Statistics
People name: Malinke
Country: Mali
Language: Bambara
Evangelical: .004%
Population: 1,700,000
 
E-Mail:
smithf@cmalliance.org

Prayer Profile:
Malinke of Guinea

Where they live...
The Malinke tribe is the largest ethnic group in Guinea comprising 34 percent (1,700,000) of the total population of that country. This group is distributed among several West African nations, their ancestors being once united in the great Mali Empire. They are said to have come to Guinea as early as the thirteenth century.

What they are like...
Most of the Malinke live in the Upper Guinea though there is a large concentration of this ethnic group in the Forest Region as well. The Malinke are traders as well as cultivators. Because of their known adaptability and their penchant for trading, they have migrated to every section of the country, and thus their language is becoming the trade language for the Republic of Guinea.

The Malinke, also called Bambara or Maninka, are farmers who raise crops such as millet and sorghum. They also raise a few cattle, which are used primarily for bride-wealth, prestige, and the trading for which they are famous. They live primarily in conical, thatched-roof huts and often the Malinke settlements are substantial. Every village has its own headman.

What they believe...
The Malinke are almost totally Muslim, very few having adopted Catholicism, and fewer yet admitting to a real conversion to Christ. In Kakan, the largest administrative region of Guinea, the Malinke have been called fanatical Muslims by many. They are the most Islamic of all professed Muslims in Guinea. These Malinke, known as Maninka-Mory, refer to others of their ethnic group (those less fanatical then they) as Sounouke, which actually means pagan.

Why they are still unreached...
Before Guinea became a French colony in 1904, its people were led by Samori Toure, a tyrant whose slave raids into non-Muslim groups was a powerful factor in spreading Islam. Among those persuaded were Kunta's people. When Guinea gained independence in 1958, Samori's legacy passed to Sekou Toure, who claimed to be Samori's son. In 1967 he ousted all Protestant missionaries, except eight members of The Christian and Missionary Alliance. After his death in 1984, a more moderate government lifted the ban.

Guinea, West Africa, has been virtually closed to all missionary work for 20 years. Although The Christian and Missionary Alliance was permitted to remain in Guinea, its work was severely restricted. Both political and religious oppression has hindered the reaching of these peoples in Guinea.

What God is doing among them...
Aside from the evangelism done among the ethnic groups of the Forest Region, this ethnic group has had more Christian presence among its people than the other unreached tribes of Guinea. There is a church building and a Malinke pastor in the city of Kankan, yet most of the believers in that church have been Christians from the Forest Region who have moved to Kankan to seek work or to study in one of the schools there. Many Malinkes are illiterate.