BéréSanké Percussion, Kocassalé Dioubaté, Hand-made drums, Workshops, Performances

Hand-made African drums, instruments, music, workshops and performances.

Present Day

Since the collapse of the Mali Empire, and the subsequent European colonization of Africa, a period known as the Scramble For Africa, the Mandingo people have slowly dispersed across West Africa.

 

Mandingo people now number over one million and can be found in every corner of West Africa. They are known as the Mandinka, Maninka, Mandé, Mandingue, Malinké, or Soninke, depending on the region, and each of these groups speaks its own dialect of the original Mandingo language.

 

Many Mandingo today are rural subsistence farmers who rely on peanuts, rice, millets, and some goats for their livelihood. Small mud houses with thatch or tin roofs make up their villages.

 

Islam was introduced to the Mandingo people in the 13th century and the religion continues to be practiced though in many areas it has been infused with some traditional pagan practices. For example, while a Mandingo may strictly practice salat (Islamic prayer five times a day), he may also carry a gris-gris or juju – a sacred charm.

 

The rich oral history of the Mandingo people continues to be passed down through the generations by the tribe’s Griots - traditional historians, praise singers and master musicians.

 

Probably the most well-known Mandingo today is Kunta Kinte, a main figure in Alex Haley's Pulitzer-prize winning book and blockbuster TV mini-series Roots.

 

In the story, Haley traces his own family-lineage back to Kunta Kinte – a Mandinkawarrior kidnapped from the Gambia and enslaved in America in 1767. In the story,the Mandinka way of life is beautifully depicted, portraying societal structureand custom, and illustrating traditional naming and manhood ceremonies.