Mandinka people

The Mandinka (also known as Mandenka or Mandinko or Mandingo or Malinke) is a West African ethnic group with an estimated global population of eleven million (the other three major ethnic groups in the region being the non-related Fula, Hausa and Songhai). They are the descendants of the Mali Empire, which rose to power under the rule of the Mandingo king Sundiata Keita. The Mandingo in turn belong to West Africa's largest ethnolinguistic group, the Mandé, who account for more than twenty million people (including the Dyula, Bozo, Bissa and Bambara). Today, over 99% of Mandinka in Africa are Muslim.