Introduction / History

One of the larger ethnic groups of southwestern Burkina Faso is the Dagara. They are divided perhaps more by loyalty than by actual dialect difference between the Lobr and Wule speech varieties.

What Are Their Lives Like?

The Dagara are subsistence farmers. As their staple crops, they grow corn, millet, sorghum and peanuts. Corn and white beans function as their major cash crops, and women sell shea nuts and tree pods.

What Are Their Beliefs?

The Dagara have their own traditional religion. They serve the spirit world. Rituals are very important to them. They believe their ancestral spirits will help them in their daily lives. Some look to shamans for help.

The Dagara believe in the power of five elements. Fire puts us in contact with the spirits and consumes what gets in the way. Water is for purification. Earth is the central element that calls us home to our community. Mineral is the elemental element that invites us to remember who we are through rituals. Nature asks us to be transformed so we can realize our true selves.

What Are Their Needs?

Christ followers can teach them about the sovereign Lord who can force the spirit world to submit. They need to put their faith in the only savior.

Prayer Items

Pray the hearts of the Dagara people would be stirred to hunger after God, to drink of living water.
Pray for family-based movements to Christ to soon transform Dagara society, blessing them spiritually and economically.
Pray for the Lord to move in the hearts of local believers to give up their own rights and sacrifice their lives to see the Dagara people blessed by the work of Jesus Christ, the only savior.

Scripture Prayers for the Dagara in Burkina Faso.

References

https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/seen-and-unseen-spirituality-among-dagara-people
https://northernghana.net/what-do-you-know-about-the-dagaaba-people-1/