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Mandé peoples

Mandé is an ethnic group of West Africa. Speakers of the Mande languages are found in Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire and the northern half of Ghana. Linguistically, the Mande languages belong to a divergent branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Mande peoples are credited with the founding of the largest ancient West African empires. The Mandé are closely related to both West Atlantic-speakers (such as the Fulani and Wolof) and Nilo-Saharan -speakers (such as the Songhay), in terms of culture and ethnicity. Some sources say that the Mandé are defined by culture and language rather than by ethnicity, since many different ethnic groups have adopted Mandé languages, names, and traditions.

History

Descended from ancient Central Saharan people, akin to the Bafour or Imraguen of Mauritania, the Mandé are an identifiable people spread throughout the western Sahel. They are known as having been among the first on the continent to produce woven textiles (by a process known as strip-weaving), and as the founders of the Ghana Empire and Mali Empire, as well as being responsible for the expansion of the Songhai Empire across West Africa. However, archaeological testimony also supports that they were among the first peoples on the continent, outside the Nile region and Ethiopia, to produce stone settlement civilizations. These were built on the rocky promontories of the Tichitt-Walata and Tagant cliffs of Mauritania where hundreds of stone masonry settlements, with clear street layouts, have been found. Some settlements had massive surrounding walls, while others were less fortified. In a deteriorating environment, where arable land and pasturage were at a premium, the population grew and relatively large-scale political organizations and, ultimately, military hierarchal aristocracies emerged. With a mixed farming economy—millet production combined with the rearing of livestock —this copper-based agro-pastoral society traded in jewelry and semi-precious stones from distant parts of the Sahara and Sahel. They are also beleved to be the first to domesticate African rice. In the words of one archaeologist, these abandoned sites represent “a great wealth of rather spectacular prehistoric ruins” and “perhaps the most remarkable group of Neolithic settlements in the world” (Mauny 1971: 70).

Between 200 BC and 100 AD, the entire Sudan experienced significant dry episodes, which were part of the general drying trend that had been seriously underway since before 2000 BC. As the desert began to expand, the population headed South.

Ghâna kingdom

At the start of the first millennium AD, a number of clans of the Soninké people, the oldest branch of the Mandé people, came together under the leadership of a man named Dinga Cisse. The nation comprised a confederation of 3 independent, freely allied, states (Mali, Mema, and Wagadou) and 12 garrisoned provinces. Located midway between the desert, the main source of salt, and the gold fields of the upper Senegal River to the south, it was well placed to take advantage of trade with the surrounding cities, and also with the north by a coastal route leading to Morocco via Sidjilmasa.

Ghanaian society included large pastoral and agricultural communities. Its commercial class, however, was most prosperous. The Mandé merchants of Ghâna came to dominate the luxury trade and slave trade via Saharan trade routes connecting their great cities on the southern edge of the Sahara to the northern coast of Africa. They would enslave neighboring Africans, either to sell them or to use them for domestic purposes; those who were not sold were usually assimilated into the Mandé community. Leather goods, ivory, salt, gold, and copper were also sold in exchange for various finished goods. By the tenth century, Ghâna was an immensely rich and prosperous empire, controlling an area the size of Texas, stretching across Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. The ruler was acclaimed as the "richest king in the world because of his gold" by Arab traveler Ibn Hawqal on his visit to the capital city of Kumbi Saleh in 950 AD.

In the eleventh century, the kingdom began to weaken and decline. There were numerous reasons as to why. The King lost his trading monopoly, a devastating drought damaged the cattle and cultivation industries, the clans were fractured, the vassal states were rebelling, and, according to Arab tradition, it is said that Almoravid Muslims came from the North and invaded Ghâna. Other interpretations are that the Almoravid influence was gradual and did not involve any form of military takeover. In any event, following their subsequent withdrawal, new gold fields were mined further south and new trade routes were opening further east. Just as it appeared that Ghâna would reemerge, it became the target of attacks by the Susu (another Mandé people) and their leader Sumanguru. From this conflict in 1235 came the Malinké people under a new dynamic ruler, Sundiata Kéita. By the mid-thirteenth century, the once great empire of Ghâna had utterly disintegrated and soon became eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.

Mali kingdom

The most renowned Emperor of Mali was Sundiata's grandson, Mansa Musa (1307-1332) also known as “Kan Kan Mussa" or "The Lion of Mali". His pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324 put Mali on the map - literally. The great ruler took 60,000 porters with him, each carrying 3 kilograms of pure gold - 180 tons in total, according to the UNESCO General History of Africa, Volume IV, pp. 197-200. He had so much gold with him that when he stopped in Egypt, the Egyptian currency lost its value. According to Cairo born historian al-Maqurizi, "the members of his entourage proceeded to buy Turkish and Ethiopian slave girls, singing girls and garments, so that the rate of the gold dinar fell by six dirhams." Consequently, the name of Mali and Timbuktu appeared on the 14th century world map. The crown jewel of West Africa, the Empire of Mali was the center of Islamic, legal, and scientific scholarship. The oldest formal universities in West Africa - Sankore, Jingaray Ber, and Sidi Yahya - were founded there. Within a few generations, Mali itself was eclipsed by the Songhai empire of Askia Muhammad (Askia the Great)

Songhai kingdom

The successor of Sunni Ali Ber, Askia was much more astute and farsighted than his predecessor had ever been. He orchestrated a program of expansion and consolidation which extended the empire from Taghaza in the North to the borders of Yatenga in the South; and from Air in the Northeast to Futa Tooro in Senegambia. Instead of organizing the empire along Islamic lines, he tempered and improved on the traditional model by instituting a system of bureaucratic government unparalleled in the Western Sudan. In addition, Askia established standardized trade measures and regulations, and initiated the policing of trade routes. He also encouraged learning and literacy, ensuring that Mali's universities produced the most distinguished scholars, many of whom published significant books. The eminent scholar Ahmed Baba, for example, produced books on Islamic law which are still in use today. Mahmoud Kati published Tarik al-Fattah and Abdul-Rahman as-Sadi published Tarik as-Sudan (Chronicle of the Sudan), two history books which are indispensable to present-day scholars reconstructing African history in the Middle Ages. For all his efforts, Mali experienced a cultural revival it had never witnessed before, and the whole land flourished as a center of all things valuable in learning and trade.

Post-Songhai

Following the fall of the great kingdoms of the old Mandé homelands, thousands migrated toward the Atlantic coast. Among these were the Mane, former soldiers of the Mali empire who invaded the western coast of Africa from the east during the first half of the sixteenth century. There is really no room for doubt as to their origin, from the evidence of their dress and weapons (which were observed at the time by Europeans), their language, as well as from the evidence of Mane tradition, recorded in writing about 1625. The Mane advanced parallel to the coastline of modern Liberia, fighting in turn with each tribal group that they came across. They were almost invariably successful and were really only halted when, in the north-west of what is now Sierra Leone, they came up against the Susu, like themselves a Mandé people, and possessing similar weapons, military organization and tactics.

French colonisation also greatly affected Mandé life. Constant wars with the Europeans cost the lives of thousands of their soldiers, led to the increased reliance on Atlantic trade, and the creation of artificial colonial boundaries which divided the population. Nevertheless, the Mandé people are still active West African politics and have often elected their own presidents in several states.

Unfortunately, their long-standing conflict with other African tribes has exacerbated in the last century, as desertification has forced them steadily south in search of work and other resources. Frequently, this has resulted in outbreaks of war with indigenous populations along the coast.

Culture

Predominantly Muslim, The Mandé are patrilineal and patriarchal, though ritual washing and daily prayers are usually observed and very few wear Arab dress, with virtually no women wearing a veil. The most famous Mandé practices are their fraternal orders and sororities known as Poro and Sande or Bundu, respectively.

Traditionally, Mandé society is hierarchal or "caste"-based, with nobility and vassals; formerly, like most other Africans, they also held slaves ("Jonw"/"Jong(o)"), often war prisoners, usually from lands surrounding their territory. The descendants of former kings and generals had a higher status than their nomadic and more settled compatriots. With time, that difference has eroded, corresponding to the economic fortunes of the groups. Though the Mandé arrived in many of their present locations as raiders or traders, most today are either settled agriculturalists or nomadic fishermen; there are also still blacksmiths, cattle herders, and griots or bards.

Religion

The Mandé have been predominantly Muslim since the 13th century. Many in rural areas combine Islamic beliefs with certain pre-Islamic animistic beliefs, such as the presence of spirits and use of amulets. According to oral histories, the Mande, in particular the Jula, contributed to the Islamization of non-Mande Gur groups in Burkina Faso and Ghana through trade and settlement.

Arts

Much Mandé art is in the form of jewelry and carvings. The masks associated with the fraternal and sorority associations of the Marka and the Mendé are probably the best-known, and finely crafted in the region. The Mandé also produce beautifully weaved fabrics which are popular throughout western Africa, and gold and silver necklaces, bracelets, armlets, and earrings. The bells on the necklaces are of the type believed capable of being heard by spirits, ringing in both worlds, that of the ancestors and the living. Mandé hunters often wear a single bell that can be easily silenced when stealth is necessary. Women, on the other hand, often wear multiple bells, referring to concepts of community, since the bells ring harmoniously together.

Traditional music

The best known Mandé music is played on the Kora, a 21 or more stringed instrument, and it is performed by families of musicians known as Jeliw (sing. Jeli) or in French as Griots. The kora is a unique harp-like instrument with a notched bridge similar to that of a lute or guitar. It is arguably the most complex chordophone of Africa. As for Griots, they are professional bards in northern West Africa, keepers of their great oral epic traditions and history, and trusted and powerful advisors of Mandé leaders. Among the most celebrated of these today are Salif Keita and Kandia Kouyaté.

List of Mande peoples

References

Gillow, John. (2003), African Textiles. 29 p.
Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.
UNESCO General History of Africa, Volume IV, pp. 197-200.
Mauny, R. (1971), “The Western Sudan” in Shinnie: 66-87.
Monteil, Charles (1953), “La Légende du Ouagadou et l’Origine des Soninke” in Mélanges Ethnologiques (Dakar: Bulletin del’Institut Francais del’Afrique Noir).
Fage, John D. (2001), History of Africa. Routledge; 4th edition.
Boone, Sylvia Ardyn. (1986), Radiance from the Waters.
Kouyaté, Dani (Director). (1995). Keïta: Heritage of a Griot [Motion picture]. Burkina Faso.