The Soninke people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea (especially Fouta Djallon).[5] They speak the Soninke language, also called the Serakhulle or Azer language, which is one of the Mande languages.[6]
Soninke people were the founders of the ancient empire of Ghana or Wagadou c. 200–1240 CE, Subgroups of Soninke include the Jakhanke, Maraka and Wangara. When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana, Kano in Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara.[7]
Predominantly Muslims, the Soninke were one of the early ethnic groups from West Africa to convert to Islam in about the 10th century.[8] The contemporary population of Soninke people is estimated to be over 2 million.[9] The cultural practices of Soninke people are similar to the Mandé peoples, and those of the Imraguen of Mauritania. They include traditional Islamic rites of marriage,[10] circumcision,[11] and have social stratification.[12][13]
^"Mali". www.cia.gov. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
^"Senegal". www.cia.gov. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
^"Soninke in Mauritania". Joshua Project. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
^"Distribution of the Gambian population by ethnicity 1973, 1983, 1993, 2003 and 2013 Censuses - GBoS". www.gbosdata.org. Archived from the original on 2021-11-19. Retrieved 2021-06-17.
^Ralph A. Austen (1999). In Search of Sunjata: The Mande Oral Epic as History, Literature and Performance. Indiana University Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-253-33452-7.
^Andrew Dalby (1998). Dictionary of Languages: The Definitive Reference to More Than 400 Languages. Columbia University Press. p. 574. ISBN 978-0-231-11568-1.
^John O. Hunwick (2003). Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Saʿdi's Taʾrīkh Al-Sūdān Down to 1613. BRILL Academic. pp. xxviii with footnote 18. ISBN 90-04-12822-0.
^Cite error: The named reference asante121 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Diagram Group (2013). Encyclopedia of African Peoples. Routledge. p. 825. ISBN 978-1-135-96341-5.
^Cite error: The named reference Brand2001p69 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Ouldzeidoune2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference gomez24 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference bella1987 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
The Soninkepeople are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea (especially...
The Soninkepeople are a West African ethnic group that is spread widely over the Sahel region. Their history, as recorded in oral traditions, medieval...
The Soninke language (Soninke: Sooninkanxanne, سࣷونِکَنْخَنّࣹ), also known as Serakhulle or Azer or Maraka, is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people...
Ouankri, Wangarawa, Dyula, Jula, Jakhanke, Jalonke) are a subgroup of the Soninke who later became assimilated (at varying degrees) merchant classes that...
population of Soninkepeople is estimated to be over 2 million. The cultural practices of Soninkepeople are similar to the Mandé peoples, and includes...
the Bozo, founded the city of Djenne. Between 300 AD and 1100 AD, the Soninke Mandé dominated the Western Mali, leading the Ghana Empire. When the Nilo-Saharan...
Maraka (Dafin people are found in Ghana. The Marka originated from Soninkepeople from Wagadu Empire who migrated to the middle Niger between the 11th...
Soninke may refer to: SoninkepeopleSoninke language This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Soninke. If an internal link led...
settlements during these periods thought to have been ancestors of the Soninkepeople. Plateau settlements consisted of multiple stone-walled compounds containing...
kingdom. Kaya Maghan (king of gold) was another title for these kings. The Soninke name for the polity was Ouagadou. This meant the "place of the Wague",...
conquering their former overlords. Inhabited by the Soninke ancestors of the modern-day Sosso people, it was centered in the region south of Wagadou and...
during these periods are thought to have been ancestors of the Soninkepeople. Peoples speaking precursors to the modern-day Bantu languages began to...
in control when the French arrived: Elias N. Saad in 1983 suggests the Soninke Wangara, a 1924 article in the Journal of the Royal African Society mentions...
their heads, and may have been the Kagoro clan of the Soninkepeople or the Djennenke peoples between the 13th and 16th century CE. Jennenke-styled brass...
series of early cities and towns were created by Mande peoples related to the Soninkepeople, along the middle Niger River (in Mali) including at Dia...
melodies of the Bambara people, and to a lesser degree, the Soninkepeople and Wolof people, but not as much of the Mandinka people. Gerard Kubik finds similarities...
groups are characteristic of over fifteen West African peoples, including the Manding, Soninke, Wolof, Serer, Fulani, Tukulor, Songhay, Dogon, Senufo...
includes, but is not limited to, Fula, Songhay, Tamasheq, Bambara, and Soninke. The dates of the manuscripts range between the late 13th and the early...
millennium BC, early cities and towns were created by Mande peoples related to the Soninkepeople, along the middle Niger River in central Mali, including...
in the Senegambia region, often classified as a subgroup of the larger Soninke. The Jakhanke have historically constituted a specialized caste of professional...
Sylla was born in the 15th arrondissement of Paris south of the river to Soninke parents from Mauritania, her father a cleaner and her mother a stay-at-home...
political space of Mandé peoples, Gur, Dogon, Berbers, Arab, Fula, Wolof, Hausa, Soninkepeople, Akan people, and Yoruba people. An elite of Songhai horsemen...
Mali-Guinea border. They are said to have originally been a section of the Soninkepeople that migrated out of Wagadou and were initially a clan of blacksmiths...
Koma was born in the 20th arrondissement of Paris in the city's east to Soninke parents from Mali and grew up in the Baconnets quarter of Antony, Hauts-de-Seine...
Global Information
Mali
Senegal
Mauritania
Gambia