Mandingo people of Sierra Leone

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Mandinka of Sierra Leone

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, the president of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 2007, was an ethnic Mandingo
Total population
360,080[1]
Languages
Maninka, Krio
Religion
Sunni Islam (over 99%)
Related ethnic groups
Bambara, Konyake

Mandingo people of Sierra Leone (commonly referred to as the Mandinka, Mandingo or Malinke) is a major ethnic group in Sierra Leone^{[citation needed]} and a branch of the Mandinka people of West Africa. Most Sierra Leonean Mandingo are the direct descendants of Mandinka settlers from Guinea, who settled in the north and eastern part of Sierra Leone, beginning in the late 1870s to the 1890s under the rule of prominent Mandinka Muslim cleric Samori Ture. Also later a significantly large population of Mandinka from Guinea migrated and settled in Eastern Sierra Leone and Northern Sierra Leone in the early to mid 20th century. The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone have a very close friendly and allied relationship with their neighbors the Mandingo people of Guinea and Liberia, as they share pretty much identical dialect of the Mandingo language, tradition, culture and food.

The Mandingo constitute about 7% of Sierra Leone's population.^[1] The Mandingo are over 99% Muslim, adherents to the Sunni tradition of Islam based on the Maliki Jurisprudence. Islam has become the basis of their religious and cultural practices. The Mandingo are well known for their conservative Islamic tradition. The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone are predominantly traders and rural subsistence farmers.

Some very prominent and well-known Mandingo in the country have been political leaders, including Sierra Leone's former president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, former Vice President Sorie Ibrahim Koroma, current Sierra Leone First Lady Fatima Maada Bio (nee Jabbie), and former chairman of the Sierra Leone national electoral commission Mohamed Nfa Alie Conteh.

The Mandingo people of Sierra Leone speak the Maninka language as their native language. The Mandingo dialect of Sierra Leone is Virtually identical to the Mandingo dialect of Guinea and Liberia. Like other Sierra Leonean ethnic groups, the overwhelming majority of the Mandingo people in Sierra Leone also speak the Krio language, the defctor national language of Sierra Leone.

In the 21st century, the Mandingo live in virtually all parts of Sierra Leone; they make up the majority of the population of several towns in the North and East of Sierra Leone. Their population is largely concentrated in Koinadugu District in the North, particularly in the towns of Kabala and Falaba, where they form the majority of the population. The Mandingo make up the majority of the population in Yengema, Kono District in Eastern Sierra Leone. They also make up the majority of the population in the town of Karina, Bombali District, in the north of Sierra Leone.