GUINEA-BISSAU

A. THE COUNTRY

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a small coastal state in West Africa
that includes the Bijagos archipelago.  Poverty, political unrest and
violent conflicts combine to depress this land.  Elections in 2009
brought a new president to office.  One of the world’s poorest
countries, Guinea-Bissau relies mainly on cash crops of cashew nuts, but
also on fish, hardwood and other agricultural products.  There is
massive foreign debt and the country is a major transshipment point of
cocaine from Colombia to Europe.

B. THE PEOPLE

The population is ~1,800,000 and official language Portuguese.  There
are over 27 ethnic groups.  ~53.5% are Atlantic, ~21.7% Fulbe, ~11.9%
Malinke, ~11.9% Crioule, ~1% Other.

C. RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY/PENTECOSTALISM

Freedom of religion exists for all groups.  Blending of Islam and
Catholicism with African traditional religions is such that accurate
figures are difficult to obtain.  ~52.05% are Muslim, ~35.1%
Ethnoreligionist, ~10.9% claim to be Christian, ~1.95% Non-religious.
In the Christian category:
~7.92% Catholic, ~1.43% Protestant, ~1.24% Unaffiliated, ~0.24%
Independent, ~0.07% are considered ‘marginal’.
Evangelicals represent ~1.6% of the population.
Charismatics represent ~0.9% and of those ~0.3% are Pentecostals.

Donna Siemens

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org

Operation World, Jason Mandryk. Colorado Springs: Biblica Publishing, 2010.