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Ethnic group of West Africa
Ethnic group
Yalunka
Portrait of a Yalunka (1861)
Total population
Over 1.3 million
Regions with significant populations
Guinea
128,000[1][unreliable source]
Senegal
136,000[2]
Sierra Leone
52,000[3]
Mali
19,000[4][unreliable source]
Languages
Yalunka, French, English
Religion
Predominantly Islam
Related ethnic groups
Mandé-speaking peoples, especially the Susu people, Soninke people, Mikhifore people, Kuranko people and Mandinka people
The Yalunka, or Dialonké, are a Mandé-speaking people and the original inhabitants of Futa Jallon (French: Fouta Djallon), a mountainous region in Guinea, West Africa.[5] The Yalunka people live primarily in Guinea, particularly in Faranah, while smaller communities are found in Kouroussa. Additional Yalunka are also located in northeastern Sierra Leone, southeastern Senegal, and southwestern Mali.[6]
The Yalunka are a branch of the Mandé peoples and are closely related to the Susu people.[7][8] Some scholars classify the two as one group, The Yalunka are notable for having first converted to Islam, but then renouncing Islam en masse when Muslim Fula people began dominating their region. In the eighteenth century, many of the Yalunka's were displaced from the Futa Jallon.[9][10] The Yalunka fought against the Fula jihads, left Futa Jallon, migrating south to the foothills of the mountains in Mamou or east to live amongst the Mandinka people of Upper Guinea, others migrated and established new towns such as Falaba near the region where Rokel River starts, while the remaining of the Yalunka went further into the mountains to settle among the Kuranko, Limba and Kissi people. In the midst some were raided by Almamy Samori Toure during the Wassoulou Empire expansion. Ultimately, The Yalunka were subdued and absorbed by the Imamate of Futa Jallon.[9][6]
They speak the Yalunka language, which belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Yalunka is mutually intelligible with Susu language.[citation needed]
^"Yalunka in Guinea". Joshua Project. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
^Terakyts (2016)
^"Sierra Leone 2015 Population and Housing Census National Analytical Report" (PDF). Statistics Sierra Leone. Retrieved 28 March 2020.
^Project, Joshua. "Yalunka in Mali". Joshua Project. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
^Bankole Kamara Taylor (2014). Sierra Leone: The Land, Its People and History. New Africa Pres. p. 150. ISBN 978-9987-16-038-9.
^ abHarold D. Nelson (1975). Area Handbook for Guinea. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 67.
^David Wheat (2016). Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640. University of North Carolina Press. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-4696-2380-1.
^"Royal Gazette and Sierra Leone Advertiser", 24 April 1821, p 2. By Abraham Hazeley
^ abKevin Shillington (2013). Encyclopedia of African History 3-Volume Set. Routledge. p. 537. ISBN 978-1-135-45670-2.
^S.J. Shennan, ed. (2003). Archaeological Approaches to Cultural Identity. Taylor & Francis. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-1348-6629-8.
The Yalunka, or Dialonké, are a Mandé-speaking people and the original inhabitants of Futa Jallon (French: Fouta Djallon), a mountainous region in Guinea...
Yalunka (also spelled Yalunke, Jalonke, Kjalonke, Dyalonké, Djallonké, or Dialonké) is the language of the Yalunkapeople of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali...
Yalunka may refer to: the Yalunkapeople the Yalunka language This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Yalunka. If an internal...
land area both the Susu and Yalunkapeople are descendants of the Mande people. They are virtually all Muslims. The Yalunka, also spelled Jallonke, Yalonga...
Niger region. Supposedly, they lived south of the Futa Jallon until the Yalunkapeople expelled them. After 1600, they migrated westward, expelling the Limbas...
Guinea, as the Mali empire disintegrated. The close familiarity with the Yalunkapeople suggest a hypothesis that they were once members of the same group in...
The Soninke people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea (especially...
generated a major influx of Susu and Yalunkapeople from the north and west. It also marked the rise of the Solima Yalunka kings. The Temne king Naimbana (also...
Kulanko, Kurako, Kuronko, Kuranké, or Karanko, are a Mandeka (People from Mande) people that occupy a large section in a mountainous region within northeastern...
traditional African religion and coexited peacefully with the native Yalunkapeople. In the 18th century an influx of Muslim Fulɓe from Macina, Mali changed...
Samory Touré in the northeast solidified Islam among the Yalunka, Kuranko and Limba people. The 15th century marked the beginning of European interaction...
Kabala, the main town in Koinadugu District. Madogbo is inhabited by the Yalunkapeople. The major industry in the village is farming[3]. The village of Madogbo...
On Missions. Greg Pruett, missionary and Bible translator with the Yalunkapeople in West Africa, and Pioneer Bible Translators current president, served...
1930s, while the Bumbuna Falls hydroelectric project is underway. The Yalunkapeople established their capital, Falaba, near the source of the Rokel. The...
Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic groups in Africa. They speak the...
Jakhanke clerics were influential in the diffusion of Islam among the Manding people in West Africa. While originally a religious caste of the Sarakollé, the...
launched the war in 1727 by destroying the great ceremonial drum of the Yalunkapeople with his sword. The jihadists then won a major victory at Talansan....
when the Islamicized Fula pastoralists and merchants conquered the Yalunkapeople, who had settled in Middle Guinea around Gaoual and Télimélé. They established...
the Susu or Soso people of Guinea and Sierra Leone, West Africa. It is in the Mande language family, and its closest relative is Yalunka. It is one of the...
Busa, etc.) West Mande Central West (Manding–Kpelle) Central Mande Susu–Yalunka Manding–Jɔgɔ Jogo languages Manding–Vai Vai–Kono Manding–Mokole Manding...
up of five main ethnic groups: the Kuranko, Mandingo, Fula, Limba, and Yalunka. These five ethnic groups are politically and culturally influential in...
SEWA (Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority) Manga Sewa (died 1884), Yalunka chief from Sierra Leone Ssewa Ssewa (born 1987), Ugandan musician Seva...
Manga Sewa (died 1884) was a Yalunka King of the Solimana who blew up a magazine and much of Falaba, the capital of Solimana, killing himself, his family...
the lands inhabited by the Guineus, a generic term for the black African peoples south of the Senegal River, in contrast to the "tawny" Zenaga Berbers above...
Global Information
Guinea
Senegal
Sierra Leone
Mali