The Mandinka are also called the Malinke, Maninka, Mandingo, or Manding. The Mandinka are a West African tribe or ethnic group mainly found in Eastern Guinea, Southern Mali, and Northern Ivory Coast. According to estimates, they are more than 10 million. The Mandinka people are the largest subgroup of the Mande peoples and one of the most prominent ethnic-linguistic groups in the African continent. They speak the Manding languages in the Mande language family and a lingua franca in much of W. Africa. Most of the Mandinka people adhere to the Islam faith. They are mainly subsistence farmers and reside in rural villages. Their largest urban center is the capital of Mali, Bamako, which the Bambara also inhabit.
The Mandinka people are the Mali Kingdom’s descendants, which rose to power in the 13th century under King Sundiata Keita’s reign. Sundiata Keita founded a Kingdom that would span a big or large part of Africa’s western region. The Mandinka people migrated West from River Niger in search of better agricultural fields or lands and more opportunities for conquest. In present-day, the Mandinka people inhabit the West Sudanian savanna area extending from The Gambia and the Casamance area in Senegal to Ivory Coast.
Mandinka’s traditional society has featured socially stratified castes. Mandinka communities have been autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a group of elders and chiefs. The Mandinka has been an oral society, where people verbally transmit mythologies, history, and knowledge from one generation to another. A caste of griots known locally as jelis and guilds and brotherhoods like the donso preserve the Mandinka’s music and literary traditions.
Between the 16th century and the 19th century, several non-Muslim and Muslim Mandinka people and various other African tribes got captured, enslaved, and shipped to the New World. They intermixed with workers and slaves of different ethnicities, establishing a Creole culture. The Mandinka ethnic group influenced the African heritage of descended people in Brazil, the Southern United States, and the Caribbean.
The History of the Mandinka People
The Mandinka people’s history began in the Manding region. The Manding area is between Guinea and Mali. Hunters from the Ghana Empire founded Manden, the Mandingo state, particularly the mythical ancestors Sanin and Kontron, at the Bambara and Malinke hunter brotherhood’s origin.
A large number of families that constitute or make-up the Mandinka community were born in Manden. Manding is the province from which the Mali Kingdom began under Sundiata Keita’s leadership. The Manden was initially a part of many fragmented empires formed after the Ghana Empire’s collapse in the 11th century. During the reign of the Mali Empire’s founder, these Empires got consolidated, and the Mandinka moved West from the R. Niger basin, as mentioned above, under Tiramakhan Traore, Sundiata’s general.
Another group of the Mandinka tribe, under Faran Kamara, the King of Tabou’s son, expanded SE of Mali. A 3rd group expanded with Fakoli Kourouma.
With the movement or migration, several gold artisans and metal working Mandinka smiths settled along the coast, Fouta Djallon, and plateau regions of W. Africa. Their goods and presence attracted merchants and brought trading caravans from N. Africa and the eastern Sahel states. It also caused conflicts with other tribes, such as the Wolof people.
The Economy of Mandinka
The Mandinka people are rural subsistence farmers, as mentioned earlier, who depend on rice, peanuts, millet, maize, and small-scale husbandry for their livelihood. During the wet period, men plant peanuts as their primary cash crop. The men also grow millet, and women grow rice, tending the plants by hands.
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The Religion of the Mandinka
In the present-day, over 90% of the Mandinka people are Muslim. The Mandinka people recite Qur’an chapters in Arabic. Some Mandinka syncretizes traditional African religions and Islam. Among these syncretists, spirits can be controlled through the Marabout power. The Marabout knows the protective formulas.
In most cases, people do not make any vital or important decision without 1st consulting a Marabout. Marabouts, who have Islamic training, write Qur’anic verses on slips of paper and stitch or sew them into leather pouches. People wear these as protective amulets.
The conversion to the Islam faith took place over many centuries. The Mandinka in Senegambia began converting to the Islam faith as early as the 17th century, and most of the Mandinka leatherworkers there changed to the Islam faith before the 19th century.
The Society and Culture of the Mandinka People
The Mandinka ethnic group has traditionally been a socially stratified society, as several West African tribes with castes. The Mandinka society has been divided into more than two endogamous castes; the slaves (jongo), the freeborn (foro), artisans, and praise singers (nyamolo). The freeborn castes are mainly farmers, while the slave strata included labor providers to the farmers and pottery makers, leather workers, griots, metalsmiths, and others. The Mandinka Muslim scribes and clerics have been considered as a separate occupational caste known as Jakhanke.
The Mandinka castes are hereditary, and people forbade marriages outside the caste. Their caste system is similar to those of other tribes of the African Sahel region.
Under rites of passage, the Mandinka people practice a rite of passage, kuyangwoo, which marks the start or the beginning of adulthood for their children. At the ages between 4-14, the youngsters have their genitalia ritually cut in different groups according to their sex. In past years, the youngsters spent up to a year in the bush, but that has been reduced now to coincide with their physical healing time (between 3 and 4 weeks).
During this period, they learn about their adult social responsibilities and rules of behavior. Preparation is made in the compound or village for the children’s return. A celebration marks the return of these new adults to their loved ones or families.
Among the Mandinka people, family members arrange marriages rather than either the groom or the bride. This practice is prevalent in rural areas. The suitor’s family sed Kola nuts, a bitternut from a tree, to the bride-to-be’s male elders, and if accepted, the courtship starts.
People have practiced polygamy among the Mandinka tribe since pre-Islamic days. A Mandinka man can have up to four wives as long as he can care for each of them equally. The Mandinka believe the crowning glory of any woman is the ability to bear or produce children, particularly sons. The 1st wife is the senior one in marriage and has authority over the other wives. The husband has full or complete control over his wives and is accountable for clothing and feeding them. Besides, he also aids the wives’ parents when necessary.
The Mandinka Music (the Kora)
The Mandinka culture is rich in music, tradition, and spiritual ritual. The Mandinka people continue a long oral history tradition through songs, proverbs, and stories. Mandinka’s oral history can pass through griots from one generation to the next one as mentioned above. The passing down of oral history via music has made music one of the most distinctive traits of the Mandinka people. They have long been famous for their drumming and also for their unique musical instrument called the Kora. The Kora is a 21 stringed West African harp made out of a dried, halved, hollowed-out gourd covered with goatskin or cow skin. The strings are made of a fishing line. People play it to accompany a griot’s singing. The Kora has become the hallmark of traditional Mandinka musicians.
More Description on the Kora
As stated recently, the Kora is built from a big calabash, cut in half, and covered with animal skin to make a resonator with a long neck. The skin is supported by two handles that run below it. It has over 20 strings, each of which plays a different note. A notched, double free-standing bridge supports the strings. A Kora’s sound resembles that of a harp, though when one plays it in the traditional style, it bears a resemblance to a guitar played using the Delta blues technique of plucking polyrhythmic patterns with two hands.
Modern Koras made in the Casamance region of the southern part of Senegal sometimes feature extra bass strings, adding up to more than two strings to the traditional 21. Traditionally, people made the strings from thin strips of hide, such as antelope skin or cow skin. In the present-day, people make most strings from harp strings or nylon fishing lines.
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Notable Mandinka People
Several notable Mandinka people from various countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, The Gambia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and the United States. Some of these people are Martin Delany, Alex Haley, Kunta Kinte, Ayden Geter, Foday Musa Suso, a griot composer and musician, and Black Thought.
Others are Samory Toure, Sekou Toure, Alpha Conde, Mamady Conde, General Sekouba Konate, Lansana Kouyate, Kabine Komara, Diarra Traore, Sekouba Bambino, and Sona Tata Conde. In Sierra Leone, we have Alhaji Ahamad Tejan Kabbah, Haja Afsatu Kabba, and Alhaji Mohamed Kemoh Fadika. Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was the president of Sierra Leone from 1996-2007. Haja Afsatu Kabba was former Sierra Leone’s Minister of Marine Resource and Fisheries Alaji Mohammed Kemoh Fadika was the former High Commissioner to Nigeria.
