Mali Empire - Manden

Manden

The Mali Empire grew out of an area referred to by its contemporary inhabitants as Manden. Manden, named for its inhabitants the Mandinka (initially Manden’ka with "ka" meaning people of), comprised most of present-day northern Guinea and southern Mali. The empire was originally established as a federation of Mandinka tribes called the Manden Kurufaba (Manden being the country, kuru meaning assembly and faba meaning great entirety), but it later became an empire ruling millions of people from nearly every ethnic group in West Africa.