The Mandinka are a people of West Africa. They were under the leadership of Sundiata. In the Thirteenth Century, they spread from the area that is now Mali, carving out a large empire. Currently, they number over one million and reside in many autonomous villages throughout The Gambia, Senegal and Guinea Bissau.
The most famous Mandinka is probably Alex Haley's ancestor Kunta Kinte, made famous by the book and TV mini-series Roots. Martin R. Delany, a radical 19th century abolitionist in the United States, was of partial Mandinka descent.
Mandinka, which belongs to the Niger-Congo language family, is the most widespread language in The Gambia.
Mandinka taaliŋ are orally handed down in informal settings in order to entertain people, especially children.
Pfeiffer draws a distinction between two subgenres of Mandinka taaliŋ: narratives in which people are the main actors and animal stories in which the hare and hyena are the protagonists.
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