Peoples on the Move

by David J. Phillips

Missionaries today can focus their energies on all kinds of needy peoples or special ministries, such as tribal work, urban evangelism, street children, radio work, or Jewish and Muslim evangelism. Left out, however, has been a type of people among whom God’s work of blessing the nations first began—the nomads.

Missionaries today can focus their energies on all kinds of needy peoples or special ministries, such as tribal work, urban evangelism, street children, radio work, or Jewish and Muslim evangelism. Left out, however, has been a type of people among whom God’s work of blessing the nations first began—the nomads.

WHO ARE THE NOMADS?
Nomadic peoples are whole societies that support themselves by occupations that require systematic travel. There are a number of different types of nomads, such as hunter-gatherers, who move as the supply of natural produce or animals changes; shifting cultivators, who move as the fertility of the soil decreases; and some boat-peoples, who live from fishing and trade.

Nomads are versatile people and opportunists in finding resources to support themselves. They exploit the differences in the seasons to find pasture, grow crops, gather natural produce, visit festivals and markets, or find seasonal work in the town and on the farm.

While some nomads are well known—Tuaregs, Bedouin, Maasai, Gypsies, and Mongols—most are unknown to Christians. Many pass unnoticed in their own countries. Their mobility either means they live in remote areas, or they spend only a short time in any location. Even where a Christian witness exists they continue unreached.

The largest categories of nomad are the pastoralists and the peripatetics. Their lifestyle is determined by their major assets: either livestock for the pastoralists, or services and skills for the peripatetic. Some nomadic peoples merge the two categories, such as some of the Bhotia in the Himalayas, who use their sheep and yaks for caravaning.

The pastoralists support themselves with sheep, goats, cattle, yaks, camels, horses, llamas, or reindeer, finding pasture in semiarid grassland, deserts, or mountains, or on the taiga of the Siberian Arctic. The geographical remoteness of many pastoral peoples makes their evangelization difficult. The desert, steppe, tundra, and mountains, distant from the amenities of towns and roads, are not the easiest places for the average missionary to live and work in. Nomads are the only humans to use this arid and semi-arid one-third of the earth’s surface, being successful where modern technology and development projects have often failed. In some areas the development of subsurface resources such as minerals, natural gas, and oil has disrupted the surface pastoralism.

Pastoralists have a deep attachment to their animals. Many have a key animal that is not always the practical one, such as the camel for the Bedouin, now replaced by the more commercially useful sheep. Often the terrain or commercial considerations dictate the choice of key animal. Camels and sheep are the stock of the Tuareg, Idaksahak, and Shuwa Arabs of the Sahel, the Moors and Chaamba of North Africa. Cattle are the key animals for the Fulani and for the nomads of East Africa, such as the Turkana, Mursi, and many others. The reindeer is the only animal to survive on the lichens of the taiga and therefore used by the Nenets.

Yaks and llamas only flourish at extreme altitudes in their respective areas, for the Tibetan Drok-pa and many Mongols, and the Aymara herders and Fleteros caravaners of the Andes. Sheep have been the prime animal for the nomads of the Zagros Mountains, such as the Bakhtiari and Qashqa’i. The horse is the prize animal for the Turkic and Mongol nomads of the grasslands of Central Asia, although sheep and yaks are the stock they herd.

Pastoralists are robust people who live for long periods in small groups or alone. Having different species, which have different feeding habits, areas, and growth rates, gives greater security, but divides families.

The peripatetics, sometimes called commercial nomads, are traders, entertainers, craftsmen, sellers of all sorts of articles, fortune-tellers, acrobats, and casual workers, traveling between villages and towns for customers. They meet the limited demand for services and goods that the surrounding society does not provide. The LawBe, a branch of the FulBe people, are woodcarvers who travel independently in markets, and even in France, selling their craft. The Gadulyia Lohar are blacksmiths, fervent Hindus, who live and travel in ox carts throughout the cities and villages of North India. The Tahtaci woodsmen spend the summers in scattered groups, working their way up the mountains, to fell trees, in southern Turkey. The Gypsies of Europe and North America travel as fortune tellers, asphalters, and house painters.

Many peripatetics form integrated castes within pastoral or farming peoples, such as the Sab leather-workers and hunters among the Somalis, Waata hunters and craftsmen among the Oroma peoples of Ethiopia, the Inadan silversmiths among the Tuareg, and the Luti and Ghorbati minstrels in Iran. They can be overlooked in evangelization, when they often have different ethnic origins, subcultures, and even languages, and a reputation for witchcraft and spirit worship.

NOMADS CAN BE REACHED
We must sympathetically understand the nomadic system. Nomads are not aimless wanderers, refugees, or displaced people, nor individuals of settled societies whose work requires them to travel often. They are not homeless, but people whose whole way of life makes them “at home” on the move, or living ready to move. Missionary ignorance has often paralleled the racist disdain of settled society, dismissing nomads as “a few people wandering about,” as if shiftless, uncivilized, criminal, and unreliable-misjudging nomadism by more familiar lifestyles.

The nomads’ society is shaped by their mobility, so that the patterns of movement need to be understood and a mission strategy decided accordingly. Many times we hear that a certain people is no longer nomadic, because the nature of nomadism is misunderstood as constant movement. Nomads move according to their needs, because of environmental conditions for their animals, or, for the peripatetics, to find customers. The movement is systematic, determined by the seasons or weather, by festivals, markets, or when the harvest is sold and the farmers have spare money.

Many of them live in villages but spend part of the year on the move plying a trade, or with their herds and flocks, like some Berbers, the Aromani of Greece, most Bedouin in Jordan, and the Hazaras of Afghanistan. The Gaddi of North India have villages at middle altitude where their families live for the summer to tend their meager crops, while the men take the flocks to the high mountains. In the winter most of the village descends to the plains with the flocks.

African pastoralists have a main camp where their families tend to live year-round, which is surprisingly similar to the Tibetan Drok-pa. Both use small temporary camps to herd their animals at some distance. Marriage changes the lifestyle and diet of the Hanna male pastoralists of southwest Ethiopia. As bachelors, they live far from the main camp on a diet of milk and cow’s blood. Upon marriage they divide time between both camps and get used to a grain diet at the main camp.

The whole family moves camp in other nomadic societies, like some Bedouin tribes, the Kazaks, the Mongols, or Gadulyia Lohar. The camp moves according to the seasons. Movement may be over long distances, north in summer to avoid the heat and parched ground for the new growth, and back southwards to avoid the winter. Elsewhere, as in Arabia and many parts of Africa, pasture and the presence of the tsetse fly are determined by the rainy season. Others move only short distances, making use of the differing growth rates of pasture between lower and higher altitudes on a mountain range, whether over short distances or great distances like the Qashqa’i in South Iran, the Bhotia in Nepal, or the Kyrgyz of the Tien Shan.

All nomads do business with sedentary peoples, to sell or exchange dairy products for grain and other goods, or to get government permission to migrate. In many cases they deal only with “middle men” of their own people living in the towns. To evangelize nomads using only such contacts tends to associate Christianity with non-nomadic society. “It”s only for ’em that live in houses,” they will say.

The annual migration cycle is of great practical and cultural importance to the nomad. Even a rudimentary, static, missionary station distorts the cycle. Medical or veterinary and other development services should be offered with the least infrastructure possible. The method to reach them must be flexible and mobile, to accompany them at those stages of the cycle that interfere with their work the least. To obtain an invitation to camp or travel with a typical group of travelers gives an opportunity to demonstrate practical Christian love in a way that helps them most. It also provides the basis for the missionary to learn from the nomad and for both to establish mutual confidence. Sharing the experiences that mean most to them can start proving that Christianity is compatible with the nomadic life. Missions should not dismiss this as difficult or unconventional. If secular travelers can live with nomads for months or years, then don’t let nomads rebuke us by saying, “If this message was good news, why did it take you so long to bring it to us?”

SPECIAL TREATMENT REQUIRED
All nomads value their independence from the surrounding society. Central to the life of the FulBe is their code of behavior called pulaaku, which has been described as “Fulaniness” or pastoral chivalry. The FulBe male sees his people as having a priestly role to maintain the triangular relationships of interdependence between himself, his wife, and his cattle. The Gypsies have a system of purity as elaborate as the Bible’s, and marime is pollution, dishonor or uncleanness that affects the preparation of food, gender relations, and relations with non-Gypsies. This sets them apart and makes them feel superior to all others. Family and tribal loyalties are paramount.

Some nomads see themselves as a specialist occupational subdivision of the wider society, such as Tibetan Drok-pa, the Turkic pastoralists, the Bedouin, the Pukhtun, and many castes in India. They have a key role in the culture and commerce of their nations. Even these nomads still have their own cultural ideas and lifestyles, which is a challenge for evangelism.

When nomads have been forced to abandon nomadism, it still shapes their thinking, values, and social relationships. Often there is a sharp distinction, or hostility, between the nomad and the surrounding society. African pastoralists deride agriculture, even though some of them cultivate crops. Most pastoralists look down on those without livestock. Meanwhile, governments and the general population treat the nomad with suspicion, and Third World countries favor farmers to pastoralists. In spite of the history of slavery and the Holocaust, Gypsies are still hounded in Europe.

The nomads’ values have been forged by their harsh environment. Nomads are deeply attached to their families and way of life. They have learned to be content with very little. They respect nature. Their environment requires dependence on the supernatural, as they conceive it. Most nomads are folk Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus, but all have traditional religious practices to appease spirits to gain their cooperation for life’s necessities.

We also have to question how much of our faith is unconsciously cushioned by the comforts of sedentary life. We need to rediscover the biblical theology of the traveler or nomad, to communicate the gospel to these people. Then the nomad will say, “We should be teaching you, for so much of this Book fits our own experience.”

THE TRAVELERS’ GOD
Because we have ignored the nomad, our understanding of the Bible is limited. The Bible is about the God who used nomadic pastoralism as the method to start his purpose of salvation and continued to use this as a metaphor of his relationship with man. Abraham was called to leave all that was familiar and to travel, and to continue to travel. The patriarchs preserved their independence for God’s promise by being self-sufficient with their herds and flocks. Jacob testified: “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my Herdsman all the days of my life… ” (Gen. 48:15 [literal]). Some assert that the patriarchs were not nomads, comparing them to the later tribes of Bedouin sustaining themselves in the desert with camels, ignoring that the majority of nomads move near or within settled society.

Israel’s journey to the Promised Land was an experience of nomadic pastoralism to develop faith in the God who is likened to a heavenly Pastoralist. Their reluctance to slaughter their considerable herds of livestock fits the attitude of nomadic pastoralists today, who see their livestock as renewable assets (Num. 11:22). The manna and quail were therefore necessary. The people’s rebellion against Moses, which is interpreted as petty moral weakness in many a Western sermon, is better understood when we realize how modern nomads question their leaders. The land is described as a pastoralist paradise (Exod. 3:8, 17, 13:13:5, 33:3; etc.).

Nomadic pastoralism was essential to integrate the trials of faith and obedience with the great revelation given. Israel had to learn to trust God to survive. The life of faith is a journey with God, a story that is marked by God”s actions, as much as nomads remember their lives not by dates but by migrations and environmental conditions.

The first Christian missionaries, who received the only public announcement of Jesus’ arrival for the first 30 years, were unknown shepherds (Luke 2:8-19). Jesus was a mission and seminary on the move. Pastoral and traveling metaphors describe the Christian life (Matt. 9:13, 36, 10:6, 12:11-12, 15:24; 18:10-14, Luke 15:15:3-7; John 10:10; 21:15). His ministry, death, and return are described in pastoral terms. The worldwide mission extending Jesus’ ministry is described also in pastoral terms. “Living by faith” for hospitality the nomad understands, in both giving it and receiving it (Matt. 8:20; 10:16; Luke 10:3, John. 10:16; Heb. 13:20; 1 Pet. 2:25; 5:4).

In Jesus’ conception, being a Christian means to follow him on his journey (Matt. 4:19-20; John 8:12). Would-be disciples are challenged by the fact that Jesus has no “settled” home (Matt. 8:20), and the Christian life is compared to a peripatetic (peripateo) lifestyle (Rom. 6:4, 8:4; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 4:1, 5:8; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12, 4:1). Appropriately, both the gospel and the church became known as “the Way” (Acts 9:2, 16:17, 18:26, 19:9, 22:4, 24:14,22).

Much mission work has been done with the assumption that churches require buildings at fixed locations, instead of just being people united by the Lord. The more biblical “making disciples” should be the aim, rather than the sedentary and “agricultural” concept of “church planting.” We ignore the nomad and the lessons of the nomadic life at our own spiritual peril.

STEPS FOR ACTION
Jesus would be more at home in a nomad camp than in most Western churches. The nomads have a right to meet him through us.

1. God asks us all to be travelers and pilgrims, to question the dispensable comforts of Western lifestyles, to live by faith, be dependent on him, and to be content with only what is sufficient to serve him.

2. We must have a nomad theology not only to reach nomadic peoples but to challenge our sedentary churches. Such a theology must rediscover that life is a journey with God, who has no special affinity to Western life, but is more at home with those who, living on the environmental and social margins, trust him.

3. A special missions advocacy for nomadic peoples must be established alongside the urban evangelism, destitute children, Jewish mission, Islamics, and other special strategies to evangelize the unreached.

4. Christ calls us to befriend nomadic peoples, both to learn from them values of simplicity, corporate responsibility, reliance, and fortitude, and to demonstrate his love to them, by the lives of those willing to camp with them, and by practical development help.

5. Christ calls us to teach nomadic peoples their Creator’s values and the Bible in ways accessible to their worldview and lifestyle. Here is a challenge to rediscover the Bible message from the nomad’s point of view, its use of narrative and storytelling, the struggles and trials of life on the edge of survival. A number of versions of the Chronological Method are needed for nomads.

6. Christ calls us to disciple nomadic peoples and rediscover principles that result in a church compatible to their culture and their evangelizing others. However much we tell ourselves that “church” means the people, not the building, its use implies the Western mindset of a set location, property and buildings, timetables, and organization along familiar denominational lines, all of which are alien to the nomad. We need creative disciple-makers to rediscover the origins of biblical church building in small groups, whose only bond is loyalty to Christ, rather than to a familiar building and routine.

7. Christ calls us to support nomadic peoples to find ways to maintain a viable nomadism where possible, and to encourage the surrounding society, including governments, to understand nomadic peoples, and to counter the prejudice and injustice on both sides.

The Evangelical Missionary Alliance, U.K., held a Nomadic Pastoralist Conference in 1993 at which a number of missions based in the U.K. participated. They agreed to set up the NPN with representatives from a number of international missions. The network aims to make Christians more aware of the need of nomadic peoples, and to encourage new workers-by leaflets, people profiles, articles about nomads, and exposure or prayer journeys. A handbook, entitled Peoples on the Move, is being prepared for publication. Moving Peoples Seminars have been held in 1996 and 1997, and a conference was held in March, 1998. Information about nomadic peoples is available from Nomads, International Research Office, WEC International, Bulstrode, Gerrards Cross, Bucks. SL9 8SZ, UK. E-mail: david@opwld. demon.co.uk

—–

David Phillips is a member of the Nomadic Peoples Network. He has workeed in Brazil with UFM Worldwide (13 years) and WEC International’s Research Office (11 years), which produces Patrick Johnstone’s Operation World. He is a graduate of Birmingham Bible Institute, Surrey University and Spurgeon’s College, London.

Copyright © 1999 Evangelism and Missions Information Service (EMIS). All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from EMIS.

Comments are closed.