The Jahanke of Guinea-Bissau

The Jahanke of Guinea-Bissau, numbering approximately 12,000 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are a Manding-speaking ethnic group indigenous to the Senegambia region. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Jahanka is their primary language.

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

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Guinea-Bissau
People Cluster: Malinke
Primary Language(s): Jahanka (jad)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 12,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG013458
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Jahanke of Guinea-Bissau

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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

99%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Jahanka
Language Family: Mande

100%
%
Jahanka Speakers

Media Resources in Jahanka:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Jahanka:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Jahanka bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

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): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% 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 Jahanke:
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 Jahanke of Guinea-Bissau

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.

Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
readPsalm 96:2

Pray that gospel resources will reach this generation so that they will receive the good news and sing to the LORD, bless His name, and tell of His salvation each day.

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
readPsalm 51:15

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will abide in Him, and God will help them to proclaim His praise and declare His goodness all day long.

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.

Jahanka Across Countries (ROP3 - 104152) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

5 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulationStrategic Progress IndexLanguage ▼Religion
JahankaJahankaGambia5,600Unengaged and UnreachedJahankaFolk Islam
JahankeJahankeGuinea52,000Engaged yet UnreachedJahankaSunni Islam
JahankeJahankeGuinea-Bissau12,000Unengaged and UnreachedJahankaFolk Islam
JahankaJahankaSenegal56,500Engaged yet UnreachedJahankaFolk Islam
JahankaJahankaMali2,400Engaged yet UnreachedJahankaSunni 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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