The Mandingo DNA project is open to anyone who can provide DNA test results that indicate a match; a mitochondrial (mtDNA) or Y-DNA match to a Mandinga DNA reference population. Mandinga results can be determined in the 'Ancestral Origins' tab in the Comments section for both mtDNa and Y-DNA results. If your DNA results indicate a match to the Mandinga DNA reference population and you would like to join the Mandingo DNA Project, please do email the Administrator at 5b1364db@opayq.com for your invitation to join.

The Mandingo people originated in the Mande heartland in the present day country of Mali and are the descendants of the inhabitants of the Mali empire that spanned western Africa south of the Sahara desert c.1230 AD to c.1600 AD.The Malian empire, founded by Mansa Sundiata Keita, stretched from Senegal and The Gambia on the Atlantic coast and included major cities of the Saharan trade routes such as Djenné, Gao, and Timbuktu, once the scholarly center of Africa. During the Middle Ages, the Malian empire controlled the gold and salt trade across the Sahara desert.  Mansa Sundiata is known as the father of the Mandingo people and is credited with establishing one of the largest cultural and linguistic groups in modern West Africa. The Mandingo people (also known as the Mandinka, Malinke, Mandenke, and other similar variations) are estimated today to have a global population of eleven million.

The Mandinka people are still primarily concentrated in West Africa, particularly in the Gambia, Guinea,Mali, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia,Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Mauritania. However, with the advancements in genealogical DNA testing, Mandinka descendants can now be identified in other parts of the world, especially in the Americas (N. America, Central America, S.America and in the Caribbean) as result of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade where enslaved Africans were scattered and detached from their original cultures over centuries.  Despite the Mandinkan dissemination in the Americas, it is documented that specific elements of Mandinkan culture survived and greatly influenced life in the Americas to the extent where some scholars refer to this phenomenon as the "Mandification" of the culture. (Schaffer)

Map of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade

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