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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Balanta of Guinea-Bissau

The Balanta of Guinea-Bissau, numbering approximately 549,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an indigenous community of Guinea-Bissau; a dialect subgroup of Balanta (ble) They are an Indigenous people, with Balanta as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Atlantic people cluster of the Sub-Saharan African Peoples. Their primary religion is Animism. They primarily speak Balanta.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Guinea-Bissau
People Cluster: Atlantic
Primary Language(s): Balanta (ble)
Primary Religion(s): Animism
Population: 549,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Active CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013444
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Pray for the Balanta 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

60%
%

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Balanta
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%

Media Resources in Balanta:

Films:

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Provided by the Jesus Film Project

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Bible Resources in Balanta:

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Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Balanta bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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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): Expanding Unreached People Group, (LPI: 2), 0.5% to 2% 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 Balanta:
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 Balanta 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 Balanta:
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 Balanta 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 Balanta:
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 Balanta of Guinea-Bissau

And Samuel said to Saul, “You have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God, with which he commanded you."
read1 Samuel 13:13a

Pray that those who are walking in disobedience will recognize their sin and to turn to God.

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
readGenesis 2:7

Pray that Christians will be able to share the hope of Christ with suffering people and that He will breathe new life into their souls.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
readJames 1:2-3

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will consider it pure joy when they face trials of many kinds, trusting in God's promise that the testing of their faith produces perseverance.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
read1 Corinthians 9:22

Ask God to raise up believers from around the world to go and share the hope of Jesus with the lost so that they might trust in Him and have the hope of eternal life.

Balanta, Kentohe Across Countries (ROP3 - 111208) 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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