Show Notes

• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 9/12/2009 12:20 AM UTC

  African Connections - Connecting to the Malinke of Guinea West Africa
  

  President Obama's father is from Kenya on the Coast of East Africa. Most of the slave trade in the America's came from West Africa, in the region of present day, Guinea, Nigeria, and Ghana. I traced my maternal  Great-Great Grandmother, Leah Warner, to Guinea West Africa. She was born there, about 1818. nd enslaved at the age of twelve (1830). She was born to the Malinke, a Muslim Tribe, who entered Guinea from Mali.  They were part of the Malie Empire, who were the Architects of Timbuktu.  After winning a war against the Ghanian Rulers, Guinea came under rule of the Malinke. The Malinke counted their wealth in Gold, and their trade routes stretched to Mecca.  Great-Great Grandmother Leah's father was a descendant Keita, and a descendant of Sundiata Keita.

  When the Royal Children were kidnapped an enslaved in 1830, selling African slaves in America was illegal. However, the Southern States got around the law by sending their captives to the Caribbean for seasoning. The ship Leah was on went to Bermuda, where the young captives were seasoned, and subsequently sold at auction in Charleston South Carolina. None of the census records on Leah mentions that she was born in Africa. The seasoning she endured was successful in that she only mentioned being born in Guinea to her children and Grandchildren.  I confirmed Leah’s story in 2000, when I contacted the Guinea Embassy in Washington DC.  I received a response from, President Conte’s Christian wife, who stated that the Royal Children were taken in 1830.  She traced their route and stated that they were taken first to Bermuda, and then to Charleston South Carolina.

  The Malinke are also referred to as Mandingo, Maninka, Manding, Mandingo, Mandin, and Mande. They live in areas of sub-Saharan Africa that have a history of agricultural settlements dating as far back as 7,000 years. The Malinke are heirs to the great Mali Empire, a medieval merchant empire that flourished from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century and greatly influenced the history of western Africa. The Malinke, who occupied the northern region of Africa, were Muslim converts beginning in the eleventh century. The renowned city of Islamic teaching, Timbuktu, was also part of the vast and prosperous Mali Empire. The empire declined in the fifteenth century and was gradually absorbed by the Songhai Kingdom, which extended to the seventeenth century.

  As early as 1444, Portuguese traders had enslaved the first Malinke people, and in the next three and a half centuries, thousands of Malinke and other peoples were transported by Portuguese, British, French, and Dutch merchants to the Caribbean and the Americas to work as slaves on plantations. During the nineteenth century, the kingdoms of the Malinke peoples were subjugated by the British, French, and Portuguese and  incorporated into their colonial systems. The Malinke gained attention when Author Alex Haley published his best-selling book, Roots (1974), and it was later made into a television series. The story of Haley's ancestral family and the book's main character, Kunta Kinte of the Mandinka (Malinke) people, personalized the terrible plight of African slaves and their families who were sold into slavery.

  The epic poem "Sundiata" (also spelled Sundjata) chronicles the life of Sundiata Keita (ca. 1210-1260), the son of the king who defeated the Ghana king Sumanguru and founded the empire of Mali. Details of the early days of the Mali Empire and the lifestyles of the people have been kept alive for centuries through the epic poem,  which has been sung for generations by the griots, bards or praise-singers of West Africa. In over 3,000 lines of poetry in the oral tradition, the epic tells the story of Sundiata, a legendary leader who, after countless obstacles and trials, unites the Malinke clans and chiefdoms at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

   Sundiata is unable to walk as a child because of a spell put on him by his father's jealous second wife. Sundiata finally learns to walk and becomes a hunter, giving up his claim to the throne during a long exile with his mother and siblings. A delegation from Mali comes to him and begs him to return and save them from an evil sorcerer-king, Sumanguru. Sundiata organizes an army to regain his throne. With help from his sister, who seduces Sumanguru.  Sundiata learns his weaknesses, and after many bloody battles, his army defeats the forces of Sumanguru.

  The Kingdoms

   The emergence of the three centralized states at given points in history can be attributed to the coupling of the lucrative gold trade from the Sudan with the salt brought by North African Muslim traders. Ghana was the richest of the three in c. 1150, owing its wealth primarily to the vast gold fields of Buri and Bambak.  The acceptance of Islam by the rulers of Ghana, Mali and Songhay (also spelled Songhey and Songhai) in c. 1000 encouraged trade between the empires and North Africa.

       At its peak, the Mali Empire extended across West Africa to the Atlantic Ocean and incorporated an estimated forty to fifty million people. The administration of such an enormous territory was and accepting of the indigenous rulers and their customs. What distinguished the empires of West Africa, particularly Mali and later Songhay, was their ability to centralize political and military power while allowing the local rulers to maintain their identities along side Islam. The imperial powers were located in active commercial centers like Djenne, Timbuktu and Gao.

  The wealth of the Mali Empire is illustrated by the Mali emperor Mansa Musa's pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324. His entourage reportedly included thousands of soldiers, officials and attendants, one hundred camels each carrying three hundred pounds of gold, and five hundred maids and servants to serve Mansa Musa's senior wife. Once in Egypt, Mansa Musa paid homage to the sultan with gifts of gold. He distributed so much gold that its value was decreased by 10 to 25 percent.

  RELIGION

  The majority of the Malinke are Muslim (followers of Islam) and have adapted the teachings of Islam into their native beliefs. Most Malinke villages have a mosque, and women sit separate from the men, both in the mosque and during outside religious services. Those villagers who have made the hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, or even descendants of those who have made the journey, are highly respected.

  The principal religious leader is the elected Imam, an elder who leads prayers at the mosques and has great religious knowledge. The other Islamic clerics who play major roles as healers and religious counselors are the Marabouts. They are respected as preservers of morality through oral tradition and teachers of the Koran (sacred text of Islam). They are perceived to be experts at preventing and healing ailments or injuries inflicted by mortals or those that are believed to have been inflicted by evil spirits.

  CULTURAL HERITAGE

  Much of the cultural heritage of the Malinke is embedded in the great Mali merchant empire of the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries and the Islamic religion that was adopted by the chieftains. There was a flourishing trade in gold, and many ornate ornaments, jewelry, and staffs of gold date from that period.

  The first Europeans to use African slaves in the New World were the Spaniards who sought auxiliaries for their conquest expeditions and laborers on islands such as Cuba and Hispaniola, where the alarming death rate in the native population had spurred the first royal laws protecting the native population (Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513). The first African slaves arrived in Hispaniola in 1501.

  From A.D. 700 to 1600, the ancient empires of Ghana (700-1100), Mali (800-1550) and Songhay (1300-1600) controlled vast areas of West Africa. Although each empire rose to assert its power, they coexisted independently for centuries. At its peak (1200-1300), the Mali Empire covered an area that encompasses significant portions of the present-day country of Mali, southern and western Mauritania and Senegal. Note that the old kingdoms of Mali and Ghana are not the present-day countries of Mali and Ghana.

  Footnotes:

  1.        World Cultures , http://www.everyculture.com/wc/Japan-to-Mali/Malinke.html, Malinke, September 11, 2009

  2.          The African Slave Trade, wikipedia, The Atlantic Slave Trade, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_slave_trade, September 11, 2009

  3.        National Museum of African Art, http://africa.si.edu/exhibits/resources/mali/index.htm, September 11, 2009

   

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  • Sundiata Keita
  • Mali
  • Timbuctu
  • West Africa
  • Malinke
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