MANDINKA PEOPLE

The Mandinka are a major ethnic group in Gambia. They are related to the first people who lived in the Sudanese Belt in the Stone and Iron Ages. The first people who lived on Earth were hunters who made and used knives, axes, scrapers, tools, and needles out of stone and iron.

After that, they made spears, harpoons, sticks, shields, blowguns, bows, and arrows, among other things.

Before the year 700, the black people who lived in the Sudanese Belt only lived in a small part of the area. They kept working in farmland and were able to have bigger and denser communities than people whose main job was raising cattle.

In the end, they settled in the forests of West Africa. Beginning around 700 BCE and going through the early Islamic contact period, trade over long distances became more and more important in shaping the economic, social, and political trends of western Sudan.

A lot of money was made in some parts of West Africa through trade, which helped build social classes and states. When the kingdom of Ghana was formed, the Mandinkas were part of the Soninke Clan, which was made up of people who spoke Mande. The people who lived in Mande were also called Manden, Malinke, or Mndinka, for short.

All of the former tributary states that made up the empire of Ghana got their freedom back after it fell in 1076. A small Mandinka kingdom didn’t start to form until 1235. A Mandinka king named Sundiata Keita ruled the country. He was known for building the strong Mali Empire’s foundations.

According to stories told by older people, the Mandinka first moved into Gambia when Sundiata was in charge in the 1300s. Mandinkas moved to other areas of the country in both peaceful and violent ways. Before the Mali Empire was formed, some Mandinka people went to the Senegambia area.

Early settlers went south and west to find better land for farming, food, and a place to live. Along with these people, some traders and hunters went to Senegambia, which had a lot of water. The people who moved there farmed and married into the local ethnic groups after they settled down.

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