The Mandé peoples are a linguistic grouping of those African nations who speak Mande languages. The various Mandé-speaking nations are concentrated in the western regions of West Africa.
The Mandinka or Malinke, a western Mandé nation, are credited with the founding one of the largest West African empires. Other large Mandé-speaking nations include the Soninke and Susu, as well as smaller ones such as the Yalunka, Vai, and Bissa. Mandé-speaking peoples inhabit various environments, from coastal rainforests to the sparse Sahel, 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, Mandé-speaking peoples began to spread and established Méma, Dia Shoma, and Jenne Jeno in the Middle Niger region as well as the Ghana Empire.
Today, Mandé-speaking peoples 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. 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 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-Mandé-speaking Fula, Songhai, Wolof, Hausa, Dogon, and Voltaic peoples share a similar culture with Mandé-speaking peoples.
History
Origins
E1b1a1-M2 is the predominant paternal haplogroup in West Africa (70-97%). The ancestors of the Mande originally came from Northeast Africa and moved around the Green Sahara. The gradual movement of the Proto Mande to West Africa may have been associated with the expansion of Sahel agriculture in the African Neolithic period, following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE.
Central Sahara
After the Kel Essuf Period and Round Head Period of the Central Sahara, the Pastoral Period followed. Some of the hunter-gatherers who created the Round Head rock art may have adopted pastoral culture, and others may have not. As a result of increasing aridification of the Green Sahara, Central Saharan hunter-gatherers and cattle herders may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the Niger River and Chad Basin of West Africa. In 4000 BCE, the start of sophisticated social structure (e.g., trade of cattle as valued assets) developed among herders amid the Pastoral Period of the Sahara. Saharan pastoral culture was intricate, as evidenced by fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes, and other remnants. By 1800 BCE, Saharan pastoral culture expanded throughout the Saharan and Sahelian regions. The initial stages of sophisticated social structure among Saharan herders served as the segue for the development of sophisticated hierarchies found in African settlements, such as Dhar Tichitt.
Tichitt culture
After migrating from the Central Sahara, proto-Mande peoples established their civilization in the Tichitt region of the Western Sahara. The Tichitt Tradition of southeastern Mauritania dates from 2200 BCE to 200 BCE. Tichitt culture at Dhar Néma, Dhar Tagant, Dhar Tichitt, and Dhar Walata included a four-tiered hierarchal social structure, farming of cereals, metallurgy, numerous funerary tombs, and a rock art tradition. At Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata, pearl millet may have also been independently tamed amid the Neolithic. Dhar Tichitt, which includes Dakhlet el Atrouss, may have served as the primary regional center for the multi-tiered hierarchical social structure of the Tichitt Tradition, and the Malian Lakes Region, which includes Tondidarou, may have served as a second regional center of the Tichitt Tradition. The urban Tichitt Tradition may have been the earliest large-scale, complexly organized society in West Africa, and an early civilization of the Sahara, which may have served as the segue for state formation in West Africa.
As areas where the Tichitt cultural tradition were present, Dhar Tichitt and Dhar Walata were occupied more frequently than Dhar Néma. Farming of crops (e.g., millet) may have been a feature of the Tichitt cultural tradition as early as 3rd millennium BCE in Dhar Tichitt.
As part of a broader trend of iron metallurgy in the West African Sahel in 1st millennium BCE, iron items (350 BCE – 100 CE) were found at Dhar Tagant, iron metalworking and/or items (800 BCE – 400 BCE) were found at Dia Shoma and Walaldé, and iron remnants (760 BCE – 400 BCE) were found at Bou Khzama and Djiganyai. The iron materials found are evidence of metalworking at Dhar Tagant. In the late period of the Tichitt Tradition at Dhar Néma, tamed pearl millet was used to temper the tuyeres of an oval-shaped low shaft iron furnace, one of 16 located on elevated ground. Iron metallurgy may have developed before the second half of 1st millennium BCE, as indicated by pottery dated between 800 BCE and 200 BCE. At Dhar Walata and Dhar Tichitt, copper was also utilized.
After its decline in Mauritania, the Tichitt Tradition spread to the Middle Niger region of Mali (e.g., at Méma, Macina, Dia Shoma, and Jenne Jeno), where it developed into and persisted as Faïta Facies ceramics between 1300 BCE and 400 BCE among rammed earth architecture and iron metallurgy (which developed after 900 BCE). Thereafter, the Ghana Empire developed in the 1st millennium CE.
Djenné-Djenno
The civilization of Djenné-Djenno was located in the Niger River valley in Mali and is considered to be among the oldest urbanized centres and the best-known archaeological sites in Sub-Saharan Africa. The site is located about away from the modern town of Djenné and is believed to have been involved in long-distance trade and possibly the domestication of African rice. The site is believed to exceed . The city is believed to have been abandoned and moved to its current location due to the spread of Islam and the building of the Great Mosque of Djenné. Towns similar to Djenné-Jeno also developed at the site of Dia, also in Mali along the Niger River, from around 900 BC. Considerable commonalities, absent in modern North African cultures, are present and able to be found between Round Head paintings and modern Sub-Saharan African cultures. Modern Saharan ceramics are viewed as having clear likenesses with the oldest ceramics found in Djenné-Djenno, which have been dated to 250 BCE. The egalitarian civilization of Djenné-Djenno was likely established by the Mande progenitors of the Bozo people, which spanned from 3rd century BCE to 13th century CE.
Ghana Empire
Since around 1500 BCE, a number of clans of proto-Soninke descent, one of the oldest branches of Mandé-speaking peoples, came together under the leadership of Dinga Cisse. The nation comprised a confederation of three 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, the confederation had a good location to take advantage of trade with the surrounding cities. They traded with the north by a coastal route leading to Morocco via Sijilmasa.
Ghanaian society included large pastoral and agricultural communities. Its commercial class was the most prosperous. The Soninke merchants of Ghana came to dominate the trade, having had Saharan trade routes connecting their great cities of the Sahara and to the northern coast of Africa. They enslaved neighboring Africans, either to sell them or to use them for domestic purposes; those who were not sold were usually assimilated into the Soninke community. Leather goods, ivory, salt, gold, and copper were also sold in exchange for various finished goods. By the 10th century, Ghana was an immensely rich and prosperous empire, controlling an area the size of Texas, stretching across Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. When visiting the capital city of Kumbi Saleh in 950 AD, Arab traveler Ibn Hawqal described the Ghanaian ruler as the "richest king in the world because of his gold."
In the 11th century, the kingdom began to weaken and decline for numerous reasons. The king lost his trading monopoly, a devastating drought damaged the cattle and cultivation industries, the clans were fractured, and the vassal states were rebelling. According to Arab tradition, Almoravid Muslims came from the North and invaded Ghana.
The western Sanhaja was converted to Islam sometime in the 9th century. They were subsequently united in the 10th century. With the zeal of converts, they launched several campaigns against the "Sudanese", idolatrous Black peoples of West Africa and the Sahel.Lewicki (1988:p.160-61; 1992: p.308-09) Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the Sanhaja Lamtuna erected or captured the citadel of Awdaghust, a critical stop on the trans-Saharan trade route. After the collapse of the Sanhaja union, Awdagust was taken by the Ghana empire. The trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata Maghrawa of Sijilmassa
Before the Almoravids, the Islamic 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 Ghana would reemerge, it became the target of attacks by the Susu people who were Mandinka (another Mandé-speaking people) and their leader Sumanguru. From this conflict in 1235, the Malinké (also known as Mandinka people) emerged under a new dynamic ruler, Sundiata Kéita. By the mid-13th century, the once great empire of Ghana had utterly disintegrated. It soon became eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.
Mali Empire
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 quite literally put Mali on the European map. He took 60,000 porters with him, each carrying 3 kg of pure gold (180 tons in total, according to the UNESCO General History of Africa).UNESCO General History of Africa, Volume IV, pp. 197–200 He had so much gold that when he stopped in Egypt, the Egyptian currency lost some of 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 names of Mali and Timbuktu were shown on the 14th-century world map.
In the 12th century CE, the University of Sankore, which began as the Mosque of Sankore, served as an organization of higher learning in Timbuktu. The Mosque of Sankore, the Mosque of Sidi Yahya, and the Mosque of Djinguereber constitute what is referred to as the University of Timbuktu.
In a number of generations, Mali was eclipsed by the Songhai empire of Askia Muhammad I (Askia the Great).
Post-Songhai