The Nalu of Guinea

The Nalu of Guinea, numbering approximately 16,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are a coastal West African people who settled Guinea and Guinea-Bissau before the Mandinka arrived in the 14th or 15th centuries, whose war canoes killed Portuguese explorer Nuno Tristao in a fierce 1446 skirmish, converting to Islam only in the early 1900s. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Nalu is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Guinea
People Cluster: Atlantic
Primary Language(s): Nalu (naj)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 16,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013428
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Nalu of Guinea

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.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

95%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Nalu
Language Family: Atlantic-Congo

100%
%
Nalu Speakers

Media Resources in Nalu:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Nalu:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Nalu bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Nalu 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 Nalu:
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 Nalu of Guinea

You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.
readPsalm 65:9

Give thanks for God's provision in nature, and pray that those who don't know Him will recognize His hand, desire to know their Creator, and hear the truth that Jesus is the solution to the world's greatest need.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
read1 Timothy 2:1-2

Pray that leaders and those in authority will not thwart the spread of the gospel but put their faith in Christ, have hearts that are soft toward their people, and be freed from the temptations that power can bring.

For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.
readPsalm 149:4

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be encouraged and feel immeasurably loved as they meditate on the fact that God takes pleasure in them.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
read1 Corinthians 15:10–11

Pray that God's people will preach the message of Jesus' death and resurrection and that it will spread among the lost through the selfless witness of believers.

Nalu Across Countries (ROP3 - 107049) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

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.

Scroll to Top