Malinké
The Malinké are an African Mandé ethnic group. They are generally Muslim, having abandoned earlier pantheist beliefs.
Approximately 7,750,000 (source} Malinké are scattered throughout West Africa, including:-
- Guinea - 2.8 million
- Mali - 1.1 million
- Ivory Coast - 1.0 million
- Senegal - 1.0 million
- Gambia - 600,000
- Sierra Leone - 400,000
- Burkina Faso - 400,000
- Guinea-Bissau - 200,000
- Liberia - 100,000
- Ghana - 100,000
They do not form a majority group in any of the above countries. In Gambia they represent approx. 39% of the country's total population, in Guinea 32% and in Guinea-Bissau 14%.
Traditionally they are subsistence farmers, growing small cash crops of peanuts and millet in the Sahel Africa region.
The "Malinke Empire" is an ethnic entity governed from its capital of Kangaba since the 8th century.
[edit]
External links
[edit]