1.        Help members identify and confirm ancestral roots;

2.        Identify Mandingo descendants who may be genetically related;

3.        Promote knowledge of Mandinka history and culture;

4.        Formulate migration patterns for Mandinka descendants to validate conventional historical research.  According to Dr. Henry Louis Gates;

        “…Of the 10.7 million Africans who survived the Middle Passage of the slave trade (out of approximately 12 million) only a tiny percentage, about 388,000, were shipped directly to North America. Dr. Gates notes the overwhelming percentage of the African captives were shipped directly to the Caribbean and South America; Brazil received 4.86 million Africans alone. Some scholars estimate that another 60,000 to 70,000 Africans ended up in the United States after touching down in the Caribbean first, which would bring the total to approximately 450,000 Africans who arrived in the United States over the course of the slave trade."

The Mandingo DNA project expects to eventually see over time more members from the Caribbean and South America as awareness of DNA genealogical testing becomes more popular and widespread.