Statistics
People name: Bako
Country: Mali
Language: Bambara
Evangelical: 0%
Population: 300,000

Field Address:
Rev. James D. Plumb
Mission Protestante
BP 19 Koutiala
Republic of Mali, West Africa

Prayer Profile:
Bako of Mali

Where the Bako live...
The 300,000 Bako of Mali live in small villages along the bank of the Bani River. The Republic of Mali is a landlocked state located in northwestern Africa. Its dry southern grasslands merge into the Sahara Desert. The agricultural economy has been devastated by drought, famine, locust plagues, and desert encroachment since the 1970s. The people are the modern descendants of the great Malian empire.

What the Bako are like...
The Bako people like many Africans are a friendly, simple folk people who love life, raise families, and worry about disease and death. The word “Bako” translates literally to mean “behind the river.” Most of these people are farmers. Millet is their staple food. They are an individualistic people who are not prone to accept outside influences as a way of life. They are slow to accept new methods to improve their agricultural efforts.

What the Bako believe...
The people of Bako hold to Islam and fetishism as their religions and have responded very cautiously to the gospel. These people do have the Scriptures available in Bambara, which is their principle language.

Why the Bako are still unreached...
The reason why this UPG has only recently been targeted for outreach is mainly because of the difficulty of getting to them in their geographical location. A missionary has to drive at least 250 km to get to where they are. Alliance missionaries first came into contact with the people of Bako through medical dispensaries.

What God is doing among them...
These people do have the Scriptures available in Bambara, which is their principle language. Presently both the Mali church and the mission are working together to reach these people. The church has sent pastors to minister in this area.

Through the years the work among the Bako has been very difficult and frought with internal and external conflicts. In 1996 the C&MA sent a team of intercessors into Mali with the intent of exercising powerful intercessory prayer in regions of spiritual conflict. They were used of God to pull down spiritual strongholds of the enemy. Both national workers and C&MA missionaries reported powerful manifestations of God's sovereignty and immediate breakthroughs among this unreached people group.