, inviting him to be the dancer. With a broad smile he complied, and though his 44-year-old body had lost its “hang-time,” his willingness to try was received as a compliment.
The Datoga were willing to hear their visitors’ message until Yahweh was presented as the one true God. This point made them resistant. After some days it became clear that the center of this resistance originated with the village witchdoctors. These religious leaders are set apart as physically untouchable. They sacrifice animals to their god and invite the spirits of their ancestors to enter and speak through them. Great respect is given to these powerful men, and no one dares to stand against them. Aseeta is their god, and they called upon him to bring judgment upon the missionaries.
Johnson and Amos were both struck with dysentery. This is not uncommon when eating with a tribe that exercises little caution in matters of cleanliness, but when the condition did not pass, they suspected that there was a spiritual force at work. They went to battle in prayer and the dysentery mercifully passed. When the witchdoctors saw the improvement in their health, they carried their evil intent to another level and paid Johnson and Amos a visit.
Late in the evening, around midnight, the two missionaries were sitting in their hotel’s dining area, which was gate-locked and guarded. Suddenly, the witchdoctors appeared right in front of them. When I asked Johnson how they entered, he replied, “There was a great wind like a hurricane and suddenly, they appeared.” The witchdoctors declared their intent to destroy the intruders by sending them off to a spirit world from which they would face horrible judgment and never return. The incantations began and their voices increased in volume. They danced making manic gestures, but Johnson and Amos both remained where they were. Abruptly, the witchdoctors were struck with a paralysis, seizing both their muscles and their tongues. When the paralysis lifted, the witchdoctors got on their knees and bowed their heads to the one true God. In a demonstration of God’s mercy, Johnson and Amos stretched out their hands and touched the untouchable ones.
Since then, the witchdoctors have been most influential, telling the Datoga villagers all about this encounter with God, and many hearts are being turned to him. Johnson ended his report to me saying, “We are going to have a very big church.”
(Another trip is planned beginning June 24.)