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The Bambara of Burkina Faso

The Bambara of Burkina Faso, numbering approximately 7,900 people, are Engaged yet 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: Burkina Faso
People Cluster: Malinke-Bambara
Primary Language(s): Bambara (bam)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 7,900
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG012371
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Pray for the Bambara of Burkina Faso

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.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

95%
%
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

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Bambara 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 Bambara:
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 Bambara of Burkina Faso

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
read1 John 3:8

Pray for those living in darkness to recognize the destructive power of sin and the victory Christ has won over it.

So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures, and paralytics, and he healed them
readMatthew 4:24

Pray that the truth about the Lord will spread throughout the land so that many will have an opportunity to receive the good news and put their faith in Him.

Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
readMark 10:29-30

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will know that when they make sacrifices to follow Jesus, He is there with them and will bless them abundantly in this life and in the life to come.

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
readActs 17:30

Pray that those God sends to cross cultures will boldly and lovingly declare that God commands all people everywhere to repent.

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

Strategic Progress Index
All

10 people groups

PhotoPeople Group ID ▲NameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
BambaraPG012371BambaraBurkina Faso7,900Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013042BambaraCote d’Ivoire1,500,000No Longer UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013227BambaraGambia26,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013399BambaraGuinea6,200Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam
BambaraPG013534BambaraMali7,805,000Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam
BambaraPG013579BambaraMauritania27,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG013594BambaraNiger60,000Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG014218BambaraSenegal102,000Unengaged and UnreachedBambaraFolk Islam
BambaraPG047650BambaraUnited States5,700Engaged yet UnreachedBambaraSunni Islam
French-speaking West AfricansPG047836French-speaking West AfricansFrance133,000Engaged yet UnreachedFrenchSunni 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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