Soninke

The Soninke are a Mande people of the western Sahel who founded the Ghana empire (Wagadu), the first great West African state, which flourished from about the 8th to the 11th century around its capital Koumbi Saleh. After its fall they spread along the trade routes, and Soninke clerics and merchants (the Wangara and Jakhanke traditions) carried Islam and trade across West Africa. Today about 3.5 million live mainly in Mali's Kayes region (their largest home), in southern Mauritania's Guidimakha, eastern Senegal, the Gambia and Côte d'Ivoire, with large communities in France. They call themselves Soninko; the French called them Sarakolé, and the Bambara Marka. Society is ranked by birth: free nobles (hooro), among them ruling and clerical lineages, artisans and griots (nyaxamalo), and descendants of slaves (komo), a rank that still governs marriage and village office.

Soninke villages are compact, with clay or cement houses inside walled family compounds round a central mosque and public square. The extended family (ka) under its eldest man works common fields and pools money from migrant sons. Marriage involves bridewealth and is mostly within one's rank; polygamy is common. Soninke are famed travellers: since the 19th century young men have left as traders, sailors and labourers, and a stay abroad is a rite of passage; village associations in France build mosques, schools and clinics at home. Griots keep genealogies and the epic of Wagadu and the serpent Bida. Women dye cloth with indigo, and the Soninke are known for elaborate hairstyles and gold jewellery.

The Soninke were among the first West Africans to accept Islam, and clerical lineages (moodini) run Qur'anic schools and lead prayers; most follow the Tijaniyya or Qadiriyya Sufi orders, and some follow reformist teaching brought home by migrants. Faith is practised strictly in public, with the five prayers, Ramadan and the two feasts, while protective amulets, healing by marabouts and beliefs in spirits of the land remain common, which IMB records as folk Islam. Migrant remittances pay for ever larger village mosques.

Soninke Scripture portions have appeared since 2001 (Genesis, Matthew, Acts and others, online at asawan.org), and a New Testament translation is in final revision. The JESUS film, Global Recordings audio and oral Bible stories (One Story, StoryRunners) exist in Soninke. Believers are very few, mostly in Mali, Senegal and France, and converts face rejection by their families and villages. Radio and audio in Soninke are seen as the main way to reach a people where many cannot read their language.

Soninke villages divide their people by birth into nobles (hooro), artisans and griots (nyaxamalo) and descendants of slaves (komo). Slave descendants may be barred from village chieftaincy, from speaking first in village councils, from owning land and from marrying nobles, and are expected to serve at ceremonies. From 2016 Soninke in France launched the Ganbanaaxun Fedde ('equality association'), and its activists in Mali's Kayes region, Guidimakha, Senegal and the Gambia urged slave descendants to refuse these roles. Thousands did, and in Mali's Kayes region more than 2,000 were forced to flee their villages after attacks and boycotts from 2017; in Mauritania anti-slavery activists reported cases in Guidimakha villages in 2019 and land disputes between nobles and slave descendants have resurfaced.