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 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.

It is important to understand African history from an informed point of view. During the Middle Ages, the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire, Mansa Musa (Musa I of Mali) reigned from 1307 to 1332. He was considered one of the wealthiest men in history. Mana Musa accumulated great wealth by taxing the trade in salt, spices, silks, and by exploiting and enslaving human beings. If you find you have Mandinga/Mandingo DNA and you and your ancestors were born outside of West Africa, that is likely due to actions set in motion centuries ago by Mansa Musa. The Great King passed through Cairo, Egypt in 1324 enroute to his pilgrimage to Mecca. He brought with him thousands of slaves and soldiers, wives and officials. Historians noted he brought one hundred camels and each one carried one hundred pounds of gold. This exorbitant amount of gold caused the gold markets of Cairo to crash until well into the next century. In addition to slaves, the Kington of Mali also supplied the world with ivory, ostrich feathers, kola nuts, hides.

The indigenous Mandinka peoples today are primarily Muslim, patrilineal, rural, agricultural, and concentrated in West Africa, particularly in the Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Mauritania. The Mandinka are especially famous for their jalis or griots, traditional historians, praise singers and for their master musicians. Among the instruments they play to accompany their epics and songs is the 21-string kora. The passing down of oral history through music has made music one of the most distinctive traits of the Mandinka. 

With advancements in genealogical DNA testing, individuals descended from Africans that were captured and sold due to the trans-Saharan slave trade, (which both pre-dated and overlapped the transatlantic slavery period), and enslaved in other parts of the world, can now piece together their historical ancestry and scientifically determine if they share genetic matches to the Mandinga/Mandingo ethnic groups in West Africa.

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 "Mandingization" of the American cultures. (Schaffer)

A Mandingo Welcome Home Message

Bound to Africa: the Mandinka Legacy in the New World. Matt Schaffer. 2005

The Mali Kingdom and Mansa Musa were Imperialist Slave Traders