Mandé peoples

The Mandé peoples are an ethnolinguistic grouping of native African ethnic groups who speak Mande languages. Various Mandé speaking ethnic groups are found particularly in the western regions of West Africa. The Mandé languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé.

Often misused to refer to the Mandinka people, an ethnicity under the Mande language classification and their historical homeland Mande region. Also not to be confused with Manding speakers, sometimes referred to as Manden.

The Mandinka or Malinke, a western branch of the Mandé, are credited with the founding one of the largest West African empires. Other large Mandé speaking ethnicities include the Soninke and Susu as well as smaller ethnic groups such as the Ligbi, Vai, and Bissa. Mandé-speaking people inhabit various environments, from coastal rainforests to the sparse Sahel, are organized mainly by their language group, and have a wide range of cuisines, cultures, and beliefs.

After migrating from the Central Sahara, Mandé-speaking peoples established Tichitt culture in the Western Saharan region of Mauritania, which had Dhar Tichitt as its primary regional center and possibly the Malian Lakes Region as its secondary regional center. Subsequently, toward the end of the Mauritanian Tichitt culture, Mande-speaking peoples began to spread and established Méma, Macina, Dia Shoma, and Jenne Jeno in the Middle Niger region as well as the Ghana Empire.

Today, Mandé-speaking people are predominantly Muslim and follow a caste system. Islam has played a central role in identifying the Mandé-speaking people who live in the Sahel regions. The Mandinka and Soninke have been described as transcending individual tribal affiliations. Influences from Mandé-speaking people have historically spread far beyond immediate areas to other neighboring Muslim West African groups who inhabited the Sahel and Savanna. The Mandé-speaking people conducted increased trade along the Niger River or overland, and achieved military conquest with the expansion of the Ghana Empire, Mali Empire, Kaabu and Wassoulou states.

The non-Mande-speaking Fula, Songhai, Wolof, Hausa, and Voltaic peoples maintain varying degrees of close alignment with the Mandé-speaking peoples worldview, clothing, and other cultural artifacts (e.g., a shared written script, architecture, cuisine, and social norms).

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.