Reaching Muslim Teens in the Sahel

In 2020, we initially conducted the Global Youth Culture (GYC) research in three African countries: Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. This research was conducted among digitally connected teens. As we began to popularize this research, important questions arose among our audience: “What about French-speaking Africa?” “What about teens who are not digitally connected?” This led OneHope to carry out further GYC research to include these teens. We wanted to understand if their realities were the same when compared to their English-speaking digitally connected counterparts. As a result, we conducted follow-up research in 2021 with teens from Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Senegal. 

Occasionally, OneHope has the opportunity to share what we are learning through our research with a broader audience. One such occasion came in the summer of 2024, when the Empowered21 Global Network of Spirit-Empowered Scholars (GNSES) hosted a scholarly consultation around the topic of world religions. This is a venue where OneHope’s Research Team has presented before, so we began exploring the opportunity to share and build upon research conducted with Muslim teens in Africa. 

Initially, the Research Team analyzed data from our Francophone Africa GYC report to isolate data from Muslim teens. From that data, we identified themes that could be explored further in interviews and focus groups with ministry leaders from across the Sahel region, where the majority of the population is Muslim. We learned that:

• Muslim teens are the most religiously devout and most disciplined in their religious habits, but that does not always show up in their behaviors.
• Teens tell us they turn to family more often than any other source for guidance on some of life’s most important topics. Muslim teens also seek guidance from friends/peers and online/social media on these topics.
• The data did not reveal any major differences between Muslim and non-Muslim teens in their sources of guidance about gender and sexuality. However, fewer Muslim teens went to teachers/counselors for conversations about gender and sexuality compared to non-Muslim teens.
• Both Muslim and non-Muslim teens reported similar rates of sexual activity. Boys were observed to be more sexually active than girls, and rates were highest among 16-17-year-olds than any other age group.
• Muslim teens were much more likely to say they have recently viewed pornography than non-Muslim teens. Pornography usage was seen to be highest in the lives of 16-17-year-olds than in any other age group. More boys viewed pornography than girls.

In response to the findings of the GYC Francophone research, we conducted interviews and focus groups with ministry leaders to gain a deeper understanding of Muslim teens living in the Sahel and to better advocate and resource those ministering to children and teens in this unique context. We conducted an in-person focus group with OneHope’s Regional Director in the Sahel, national directors from the five countries in which OneHope is currently active in the Sahel, and other members of the Sahel team who are children and youth workers with experience ministering to Muslim teens. In addition to the focus group, we hosted Zoom interviews with field workers who are online missionaries, church planters, and children and youth workers with experience ministering to Muslim teens. This research explored the experiences, challenges, and opportunities to reach Muslim teens with a strategy that is relevant and contextualized to their unique needs.

All of this research was synthesized to further inform the ministry response in an area that is difficult to reach and shared with other global ministry scholars at the 2024 GNSES Scholarly Consultation in Jakarta, Indonesia. For OneHope, though, research is only the beginning. We are always looking to act on what we learn, and this project is a great example of our Outcome-Based Ministry model. 

Through this research, the African team identified two unique opportunities to reach Muslim teens in the Sahel. First, our research revealed growing access to Muslim teens through the digital space. While Muslim teens are difficult to reach through in-person means due to cultural challenges, they are more likely to engage over digital communications. 

Second, we learned that many Muslim teens in the Sahel have questions about sexuality and/or have experienced some sort of sexual abuse, rape, or incest. Our research showed that many Muslim teens in the region are seeking answers to what a healthy sexuality looks like. These discoveries have led to the early development of a digital product that seeks to answer teens’ questions around sex and sexuality through a biblical lens. 

As of 2025, this digital product is still in development, undergoing discovery research and design sessions with youth and youth practitioners in the Sahel to determine the type of digital sexuality program that could effectively engage with youth. This program provides a unique opportunity to answer questions Muslim teens are asking, while pointing them toward God’s purpose in creation and his gospel message for all. We are excited to see what research reveals to better position us to minister effectively to the next generation!