Guinea

First French African colony to vote independence (1958); in the Malinke heartland of the medieval Mali empire, and home to the 18th-century Fūta Jālōn imamate, it is more than four-fifths Muslim, predominantly Sunni with strong Sufi orders.

☾ The Coming of Islam

The Mali empire, the Sahelian trade, and the Fūta Jālōn imamate

Islam entered the Malinke heartland of Upper Guinea with the medieval Mali empire and the trans-Saharan trade. In the 18th century a Fulani-led Islamic revival established the theocratic imamate of Fūta Jālōn, one of West Africa's early Muslim states, and later the conqueror Samori Ture built a Muslim state across the region.

☾ Religious Composition

A large Sunni-Muslim majority with strong Sufi orders

More than four-fifths of Guineans are Muslim, predominantly Sunni of the Mālikī school and organised by the Tijāniyya and Qādiriyya Sufi orders, alongside Christian and traditional-religion minorities.

Demographic shares are approximate.

At a glance