The Malinkés, Mandingues, Mandinkas, Mandingos, Mandés, Maninkas, are a people of West Africa present mainly in Guinea, Mali, Senegal (where they are called Sossés), Gambia, Côte d'Ivoire8 and in Burkina Faso9 (where they are called Dioulas). The Malinké are also present to a lesser extent in Sierra Leone and in the far north of Liberia, where they are very much in the minority.
The term "Mandingo" is a deformation of the word mandenka, that is to say "inhabitant of Manden" (-ka being the suffix meaning "inhabitant"), the historical home of the Mali Empire7. The term Malinke of Fulani origin is synonymous with Mandingo.
Mandé, in southern Mali, is considered the country of origin of the Mandinka people. Mandé was founded by hunters from Wagadou. This country was famous for the large number of animals and game that it sheltered, as well as its dense vegetation. A very popular hunting ground.
The Camara (or Kamara) are considered to be the oldest family to have lived in Mandé, after having left, due to the drought, Ouallata, a region of Wagadou, in the south-east of present-day Mauritania. They founded the first village of Mandé, Kirikoroni, then Kirina, Siby, Kita. Many of the families that make up the Mandingo community were born in Mande.
The Mandingos then gave birth to other ethnic groups such as the Bambaras, who are Mandingos who refused Islamization in the seventeenth century, the Khassonkés, from a mixture of Fulani and Mandingo, and the Dioula, Mandingo traders. Despite their strong cultural proximity, Malinkés and Bambaras have sometimes maintained conflicting relationships.
From the end of the 12th century, the Malinkés began to establish their domination, in particular with the character of Soumaoro Kanté, who with his army built the great kingdom of Sosso, on the ruins of the empire of Ghana, founded by their cousins. , the Soninkés.
The Malinkés are then the rulers of the Mali Empire whose founder, Soundiata Keïta, was a Malinké after he defeated Soumaoro Kanté at the Battle of Kirina around 1235.
The Mandingos founded many other kingdoms that lasted until the end of the 19th century and the start of European colonization, the best known of which are:
the Kaabu, between Senegal and Guinea-Bissau.
the Bambouk, between Senegal and Mali.
the Niani, Woulli, in eastern Senegal.
the kingdom of Wassoulou, between Guinea, Mali and the Ivory Coast.
The Kong des Ouattara empire, north of Côte d Ivoire and southwest of Burkina Faso.
Traditional social and economic organization:
Social organization is based on the extended family, with a matrilineal tendency, but which has become patrilineal.
Polygamy is a common practice, especially among nobles. Society is organized into three groups (or castes):
the nobility, resulting among others from the family of Keïta and Konaté, emperors of Mali, whose members bear the name of Tontigui, and some are free men living from agriculture.
people of castes (blacksmiths, shoemakers, weavers, griots called dyeli), who bear the name of Niamakhala.
The blacksmiths are the main holders of religious knowledge, they are the great initiates of Malinke society.
the captives, who bear the name of Dyon, and were freed at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In the Malinké villages, there are secret societies. The hunters, who wear a boubou, on which are fixed various grigris (cowries, piece of mirror, claws and teeth of wild animals), group together in the brotherhoods of hunters (dozo).
The Malinkés are great farmers, they entrust their herd to the Peuls. The casté Malinké artisans also cultivate the land. The blacksmiths and jewelers are the Numu, their wives are potters. The weavers are of foreign ethnicity. they are Fulani caste men, the Maboulé, the Maboulé women, are dyers. The Koulé work with wood, the Garanké work with leather. The Malinkés practice crafts according to the seasons. Many are traders (Dioulas).
Languages
The Mandingo languages form a group of West African languages which constitute the main group, in terms of number of speakers, of the Mande language family. It is a linguistic continuum, that is, even the most distant variants remain mutually intelligible and there are no clear geographic boundaries between each identified dialect.
The linguonyms traditionally used to designate the different languages of the group encompass sometimes very different realities. Thus, the terms Dioula, Bambara, Malinké, Maninka and Mandingo form sets with blurred outlines and are often interchangeable.
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20 сен 2024
