BATONU OR BARIBAS

Missionary Serving In Batonu (Nigeria) And His Family

The Location:

The Baribas are located in Baruten Local Government of Kwara State. They are very close to the Republic of Benin. Their language is called Batonu while the people are called Baribas. Their major cities are: Ilesa-Bariba, Gure, Boriya, Sikeandu and Kosubosu. This tribe also accommodates other tribes because their land is very good for farming. Some of these other tribes are Beriba, Somba, Guruma, Yoruba and Yande.

The Targeted Tribe

Our targeted tribe is Bariba. The hearts of these people are very hard to break for the gospel. They claimed to be Muslims officially but when you move closer they are completely idol worshipers. They have a culture that makes it difficult for an individual to personally decide for Jesus Christ. The culture is that a son is under the authority of his father no matter how old he is. Even when he is married, he and his wife remain under the authority of the father and also work for him until he dies. This culture replaces a deceased father with his first born.


Brethren At Batonu (Nigeria)

The Commencement of the work

The work started among this tribe in 1992 after a research work was carried out and it was discovered as an unreached tribe.

For the first seven years among this tribe, there was no any indigenous convert from the tribe among the converts won for the Lord. In 1999 we decided to send a team of seven brothers to the land to pray on that land and not quite long after the prayer, the door was opened.


The type of Work

Our works among this tribe include Church planting, discipleship and leadership building. This has yielded a great result to the point that there is a local Church that is mainly the Baribas. The work in this land has given birth to three other local churches apart from the Baribas’. These local churches are Yaunde, Guruma and the Yorubas living among the Bariba.


The Challenges

The first challenge is the lack of qualified leaders. Since their lifestyle from where they came to know the Lord is polygamy, most of those that could have been leaders are polygamists. This poses a great challenge to the mission.

The second challenge is to enlarge the work among them. Illiteracy has slowed down the pace of the work. Although we have a Bible in Bariba language, yet only a few can read.