Soninke people
Videos
The Soninke people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea. They speak the Soninke language, also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages.
Soninke people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana or Wagadou c. 200–1240 CE, Subgroups of Soninke include the Jakhanke, Maraka and Wangara. When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana, Kano in Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara.
Diobé, ruler of Soninke colonial era town of Bakel, with his advisors (1887-1888)
Soninke warriors
A Soninke man in 1890, sketched by M. Philippe
A Soninke woman, an 1853 sketch by David Boilat
Mandé peoples
Videos
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.
13th–15th century female terracotta figure covered with red ochre
Sankore Mosque
A 13th-century mosque in northern Ghana attributed to the Wangara.