The Eshira of Gabon

The Eshira of Gabon, numbering approximately 80,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are an ethnolinguistic community of Gabon. They are an Indigenous people in the Bantu, Northwest people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples affinity bloc. Their primary language is Sira and their primary religion is Protestantism.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Eshira

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Gabon
People Cluster: Bantu, Northwest
Primary Language(s): Sira (swj)
Primary Religion(s): Protestantism
Population: 80,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013181
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Eshira of Gabon

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Protestantism
Religious Affiliation: Christianity

%
Protestantism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Sira
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Sira Speakers

Bible Resources in Sira:

Or check out the Sira bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 1), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Pioneer Unreached People Group, (LPI: 1), 0.1% to 0.5% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Eshira:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Eshira are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Eshira:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Eshira are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Eshira:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Eshira of Gabon

Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
readPsalm 67:3

Pray that those who are lost and unaware of God's blessings will come to know Him as the one true God, put their trust in Him, and join in praising Him among the nations.

And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.
readActs 6:7

Pray that the Word of God will be increasingly available to these people in ways they will resonate with so that all may have a chance to respond to the good news of Jesus Christ.

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
readPsalm 89:1

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will declare and record His faithfulness and love to be passed on from generation to generation.

Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together!
readPsalm 34:3

Pray that God will raise up believers who will go to those in this people group who do not yet follow Jesus, and that they will invite many to magnify the Lord with them so that His fame will spread to the ends of the earth.

Eshira Across Countries (ROP3 - 102949) reported in the following countries:

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Definitions page.

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