About the People
About 150,000 Otammari live in Northern Benin and Togo. They are famous for their masonry and their traditional homes that resemble mud castles. Most are subsistence farmers and hunters.
Illiteracy is high among this group. Many people only read French, the administrative language of Benin. Very few can read or write their heart language, Ditammari. Most cling to animism and ancestor worship and have resisted both Islam and Christianity. Each household has a family altar called the fetish, where the father of the household makes sacrifices and appeals to the spirits of the ancestors. Participation in initiation ceremonies is of the highest importance for teenage boys and girls.
The whole Bible is translated into Ditammari, but it is out of print. However, the Holy Spirit is moving among these people who have traditionally been extremely resistant to outsiders. Evangelical Christians of several denominations have noticed a dramatic change in their openness in recent years.
About the Project
AFM missionaries have been ministering to the Otammari people since Linden and Michelle St. Clair launched the project in 1996. Today, Ulrike Baur-Kouato leads the project, assisted by her husband Toussaint and three local evangelists. They are working to nurture the church in Natitingou and a growing number of groups in surrounding villages. Suzy Baldwin worked on the Otammari Project for many years and now serves on the Pendjari Project.
People-Group Facts
- Population: 150,000
- Language: Ditammari
- Religion: Animist
I got to know Augustin soon after I arrived in Benin. He was one of the many neighbor kids who came to my house to get treatment for their sores.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
December 01 2008, 3:28 pm | Comments 0
One Sunday morning, Albertine and I headed out to the weekly Bible study we conduct at the edge of town. We arrived to find the quarter in mourning. The family that lives next to where we meet had lost a child the previous night.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
November 01 2008, 2:29 pm | Comments 0
“Please pray,” the old man said to our church group in Ourabourga. “I am tired of sacrificing chickens. It doesn’t work anyway. The fetishes just ask for more and more, and nothing really happens.”
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
September 01 2008, 2:31 pm | Comments 0
Three weeks ago, Thomas came to the group meeting Colette and I teach in an outlying village every Sunday morning. He sat down with a frown, looking like a kid whose parents are making him do something he really doesn’t want to do.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
August 01 2008, 2:32 pm | Comments 0
Come with me to vespers Friday night. The church has two banks of lights, one for each side of the church. The windows and doors are wide open without screens.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
July 01 2008, 2:34 pm | Comments 0
“But how do we become the children of God?” The Sabbath School kids wanted to know. “How can we be ready for the soon coming of Jesus?” We were studying the end times.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
June 01 2008, 2:36 pm | Comments 0
Mama Alise was lying on her bed in serious pain. She showed me where a scorpion had stung her toe. She said the pain was traveling up her leg.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
May 01 2008, 2:38 pm | Comments 0
For about two years, we have been having problems with the truck. Last time Clyde Morgan visited us, he almost missed his return flight when the clutch went out twice on the way to the airport.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
February 01 2008, 3:41 pm | Comments 0
God works in mysterious ways. Three Fridays ago, He sent my friend, Colette, out on a mission. She began her trip thinking she was going to visit an old friend on the other side of town. When she got to the area, she became disoriented by the maze of paths through the patchwork fields.
By:
Suzy & Fidel Baldwin-Noutehou
January 01 2008, 3:43 pm | Comments 0
