| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| West Africa | |
| Languages | |
| Jahanka, Mandinka, French | |
| Religion | |
| Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mandé peoples, especially: Soninke Wangara, Mandinka people, Yalunka people, Dyula people, Bambara people, Bozo people |
The Jakhanke -- also spelled Jahanka, Jahanke,[1] Jahanque, Jahonque, Diakkanke, Diakhanga, Diakhango, Dyakanke, Diakhanké, Diakanké, or Diakhankesare -- are a Manding-speaking ethnic group in the Senegambia region, often classified as a subgroup of the larger Soninke.[2] The Jakhanke have historically constituted a specialized caste of professional Muslim clerics (ulema) and educators.[3] They are centered on one larger group in Guinea, with smaller populations in the eastern region of The Gambia, Senegal, and in Mali near the Guinean border. Although generally considered a branch of the Soninke (also known as Serahule, Serakhulle or Sarakollé), their language is closer to Western Manding languages such as Mandinka.[4]
Since the fifteenth century the Jakhanke clerical communities have constituted an integral part of the region and have exercised a high level of economic and religious influence upon Soninke as well as related Manding-speaking communities (such as the Dyula and Mandinka) in what is now Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and The Gambia.[3]
The endogamous Jakhanke clerics were influential in the diffusion of Islam among the Manding people in West Africa.[5][6] While originally a religious caste of the Sarakollé, the Jakhanke later facilitated the trans-Saharan trade routes as merchants, such as in coastal rice and slaves,[7] from the Guinea and Gambian coasts to the interior from at least the 17th century.[8] In this way they are often compared with the Dyula, who formed a trade diaspora from the heartlands of the Mali Empire to the coast of what is today Côte d'Ivoire.[9]
- ^ Emily Lynn Osborn (2011). Our New Husbands Are Here: Households, Gender, and Politics in a West African State from the Slave Trade to Colonial Rule. Ohio University Press. pp. 206 footnote 56. ISBN 978-0-8214-4397-2.
- ^ Muḥammad Zuhdī Yakan. Almanac of African peoples & nations. Transaction Publishers, 1999 ISBN 978-1-56000-433-2 p. 280
- ^ a b Lamin O. Sanneh. The Jakhanke: The history of an Islamic clerical people of the Senegambia. London (1979) ISBN 978-0-85302-059-2
- ^ Sanneh, Lamin. “Futa Jallon and the Jakhanke Clerical Tradition. Part I: The Historical Setting.” Journal of Religion in Africa, vol. 12, no. 1, 1981, pp. 38–64. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1581013. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.
- ^ Sanneh, Lamin (1976). "The Origins of Clericalism in West African Islam". The Journal of African History. 17 (1). Cambridge University Press: 49–72. doi:10.1017/s0021853700014766. S2CID 161649213.
- ^ John O. Hunwick; R. Rex S. O'Fahey (2003). Arabic Literature of Africa, Volume 4. BRILL Academic. pp. 524–526. ISBN 90-04-12444-6.
- ^ Richard Roberts (1987). Warriors, Merchants, and Slaves: The State and the Economy in the Middle Niger Valley, 1700-1914. Stanford University Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-8047-6613-5., Quote: "From Kita, slaves were directed to Soninke buyers in Kaarta and in the Upper Senegal to Futanke in Bundu and Futa Toro, and to the Moors of the western desert. West of Kita, the Jahanke and Gajaaga Soninke were active traders. Within the commercial zone drained by the Middle Niger, most important slave markets of the Umarian period were at Baraweli, Segu. (...)"
- ^ Philip D. Curtin. "Jihad in West Africa: early phases and inter-relations in Mauritania and Senegal". The Journal of African History (1971), 12:11-24
- ^ Juliet E.K. Walker. "Trade Markets in Precolonial West and Central Africa..." in Thomas D. Boston(ed.) A Different Vision: Race and public policy. Volume 2 of African American Economic Thought Series: Routledge, 1997 ISBN 978-0-415-09591-4 pp.206-253, p.217
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