21 Facts About Mandinka people

The Mandinka people are present to a lesser extent in Sierra Leone and far north of Liberia, where they are very much in the minority.

The Mandinka who speak Manding Languages are the largest subgroup of the Mande speaking peoples, which is one of the largest language groups in Africa.

Mandinka people are the descendants of the Mali Empire, which rose to power in the 13th century under the rule of Mansa Sundiata Keita, who founded an empire that would go on to span a large part of West Africa.

Mandinka people communities have been fairly autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a chief and group of elders.

Mandinka people has been an oral society, where mythologies, history and knowledge are verbally transmitted from one generation to the next.

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The Mandinka people constituted many kingdoms and Empires which lasted until the end of the 19th century with European colonization, among the best known:.

The Mandinka people inhabited this area alongside other ethnic groups who came from the Manding, the Susu who migrated out of Manden Reigon and the Khassonke who are a mix of Mandinka people and Fulani.

The mythical origin of the Malinke and the Bambara Mandinka people are their mythical ancestors, Kontron and Sanin, the founding "hunter brotherhood".

Beginnings of Mandinka peopleWe originated from Tumbuktu in the land of the Mandinka people: the Arabs were our neighbours there.

In contemporary West Africa, the Mandinka people are predominantly Muslim, with a few regions where significant portions of the population are not Muslim, such as Guinea Bissau, where 35 percent of the Mandinka people practice Islam, more than 20 percent are Christian, and 15 percent follow traditional beliefs.

Hawthorne states that large numbers of Mandinka people started arriving as slaves in various European colonies in North America, South America and the Caribbean only between mid 18th through to the 19th century.

Hawthorne suggests three causes of Mandinka people appearing as slaves during this era: small-scale jihads by Muslims against non-Muslim Mandinka, non-religious reasons such as economic greed of Islamic elites who wanted imports from the coast, and attacks by the Fula people on Mandinka's Kaabu with consequent cycle of violence.

Mandinka people are rural subsistence farmers who rely on peanuts, rice, millet, maize, and small-scale husbandry for their livelihood.

Mandinka people villages are fairly autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a council of upper class elders and a chief who functions as a first among equals.

Mandinka people have traditionally been a socially stratified society, like many West African ethnic groups with castes.

Mandinka people castes are hereditary, and marriages outside the caste was forbidden.

Mandinka people believe the crowning glory of any woman is the ability to produce children, especially sons.

Mandinka people culture is rich in tradition, music, and spiritual ritual.

Mandinka people children are given their name on the eighth day after their birth, and their children are almost always named after a very important person in their family.

Mandinka people have a rich oral history that is passed down through griots.

Many early works by Malian author Massa Makan Diabate are retellings of Mandinka people legends, including Janjon, which won the 1971 Grand prix litteraire d'Afrique noire.