Mande, group of peoples of western Africa, whose various Mande languages form a branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Mande are located primarily on the savanna plateau of the western Sudan, although small groups of Mande origin, whose members no longer exhibit Mande cultural traits, are found scattered elsewhere, as in the tropical rain forests of Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the Côte d’Ivoire. Some of the most well-known Mande groups are the Bambara, Malinke, and Soninke (qq.v.).
The Mande peoples have been credited with the independent development of agriculture about 3000–4000 bc; and upon this agricultural base rested some of the earliest and most complex civilizations of western Africa, including the Soninke state of Ghana and the empire of Mali, which reached its height early in the 14th century.
Mande agriculture is based on shifting hoe cultivation. Staple crops are millet, sorghum, and rice; there are also a wide variety of other crops. Cattle are kept but are important mainly in terms of prestige and bride-price payments. Trade, both local and with distant Arab and other groups, has always been of great economic importance.
Descent, succession, and inheritance are patrilineal; marriage is polygynous, the incidence of polygyny varying considerably from group to group. The social structure, especially among Muslim groups, often exhibits a pronounced hierarchical ordering, from royalty and noble lineages to commoners, low-status artisan castes, and, formerly, slaves.