Mandinka people

The Mandinka (Malinke), some 15 million strong, are the largest Mande subgroup and heirs of the Mali Empire, which rose in the 13th century when Sundiata Keita welded the Malinke chiefdoms into an empire spanning much of West Africa. From southern Mali, Gambia, Senegal and Guinea they farm the Sudanian savanna, fish the Niger and trade in towns whose Friday mosques anchor rural life; Bamako, their greatest city, is Mali's capital. Manding languages serve as West Africa's lingua franca. Griots, hereditary praise-singers, still recite the Sunjata epic of the lion king at name-givings and weddings, guarding genealogy, law and history without writing. Mansa Musa's 1324 pilgrimage, scattering gold across Cairo, made Mali a legend of wealth. Colonial borders cut the Mandinka world into four states, but Kita drummers, Kayes farmers and Casamance fishers keep one culture. Kita, Kayes and Koulikoro districts still concentrate Mali's Mandinka farmers, and Bamako griots praise Sundiata at every naming ceremony.