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The Mankanya of Guinea-Bissau

The Mankanya of Guinea-Bissau, numbering approximately 64,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a West African ethnic group indigenous to the Senegambian region. They mostly adhere to Animism and Mankanya is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Guinea-Bissau
People Cluster: Atlantic
Primary Language(s): Mankanya (knf)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 64,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013468
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Pray for the Mankanya of Guinea-Bissau

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.

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Animism
Religious Affiliation: Ethnoreligion

72%
%
Animism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Mankanya
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Mankanya Speakers

Media Resources in Mankanya:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film

1 film

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Mankanya:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
2014 Wycliffe Bible Translators, Inc.✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Mankanya bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Mankanya 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 Mankanya:
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

Pray specifically for the Mankanya of Guinea-Bissau

Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
readIsaiah 49:13

Thank the Lord for the people here and ask that His gospel will flow through this land to bring hope to those who are afflicted by the guilt of sin.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
readLamentations 3:23-23

Pray that they will have hope in the Lord, knowing that His compassions never fails and that His mercies are new every morning.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
readEphesians 5:32-33

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will grasp the profound mystery of Christ's love for the Church, reflecting this love in their marriages.

"For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you."
readActs 17:23

Pray that believers God sends to cross cultures will be sensitive to the spiritual needs of the people they serve, and will proclaim the truth of Christ to them in creative ways that they will understand.

Mankanya Across Countries (ROP3 - 106274) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

3 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion ▼
MankanyaPG013239MankanyaGambia3,800Unengaged and UnreachedMankanyaAnimism
MankanyaPG013468MankanyaGuinea-Bissau64,000Engaged yet UnreachedMankanyaAnimism
MankanyaPG014252MankanyaSenegal50,500Engaged yet UnreachedMankanyaAnimism

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 Data Standards section.

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