Affinity Bloc:
Sub-Saharan African
Overview:
The Malinke, also called Maninka, Mandinko, or Mandingo, are a Manding-speaking people residing today in southern Ghana, northwestern Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, northern Liberia, Gambia, Guinea, Senegal, and the region of Manden on the border of Mali and Guinea-Bissau. They are primarily farmers who trace their origins to the thirteenth-century Mali Empire. Most Malinke are Sunni Muslims, although there are sizable Christian and animist minorities.
-- James S. Olson, The Peoples of Africa. London: Greenwood Press (1996), pp. 366-367.
Peoples within this cluster:
Banka, Bankagooma; Ble; Bolon; Gambian, English-Speaking; Gbeeka; Jahanka; Jotoni; Kagoro; Kagoro; Kakabe; Khasonke; Kunante; Kuranko; Lele; Malinke, Ivorian; Mandinka; Maninka, Eastern; Maninka, Kita; Maninka, Konyanka; Maninka, Western; Manya; Marka; Mau; Sankaran; Sininkere; Yalunka
Countries where they are found:
Benin; Burkina Faso; Canada; Cote d’Ivoire; France; Gambia; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Liberia; Mali; Nigeria; Senegal; Sierra Leone; United States
People groups:
53
Population:
16,062,625
Unreached people groups:
51
UPG population:
16,024,625
Unengaged UPGs:
14
UUPG population:
657,925
Number of countries:
15