Mandinka Empire - 21578 Words

Bound to Africa: the Mandinka Legacy in the New World Schaffer, Matt. History in Africa, Volume 32, 2005, pp. 321-369 (Article) Published by African Studies Association DOI: 10.1353/hia.2005.0021 For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/hia/summary/v032/32.1schaffer.html Access Provided by your local institution at 03/10/13 1:43PM GMT BOUND TO AFRICA: THE MANDINKA LEGACY IN THE NEW WORLD MATT SCHAFFER I I offer here a theory of â€Å"cultural convergence,† as a corollary to Darwin’s natural selection, regarding how slave Creoles and culture were formed among the Gullah and, by extension, supported by other examples, in the Americas. When numerous speakers from different, and sometimes†¦show more content†¦Curtin notes that slave-buying proclivities in the Charleston slave market, emphasizing Mande and including the Mandinka of Senegal and Gambia, might have caused other states such as Virginia to have a slight preference for Senegambian slaves as well. When Curtin’s Table 45 speculates that 13.3% of all slaves imported to North America were from Senegambia, 5.5% from Sierra Leone, and 11.4% were from the Windward Coast or Liberia, he emphasizes the regions of west Africa where large numbers of Mande still live today, including Mandingo, Mende, Malinke, Maninke, Mandinka, Susu, Bambara, Vai, and Dyula among others, distributed among non-M ande groups.3 How many Mande or Mandinka were really in these percentages? The linguistic map showing which ethnic groups in west Africa speak Mande-related languages is immense, with many groups on the coasts or relatively near slave ports.4 Of course the vast area of eastern Mali—the heartland—contains Mande-speakers. But from here the influence spread out all along the 2 3 4 Curtin, 1969:156-57. His numerous sources include the work of Elizabeth Donnan. Ibid. Vydrine/Bergman 2001. The Mandinka Legacy in The New World 323 Gambia River, the Pakao region of southern Senegal, northern Guinea-Bissau, major regions of Guinea and Sierra Leone, significant territory in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and even a border area of northwestern Nigeria. The seeming fragmentation of the Mande among so manyShow MoreRelatedSamore Toure Mandinka Empire3953 Words   |  16 Pagesbegan to amass a personal following in the mid-1850s, establishing a military base on the Upper Niger. By 1870 his authority was acknowledged throughout the Kanaka region of the River Milo, in what is now eastern Guinea. By 1880 he ruled a vast Dyula empire, from the Upper Volta in the east to the Fouta Djallon in the west, over which he attempted to create a single Islamic administrative system. 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