Mandinko: The Ethnography of a West African Holy Land

The portrait of the Mandinko that emerges in this case study is one of a particularly religious people who have a deep sense of their own history and of their importance to the history of their particular region of West Africa. The book accomplishes what a good ethnography should--the descrip- tion and interpretation of the significant institutions of contemporary Mandinka life, including social organization, sex roles, marriage, kinship, leadership and authority, warfare, a slave caste system, religion, subsistence, and environment. Where possible, these institutions are viewed in the context of social history and in light of the advent and impact of Islam.