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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: MAL-MAR |
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MANDINGO , the name currently given to a very important division of negro peoples in West Africa. It is seemingly a corruption of a term applied to an important section of this group, the Mande-nka or Mande-nga. The present writer has usually heard this word pronounced by the Mandingo themselves " Mandina," or even " Madina." It seems to be derived from the racial name Mande, coupled with the suffix nka or nke, meaning " people," the people of Mande. Then again this word Mande seems to take the varying forms of Male, Meli, Mane, Madi, and, according to such authorities as Binger, Delafosse and Desplagnes, it is connected with a word Mali, which means " hippopotamus " or else "manati "probably the latter. According to Desplagnes, the word is further divisible into ma, which would have meant " fish," and nde, a syllable to which he ascribes the meaning of " father." In no Mandingo dialect known to the present writer (or in any other known African language) does the vocable ma apply to " fish," and in only one very doubtful far eastern Mandingo dialect is the root nde or any other similar sound applied to " father." This etymology must be abandoned, probably in favour of Mani, Mali, Madi, Mande, meaning "hippopotamus," and in some cases the other big water mammal, the manati.2 1 Respecting this, see David Murray, The Black Book of Paisley, &c. (1885), and John de Burdeus, &c. (1891). 2 Indeed it is possible that the European name for this Sirenian manatiderived from the West Indies, is the corruption of a West MANDINGO The West African tribes speaking Mandingo languages vary very much in outward appearance. Some of them may be West African negroes of the forest type with little or no intermixture with the Caucasian; others, such as the typical Mandingos or the Susus, obviously contain a non-negro element in their physique. This last type resembles very strongly the Swahilis of the Zanzibar littoral or other crosses between the Arab and the negro; and though nearly always black-skinned, often has a well-shaped nose and a fairly full beard. The tribes dwelling in the West African forest, but speaking languages of Mandingo type, do not perhaps exhibit the very prognathous, short-limbed, " ugly " development of West African negro, but are of rather a refined type, and some of them are lighter in skin colour than the more Arab-looking Mandingos of the north. But in these forest Mandingos the beard is scanty. Occasionally the Mandingo physical type appears in eastern Liberia and on the Ivory Coast amongst people speaking Kru languages. In other cases it is associated with the Senufo speech-family. Delafosse divides the Mandingo group linguistically into three main sections: (1) the Mande-tamu, (2) the Mande fu, and (3) the Mande-td, according as they use for the numeral ro the root tamu, td or fu. Of the first group are the important tribes of the Soni-nke (called Sarakulle by the Fula, and Sarakole by the French); the Swaninki people of Azer, and the oases of Tishitt, Wadan and Walata in the south-west Sahara; and the Bozo, who are the fishermen along the banks of the Upper Niger and the Bani from Jenne to Timbuktu. The Soni-nke are also known as Marka, and they include (according to Binger) the Samogho and even the Kurtei along the banks of the Niger east of Timbuktu as far as Say. The group of Mande-0", would include the Bamana (incorrectly called Bambara) of the upper Senegal
The group of the Mande-fu includes a great many different languages and dialects, chiefly in the forest region of Sierra Leone and Liberia, and also the dialects of the celebrated Susu or Soso tribe, and the Mandingo tribes of Futa Jallon, of the Grand Scarcies River and of the interior of the Ivory Coast, and of the regions between the eastern affluents of the Upper Niger and the Black Volta. To this group Delafosse joins the Boko dialect spoken by people dwelling to the west of the Lower Niger at Bussabetween Bussa and Borgu. If this hypothesis be correct it gives a curious eastern extension to the range of the Mandingo family at the present day; or it may be a vestige left by the Man- dingo
The Mandingos, coming from the East and riding on horses (according to tradition), seem to have invaded western Nigeria about A.D. r000 (if not earlier), and to have gradually displaced and absorbed the Songhai or Fula (in other words, Negroid, " White ") rulers of the countries in the basin of the Upper Niger or along its navigable course as far as the Bussa Rapids and the forest region. On the ruins of these Songhai, Berber, or Fula kingdoms rose the empire of Mali (Melle). Considerable sections of the Mandingo invaders had adopted Mahommedanism, and extended a great Mahommedan empire of western Nigeria far northwards into the Sahara Desert. In the 16th century the Songhai regained supreme power. See infra, The Melle Empire. Although the Mandingos, and especially the Susu section, may have come as conquerors, they devoted themselves through the succeeding centuries more and more to commerce. They became to the extreme west of Africa what the Hausa are in the west-central regions. Some of the Mandingo invasions, especially in African word manti, applied very naturally to the animal by the West African slaves, who at once recognized it as similar to the creature found on the West African coast in their own rivers, and also on the Upper Niger. the forest region, left little more than the imposition of their language; but where there was any element of Caucasian blood (for the original
special
calabash or gourd, the lion, the green monkey, the leopard, the monitor lizard, a certain spice called bandugu, certain rats, the python, the puff-adder, &c.The Melle Empire.The tradition which ascribes the arrival of the Mandingo in the western Sudan to the loth or 11th century is referred to in the previous section. It is not known by whom the Melle (Mali) state was founded. Neither is there certainty as to the site of the capital , also called Melle. Idrisi
capital was a rendezvous for merchants from all parts of the western Sudan and the Barbary States. Mari Jatah (or Diara), Baramindana's successor, about the middle of the r3th century conquered the Susu, then masters of Ghanata (Ghana). Early in the 14th century Mansa, i.e. Sultan, Kunkur Musa, extended the empire, known as the Mellistine, to its greatest limits, making himself master of Timbuktu, Gao and all the Songhoi dominions. His authority extended northward over the Sahara to the Tuat oases. Mansa Suleiman was on the throne when in 13521353 Melle was visited by Ibn Batuta. By this monarch the empire was divided into three great provinces, ruled by viceroys. For a century afterwards Merle appears to have been the dominant Sudan state west of the Lower Niger, but it had to meet the hostility of the growing power of the pagan
Senegal
ambassador to the king of Melle concerning the trade of the Gambia. By way of that river the Portuguese themselves penetrated as far as Bambuk, a country conquered by the Mandingo in the 12th century. By Barros the name of the Melle ruler is given as Mandi Mansa, which may be the native form for " Sultan of the Mandi " (Mandingo).See further TIMBUKTU and the authorities there cited; cf. also L. Marc, Le Pays Mossi (Paris, 1909). Lists of Mandingo sovereigns are given in Stokvis, Manuel d'histoire, vol. i. (Leiden, 1888). (F. R. C.) End of Article: MANDINGO If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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