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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Bambara of Mauritania

The Bambara of Mauritania, numbering approximately 27,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Mandé-speaking people of Mali and neighboring West African countries who share a common language, cultural heritage, and historical identity rooted in the middle Niger River basin. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Bambara is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Mauritania
People Cluster: Malinke-Bambara
Primary Language(s): Bambara (bam)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 27,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013579
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Pray for the Bambara of Mauritania

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: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

92%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Bambara
Language Family: Mande

100%
%
Bamanankan Speakers

Media Resources in Bambara:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Bambara:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Alliance Biblique au Mali 1987✓✓✓

1 entry

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Bambara bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), 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% or Greater but Less than 0.5% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent 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 Bambara:
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

Pray specifically for the Bambara of Mauritania

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.

He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.
readIsaiah 40:11

Pray that the lost will come to know the tender care of the Good Shepherd, who gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
readJohn 10:28

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will have assurance of eternal life, knowing that no one can snatch them out of the loving hand of Jesus.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
readLuke 10:1

Ask God to raise up, send out, and sustain Christians who can go together to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

Bambara Across Countries (ROP3 - 100925) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

10 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
BambaraPG013534BambaraMali7,785,000Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam
BambaraPG013042BambaraCote d’Ivoire1,500,000No Longer UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
French-speaking West AfricansPG047836French-speaking West AfricansFrance133,000Engaged yet UnreachedFrenchSunni Islam
BambaraPG014218BambaraSenegal102,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013594BambaraNiger60,000Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013579BambaraMauritania27,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013227BambaraGambia26,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG012371BambaraBurkina Faso7,900Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013399BambaraGuinea6,200Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam
BambaraPG047650BambaraUnited States5,700Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam

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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