Батыс Африка Манде халықтарының тарихы мен мәдениеті

Ethnic groups who speak the Mande languages

The Mandé people are an ethnic and linguistic group who are native to West Africa, possessing a long shared history and forming a distinct linguistic family known as the Mandé Languages. The Mandé languages are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé. The Mandinka or Malinke, a western branch of the Mandé, are credited with the founding one of the largest West African empires. Other large Mandé tribes include the Soninke and Susu as well as smaller tribes such as the Ligbi, Vai, and Bissa. The Mandé people inhabit various environments, from coastal rainforests to the sparse Sahel, and are organized mainly by bloodlines while governing in accordance to tribal affiliation (with respects to their geographic & political environs); providing a diverse blend of cuisines, customs, and beliefs within Mandé culture. After migrating from the Central Sahara, Mandé 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, Mande peoples began to spread and established Méma, Macina, Dia Shoma, and Jenne Jeno in the Middle Niger region as well as the Ghana Empire. Today, the Mandé people are predominantly Muslim and follow a caste system. Islam has played a central role in identifying the Mandé people who live in the Sahel regions. Influences from Mandé 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 Mande Fula, Songhai, Wolof, Hausa, and Voltaic peoples such as the Kingdom of Dagbon, Guang people, Maghan people and the Gonja people maintain varying degrees of close alignment with the Mandé people's worldview, clothing, and other cultural artifacts (e. g., a shared written script, architecture, cuisine, and social norms).

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 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, 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. Thereafter, the Ghana Empire developed in the 1st millennium CE. 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.

Since around 1500 BCE, a number of clans of proto Soninke descent, one of the oldest branches of the Mandé peoples, came together under the leadership of Dinga Cisse (ancient). 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 Ghâna came to dominate the trade in the western sahel; having had Saharan trade routes connecting their great cities to 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, Ghâna 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 Ghâna. 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. 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 Ghâna would reemerge, it became the target of attacks by the Susu people who were Mandinka (another Mandé tribe) 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 Ghâna had utterly disintegrated. It soon became eclipsed by the Mali Empire of Sundiata.

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). 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. The Manding rock art, developed using black, white, or red paint, is primarily composed of geometric artforms, as well as animal (e. g., saurian) and human artforms. and "Nyaxamalo" among the Soninke people,

Mandé influenced caste systems, and elements thereof, sometimes spread, due to Mande influences, to non Mande ethnic groups (in and near regions where Mande cultures settled) and were adopted by certain non Mande peoples of Senegal, parts of Burkina Faso, northern Ghana, and elsewhere the Western Sudan and Western Sahel regions of West Africa. Among the non Mande Wolof people, craft and bardic castes were collectively termed "nyeno". With time, in many cases, status differences have eroded, corresponding to the economic fortunes of the groups. Although the Mandé arrived in many of their present locations as raiders or traders, they gradually adapted to their regions. In the 21st century, most work either as settled agriculturalists or nomadic fishermen. Some are skilled as blacksmiths, cattle herders, and griots or bards.

Fadenya or “father childness” is a word used by the Manding (e. g. Mandinka), originally to describe the tensions between half brothers with the same father and different mothers. The concept of fadenya has been stretched and is often used to describe the political and social dynamism of the Mandé world. Fadenya is often discussed in contrast to badenya, or mother childness.

Amongst the Mandinka, Soninke and Susu tribes, history is passed orally, one famous instance being the Epic of Sundiata of the Mandinka. Among the Mandinka, and some closely related groups, teaching centers known as kumayoro teach the oral histories and techniques under keepers of tradition known as nyamankala. These nyamankala form an important part of Mandinka culture due to their role in preserving oral tradition. Kela school, the most notable, is vital in perpetuating oral tradition. Because of their strong work, the versions of the Sundiata epic tend to be fairly similar. The Kela version is considered the official one, and the epic is performed every seven years. The Kela version includes a written document called a tariku. This intersection of written and oral history is unique to Mandinka culture. Ethnomusicologist Eric Charry notes that these tales "form a vast body of oral and written literature" ranging from Ibn Khaldun's 14th century Arabic language account to French colonial anthologies collecting local oral histories to modern recordings, transcriptions, translations, and performance. By the late 1990s, there were reportedly 64 published versions of the Epic of Sunjata. who are bards, storytellers, and oral historians.

Many of the Mandé tribes in the westernmost part of West Africa have been predominantly Muslim since the 13th century. Others, such as the Bambara, a Mandinka group, converted to Islam as late as the 19th century with some retaining their traditional beliefs. Muslim Mandinka also hold traditional beliefs, such as in the rituals of initiation groups like Chiwara, and Dwo, and beliefs in the power of nyama (a spiritual power existing in nature). Many smaller Mande tribes, such as the Bobo, retain pre Islamic belief systems in their entirety. Many Mande tribes in Sierra Leone and Liberia were also, for the most part, not islamized. According to oral histories, Mandé people, in particular the Soninke ethnic group, contributed through trade and settlement to the Islamization of non Mandé Gur groups at the edge of the Sahel in West Africa.

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 woven fabrics which are popular throughout western Africa. They also create gold and silver necklaces, bracelets, armlets, and earrings. The Bambara people and related groups also traditionally produce wooden sculpture. And sculpture in wood, metal, and terra cotta, have been found, associated with ancient peoples related to the Soninke in Mali. The bells on the necklaces are of the type believed to be heard by spirits, ringing in both worlds, that of the ancestors and the living. Mandé hunters often wear a single bell, which can be easily silenced when stealth is necessary. Women, on the other hand, often wear multiple bells, representative of concepts of community, since the bells ring harmoniously together. Djenné Djenno, an ancient city on the Niger River in central Mali built by Soninke related peoples, is famous for its terracotta figurines which depict humans and animals including snakes and horses, some dating to the first millennium and early second millennium AD. It is believed that these statuettes served a ritual function and hypothesized that some are the representations of household or ancestral spirits, as ancestral cults are known to have flourished in the area as late as the 20th century.

The best known type of traditional music Amongst the Mande people is played on the kora, a stringed instrument with 21 or more strings mainly associated by the Mandinka people. It is performed by families of musicians known in Mandinka as Jeliw (sing. Jeli), or in French as griots. The kora is a unique harp lute with a notched wooden bridge. It is arguably the most complex chordophone of Africa. The N'goni is the ancestor of the modern banjo, and is also played by jelis. Griots are professional bards in northern West Africa, keepers of their great oral epic traditions and history. They are trusted and powerful advisors of Mandinka leaders. Among the most celebrated of these today are Toumani Diabate, Mamadou Diabate, and Kandia Kouyaté.