Mandinka people

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Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox ethnic group The Mandinka or MalinkeTemplate:Refn are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, The Gambia, southern Senegal and eastern Guinea.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Numbering about 11 million,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnolinguistic groups in Africa. They speak the Manding languages in the Mande language family, which are a lingua franca in much of West Africa. They are predominantly subsistence farmers and live in rural villages. Their largest urban center is Bamako, the capital of Mali.<ref name="Olson1996p366">Template:Cite book</ref>

The Mandinka are the descendants of the Mali Empire, which rose to power in the 13th century under the rule of king Sundiata Keita, who founded an empire that would go on to span a large part of West Africa. They migrated west from the Niger River in search of better agricultural lands and more opportunities for conquest.<ref name=ref1 /> Nowadays, the Mandinka inhabit the West Sudanian savanna region extending from The Gambia and the Casamance region in Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Although widespread, the Mandinka constitute the largest ethnic group only in the countries of Mali, Guinea and The Gambia.<ref name=gatesmandinka>Template:Cite book</ref> Most Mandinka live in family-related compounds in traditional rural villages. Their traditional society has featured socially stratified castes.Template:R<ref name=hughesstrata/><ref name=hopkinsmandinka/> Mandinka communities have been fairly autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a chief and group of elders. Mandinka has been an oral society, where mythologies, history and knowledge are verbally transmitted from one generation to the next.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Their music and literary traditions are preserved by a caste of griots, known locally as jalolu (singular, jali), as well as guilds and brotherhoods like the donso (hunters).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Between the 16th and 19th centuries, many Mandinka people, along with numerous other African ethnic groups, were captured within Africa, often by African polities and traders, and sold to European slavers who transported them across the Atlantic to the Americas. They intermixed with slaves and workers of other ethnicities, creating a Creole culture. The Mandinka people significantly influenced the African heritage of descended peoples now found in Brazil, the Southern United States and, to a lesser extent, the Caribbean.<ref name="muse.jhu.edu">Template:Cite journal, Quote: "The identification of Mande influence in the South [United States], the Caribbean and Brazil, must also be conditioned with a huge reality—ethnic diversity. Slaves from hundreds of ethnic groups from all over Africa came into the South and the rest of the Americas along with the Mandinka/Mande."</ref>

History

Origins

The history of Mandinka, as with many Mandé peoples, begins with the Ghana Empire, also known as Wagadu. Mande hunters founded communities in Manden, which would become the political and cultural center of the Mandinka,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but also in Bambuk and the Senegal river valley. The Mande diaspora from Ghana extended from the Atlantic Ocean to Gao.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref>

The mythical ancestors of the Malinké and the Bambara people are Kontron and Sanin, the founding "hunter brotherhood".Template:Citation needed Manden was famous for the large number of animals and game that it sheltered, as well as its dense vegetation, so was a very popular hunting ground. The Camara (or Kamara) are believed to be the oldest family to have lived in Manden, after having left Wagadou, due to drought. They founded the first village of Manding, Kiri, then Kirina, Siby, Kita. A very large number of families that make up the Mandinka community were born in Manden. Manding is the province from which the Mali Empire started, under the leadership of Sundiata Keita. The Manden were initially a part of many fragmented kingdoms that formed after the collapse of Ghana empire in the 11th century.<ref name="Green2011p35"/>

Mali Empire

Template:See also During the rule of Sundiata Keita, these kingdoms were consolidated, and the Mandinka expanded west from the Niger River basin under Sundiata's general Tiramakhan Traore. This expansion was a part of creating a region of conquest, according to the oral tradition of the Mandinka people. This migration began in the later part of the 13th century.<ref name="Green2011p35">Template:Cite book</ref>

Template:Quote box Another group of Mandinka people, under Faran Kamara – the son of the king of Tabou – expanded southeast of Mali, while a third group expanded with Fakoli Kourouma.<ref name="Apotsos2016">Template:Cite book</ref>

With the migration, many gold artisans and metal working Mandinka smiths settled along the coast and in the hilly Fouta Djallon and plateau areas of West Africa. Their presence and products attracted Mandika merchants and brought trading caravans from north Africa and the eastern Sahel, states Toby Green – a professor of African History and Culture. It also brought conflicts with other ethnic groups, such as the Wolof people, particularly the Jolof Empire.<ref name="Green2011p35"/>

The caravan trade to North Africa and Middle East brought Islamic people into Mandinka people's original and expanded home region.<ref name="Green2011p38">Template:Cite book</ref> The Muslim traders sought presence in the host Mandinka community, and this likely initiated proselytizing efforts to convert the Mandinka from their traditional religious beliefs into Islam. In Ghana, for example, the Almoravids had divided its capital into two parts by 1077, one part was Muslim and the other non-Muslim. The Muslim influence from North Africa had arrived in the Mandinka region before this, via Islamic trading diasporas.<ref name="Green2011p38"/>

File:MandingoMap-1906 with color.png
A map of West Africa showing Mandinka peoples, languages and influence, 1906.

In 1324, Mansa Musa who ruled Mali, went on Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca with a caravan carrying gold. Shihab al-Umari, the Arabic historian, described his visit and stated that Musa built mosques in his kingdom, established Islamic prayers and took back Maliki school of Sunni jurists with him.<ref name=turner18/> According to Richard Turner – a professor of African American Religious History, Musa was highly influential in attracting North African and Middle Eastern Muslims to West Africa.<ref name=turner18/>

The Mandinka people of Mali converted early, but those who migrated to the west did not convert and retained their traditional religious rites. One of the legends among the Mandinka of western Africa is that the general Tiramakhan Traore led the migration, because people in Mali had converted to Islam and he did not want to.<ref name="Green2011p41"/> Another legend gives a contrasting account, and states that Traore himself had converted and married Muhammad's granddaughter.<ref name="Green2011p41"/> The Traore's marriage with a Muhammad's granddaughter, states Toby Green, is fanciful, but these conflicting oral histories suggest that Islam had arrived well before the 13th century and had a complex interaction with the Mandinka people.<ref name="Green2011p41">Template:Cite book</ref>

Through a series of conflicts, primarily with the Fula-led jihads under Imamate of Futa Jallon, many Mandinka converted to Islam.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hawthorne2010p65">Template:Cite book</ref> In contemporary West Africa, the Mandinka are predominantly Muslim, with a few regions where significant portions of the population are not Muslim, such as Guinea Bissau, where 35 percent of the Mandinka practice Islam, more than 20 percent are Christian, and 15 percent follow traditional beliefs.<ref name="MendyLobban2013263">Template:Cite book</ref>

Trans-Saharan and Trans-Atlantic Slavery

Slave raiding, capture and trading in the Mandinka regions may have existed in significant numbers before the European colonial era,<ref name="Green2011p35"/> as is evidenced in the memoirs of the 14th century Moroccan traveller and Islamic historian Ibn Battuta.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Slaves were part of the socially stratified Mandinka people, and several Mandinka language words, such as Jong or Jongo refer to slaves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=hughesstrata/> There were fourteen Mandinke kingdoms along the Gambia River in the Senegambia region during the early 19th century, for example, where slaves were a part of the social strata in all these kingdoms.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Slave shipment between 1501 and 1867, by region<ref name=eltis2015>David Eltis and David Richardson (2015), Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 2nd Edition, Yale University Press, Template:ISBN; Archive: Slave Route Maps Template:Webarchive, see Map 9; The transatlantic slave trade volume over the 350+ years involved an estimated 12.5 million Africans, almost every country that bordered the Atlantic ocean, as well as Mozambique and the Swahili coast.</ref>Template:Refn
Region Total embarked Total disembarked
West central Africa 5.69 million
Bight of Benin 2.00 million
Bight of Biafra 1.6 million
Gold Coast 1.21 million
Windward Coast 0.34 million
Sierra Leone 0.39 million
Senegambia 0.76 million
Mozambique 0.54 million
Brazil (South America) 4.7 million
Rest of South America 0.9 million
Caribbean 4.1 million
North America 0.4 million
Europe 0.01 million

According to Toby Green, selling slaves along with gold was already a significant part of the trans-Saharan caravan trade across the Sahel between West Africa and the Middle East after the 13th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> With the arrival of Portuguese explorers in Africa as they looked for a sea route to India, the European purchase of slaves had begun. The shipment of slaves by the Portuguese, primarily from the Jolof people, along with some Mandinka, started in the 15th century, states Green, but the earliest evidence of a trade involving Mandinka slaves is from and after 1497 CE.<ref name=green81>Template:Cite book</ref> In parallel with the start of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the institution of slavery and slave-trading of West Africans into the Mediterranean region and inside Africa continued as a historic normal practice.<ref name=green81/>

Slavery grew significantly between the 16th and 19th centuries.<ref name="Hawthorne2010p65"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Portuguese considered slave sources in Guinea and Senegambia parts of Mandinka territory as belonging to them; their 16th to 18th-century slave trade-related documents refer to "our Guinea" and complain about slave traders from other European nations superseding them in the slave trade. Their slave exports from this region nearly doubled in the second half of the 18th century compared to the first, and most of these slaves disembarked in Brazil.<ref name=hawthorne61>Template:Cite book</ref>

Scholars have offered several theories on the source of the transatlantic slave trade of Mandinka people. According to Boubacar Barry, a professor of History and African Studies, chronic violence between ethnic groups such as the Mandinka people and their neighbours, combined with weapons sold by slave traders and lucrative income from slave ships to the slave sellers, fed the practice of groups raiding for captives, conducting manhunts, and taking slaves.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The victimised ethnic group felt justified in retaliating. Slavery was already an accepted practice before the 15th century, when most enslaved people were taken on routes to North Africa and western Asia by Arab traders.

As the demand grew, states Barry, Futa Jallon, led by an Islamic military theocracy, became one of the centers of this slavery-perpetuating violence. Farim of Kaabu (the commander of Mandinka people in Kaabu) energetically hunted for slaves on a large scale.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Martin Klein (a professor of African Studies) states that Kaabu was one of the early suppliers of African slaves to European merchants.<ref>Template:Cite book; Quote: "Kaabu, for example, began as a Malian colony that provided sea salt and other coastal products to the Mandinka heartland, but it moved early into supplying slaves to European merchants". (p. 39)</ref>

The historian Walter Rodney states that Mandinka and other ethnic groups already held slaves who had inherited slavery by birth, and who could be sold.<ref name=walter431/> The Islamic armies from Sudan had long established the practice of slave raids and trade.<ref name=walter431/> Fula jihad from Futa Jallon plateau perpetuated and expanded this practice.<ref>Walter Rodney (1968), "Jihad and Social Revolution in Futa Djalon in the Eighteenth Century", Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, Volume 4, Number 2, pp. 269–284.</ref>

These jihads captured the highest number of slaves to sell to Portuguese traders at the ports controlled by Mandinka people.<ref name=hawthorne61/> The insecure ethnic groups, states Rodney, stopped working productively and tried to withdraw for security, which made their social and economic conditions more desperate. Though less powerful, such groups also joined the retaliatory cycle of slave raids and violence.<ref name=walter431>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Walter Hawthorne (a professor of African History) states that the Barry and Rodney explanation was not universally true for all of Senegambia and Guinea, where high concentrations of Mandinka people have traditionally lived.<ref name=hawthorne61/> Hawthorne says that numerous Mandinka were not exported to the various European colonies in North America, South America and the Caribbean until the period between the mid-18th through to the 19th century. During these years, slave trade records show that nearly 33% of the slaves from Senegambia and Guinea-Bissau coasts were Mandinka people.<ref name=hawthorne61/> Hawthorne suggests three causes of Mandinka people being taken captive as slaves during this era: small-scale jihads by Muslims against non-Muslim Mandinka, non-religious reasons such as the economic greed of Islamic elites who wanted imports of goods and tools from the coast, and attacks by the Fula people on the Mandinka's Kaabu, with consequent cycle of violence.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Wassoulou Empire

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Economy

File:Boilat-10-Marabout mandingue.jpg
A Mandinka marabout

In the 21st century, the Mandinka continue as rural subsistence farmers who rely on peanuts, rice, millet, maize, and small-scale husbandry for their livelihood. During the wet season, men plant peanuts as their main cash crop. Men also grow millet. The women grow rice (traditionally, African rice), tending the plants by hand.<ref name="Schaffer, Matt 2003 p. 6">Schaffer, Matt (2003). Djinns, Stars, and Warriors: Mandinka Legends from Pakao, Senegal. Leiden: Springer-Brill. p. 6.</ref> This is extremely labour-intensive and physically demanding work. Only about 50% of the rice consumption needs are met by local planting; the rest is imported from Asia and the United States.<ref name="Schaffer, Matt 2003 p. 6"/>

The oldest male is the head of the family, and marriages are commonly arranged. Small mud houses with conical thatch or tin roofs make up their villages, which are organised on the basis of clan groups. While farming is the predominant profession among the Mandinka, men also work as tailors, butchers, taxi drivers, woodworkers, metalworkers, soldiers, nurses, and extension workers for aid agencies.

Religion

Today, most Mandinka people practice Islam.<ref name=ref1>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=ref2>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Some Mandinka syncretise Islam and traditional African religions. Among these syncretists, it is believed that spirits can be controlled mainly through the power of a marabout, who knows the protective formulas. In most cases, the people do not make important decisions without first consulting a marabout. Marabouts, who have Islamic training, write Qur'anic verses on slips of paper and sew them into leather pouches (talisman); these are worn as protective amulets.

The conversion of the Mandinka to Islam took place over many centuries. According to Robert Wyndham Nicholls, Mandinka in Senegambia started converting to Islam as early as the 17th century, and most of Mandinka leatherworkers there converted to Islam before the 19th century. Mandinka musicians, however, were last, converting to Islam mostly in the first half of the 20th century. As in other locales, these Muslims have continued some of their pre-Islamic religious practices as well, such as their annual rain ceremony and "sacrifice of the black bull" to their past deities.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Society and culture

File:184176912 76f186180f.jpg
Mandinka dancing

Most Mandinka live in family-related compounds in traditional rural villages. Mandinka villages are fairly autonomous and self-ruled, being led by a council of upper-class elders and a chief who functions as a first among equals.

Family and political organisation

In Mandinka society the lu (extended family) is the basic unit, and is led by a fa (family head) who manages relations with other fa. A dugu (village) is formed by a collection of lu, and the dugu is led by the fa of the most important lu, aided by the dugu-tigi (village head or fa of the first lu that settled there). A group of dugu-tigi form a kafu (confederation) headed by a kafu-tigi. The Keita clan initially held the status of kafu-tigi before Sundiata's expansion and the creation of the mansa (king/emperor).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Social stratification

The Mandinka people have traditionally been a socially stratified society, as are many West African ethnic groups with castes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Mandinka society, states Arnold Hughes, a professor of West African Studies and African Politics, has been "divided into three endogamous castes – the freeborn (foro), slaves (jongo), and artisans and praise singers (nyamolo).<ref name=hughesstrata>Template:Cite book</ref> The freeborn castes are primarily farmers. The enslaved strata included labor providers to the farmers, as well as leather workers, pottery makers, metal smiths, griots, and others.<ref name=gatesmandinka/>

The Mandinka Muslim clerics and scribes have traditionally been considered a separate occupational caste called Jakhanke, with their Islamic roots traceable to about the 13th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book, Quote: "The Jakhanke, who now primarily speak Mandinka, have formed a specialized caste of Muslim clerics and educators since approximately the 13th century".</ref>

The Mandinka castes are hereditary, and marriages outside the caste was forbidden.<ref name=gatesmandinka/> Their caste system is similar to those of other ethnic groups of the African Sahel region.<ref>Template:Cite journal, Quote: "The general organization of the society into castes is shared with Sahelian peoples such as the Mandinka, Wolof, (...)"</ref> These castes are also common across Mandinka communities such as those in The Gambia,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Mali, Guinea, and other countries.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=hopkinsmandinka>Template:Cite book</ref>

Rites of passage

The Mandinka practice a rite of passage, kuyangwoo, which marks the beginning of adulthood for their children. At an age between four and fourteen, the youngsters have their genitalia ritually mutilated (see articles on male and female genital mutilation), in separate groups according to their sex. In years past, the children spent up to a year in the bush, but that has been reduced now to coincide with their physical healing time, between three and four weeks.

During this time, they learn about their adult social responsibilities and rules of behaviour. Preparation is made in the village or compound for the return of the children. A celebration marks the return of these new adults to their families. As a result of these traditional teachings, in marriage a woman's loyalty remains to her parents and her family; a man's to his.

Female genital mutilation

The women among the Mandinka people, like other ethnic groups near them, have traditionally practiced female genital mutilation (FGM), traditionally referred to as "female circumcision." According to UNICEF, the female genital mutilation prevalence rates among the Mandinka of The Gambia is the highest at over 96%, followed by FGM among the women of the Jola people at 91%, and Fula people at 88%.<ref name=uniceffgmmandinka>Accelerating the Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in The Gambia, UNICEF (2012)</ref>

Among the Mandinka women of some other countries of West Africa, the FGM prevalence rates are lower, but still range between 40% and 90%.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Berhane Ras-Work (2009), Legislation to Address the Issue of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), UN, page 11</ref> This cultural practice, locally called Niaka or Kuyungo or Musolula Karoola or Bondo,<ref>Multi-Agency Practice Guidelines: Female Genital Mutilation, HM Government, United Kingdom (2014), Template:ISBN</ref> involves the partial or total removal of the clitoris, or alternatively, the partial or total removal of the labia minora with the clitoris.<ref name= uniceffgmmandinka/>

Some surveys, such as those by the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP), estimate FGM is prevalent among 100% of the Mandinka in Gambia.<ref name= uniceffgmmandinka/> In 2010, after community efforts of UNICEF and the local government bodies, several Mandinka women's organization pledged to abandon the female genital mutilation practices.<ref name= uniceffgmmandinka/>

Marriage

Marriages are traditionally arranged by family members rather than by either the bride or groom. This practice is particularly prevalent in the rural areas. The suitor's family formally sends Kola nuts, a bitter nut from a tree, to the male elders of the bride-to-be. If they accept the nuts, the courtship may begin.

Polygamy has been practiced among the Mandinka since pre-Islamic days. A Mandinka man is legally allowed to have up to four wives, as long as he is able to care for each of them equally. Mandinka believe the crowning glory of any woman is the ability to produce children, especially sons. The first wife has authority over any subsequent wives. The husband has complete control over his wives and is responsible for feeding and clothing them. He also helps the wives' parents when necessary. Wives are expected to live together in harmony, at least superficially. They share work responsibilities of the compound, such as cooking, laundry, and other tasks.

Music

File:Papa1999.b.jpg
A Mandinka Griot Al-Haji Papa Susso performing songs from the oral tradition of The Gambia on the kora.

Mandinka culture is rich in tradition, music, and spiritual ritual. The Mandinka continue a long oral history tradition through stories, songs, and proverbs. In rural areas, the influence of western education is minimal; the literacy rate in Latin script among these Mandinka is quite low. But, more than half the adult population can read the local Arabic script (including Mandinka Ajami). Small Qur'anic schools for children where this is taught are quite common. Mandinka children are given their name on the eighth day after their birth. The children are almost always named after a very important person in their family.

The Mandinka have a rich oral history that is passed down through sung versions by griots. This passing down of oral history through music has made the practice of music one of the most distinctive traits of the Mandinka. They have long been known for their drumming and also for their unique musical instrument, the kora. The kora is a twenty-one-stringed West African harp made from a halved, dried, hollowed-out gourd covered with cow or goat skin. The strings are made of fishing line (these were traditionally made from a cow's tendons). It is played to accompany a griot's singing or simply on its own.

A Mandinka religious and cultural site under consideration for World Heritage status is located in Guinea at Gberedou/Hamana.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Gallieni MHNT ETH AC 595 Sabre.jpg
Mandinka saber, Gallieni collection MHNT

The kora

The kora has become the hallmark of traditional Mandinka musicians. The kora with its 21 strings is made from half a calabash, covered with cow's hide fastened on by decorative tacks. The kora has sound holes in the side which are used to store coins offered to the praise singers, in appreciation of their performance. The praise singers are called jalibaa or jalolu in Mandinka.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In literature and other media

Notable people

Burkina Faso

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The Gambia

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Guinea

File:Ahmed Sékou Touré à Washington DC en 1982.jpg
Ahmed Sékou Touré, the President of Guinea from 1958 to 1984

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Guinea Bissau

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Ivory Coast

File:Tiken Jah Fakoly-IMG 5321.jpg
Tiken Jah Fakoly

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Liberia

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Mali

File:Keita August 2008 Joan Gamper Trophy.jpg
Seydou Keita in action for FC Barcelona in 2008

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Senegal

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Sierra Leone

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  • Amadou Bakayoko
  • Ibrahim Jaffa Condeh, Sierra Leonean journalist and news anchor
  • Kanji Daramy, journalist and spokesman for former Sierra Leone's president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He is also the former chairman of Sierra Leone National Telecommunications Commission
  • Mabinty Daramy, current Sierra Leone's deputy minister of trade and industry
  • Mohamed B. Daramy, former minister of development and economic planning from 2002 to 2007, former ECOWAS commissioner of income tax
  • Kemoh Fadika, current Sierra Leone's high commissioner to the Gambia and former high commissioner to Nigeria, former ambassador to Egypt and Iran.
  • Lansana Fadika, Sierra Leonean businessman and former SLPP chairman for the Western Area. He is the younger brother of Kemoh Fadika
  • Saidu Fofanah
  • Bomba Jawara, former MP of Sierra Leone from Koinadugu District (SLPP)
  • Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, President of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 2007
  • Haja Afsatu Kabba, former Sierra Leone's Minister of Marine Resources and Fisheries; Energy and Power; Lands
  • Karamoh Kabba, Sierra Leonean author, writer and journalist
  • Mohamed Kakay, former MP of Sierra Leone from Koinadugu District (SLPP)
  • Alhaji Kamara
  • Glen Kamara
  • Musa Noah Kamara
  • Saidu Bah Kamara
  • Kadijatu Kebbay, Sierra Leonean model; Miss University Sierra Leone 2006 winner and representative of Sierra Leone at the Miss World 2006 contest
  • Brima Dawson Kuyateh, journalist and the current president of the Sierra Leone Reporters Union
  • Sidique Mansaray, Sierra Leonean footballer
  • Tejan Amadu Mansaray, former MP of Sierra Leone representing Koinadugu District (APC)
  • Shekuba Saccoh, former Sierra Leone's ambassador to Guinea and former Minister of Social Welfare
  • K-Man (born Mohamed Saccoh), Sierra Leonean musician
  • Alhaji A. B. Sheriff, former MP from Koinadugu District (SLPP)
  • Sheka Tarawalie, Sierra Leonean journalist and former State House Press Secretary to president Koroma. Former Deputy Minister of Information and current Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
  • Mohamed Buya Turay
  • Sitta Umaru Turay, Sierra Leonean journalist

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Togo

United States

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See also

Notes

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References

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Further reading

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