Mandinka people

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Mandinka


Total population	1,300,000
Regions with significant populations	Mali,The Gambia, Guinea,Senegal, Guinea-Bissau
Language	Mandinka, Malinké, Soninke
Religion	Islam

The Mandinka (also known as Mandingo) are a Mande people of West Africa, all descend physically or culturally from the ancient Mali Empire which controlled the trans-Saharic trade from the Middle East to West Africa. In the early 13th century they were under the leadership of Sundiata. In the same century, they spread from the area that is now Mali, carving out a large empire.

Mandinka now number over one million and reside in many countries throughout West Africa: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. They are also found in small numbers in almost every country in West Africa.

Common dialects are Mandinka of The Gambia and Senegal, Malinké of Guinea and Mali, and Soninke of the southern states of West Africa, as well as other West African languages ending in 'ke' or 'ka' (meaning "talk" or "people"). They also speak Kriol and Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau; French in Senegal, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso; and English in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.

Nearly all are Sunni Muslims in religion.

One well-known Mandinka is Kunta Kinte, a main figure in Alex Haley's book Roots and a subsequent TV mini-series. Haley claimed he was descended from Kinte, though this familial link has been criticised by many professional historians and at least one genealogist as highly improbable (see D. Wright's The World And A Very Small Place). Martin R. Delany, a radical 19th century abolitionist in the United States, was of partial Mandinka descent.

Mr. T, of American television fame, once claimed that his distinctive hairstyle was modeled after a Mandinka warrior that he saw in National Geographic magazine.