- Often misused to refer to the Mandinka people, who constitute a branch of the Mandé: Mandinka people
Mandé or
Manden is a family of
ethnic groups in
West Africa who speak any of the many related
Mande languages of the region. Various Mandé groups are found in
Benin,
Burkina Faso,
Côte d'Ivoire,
Chad,
The Gambia,
Ghana,
Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau,
Liberia,
Mali,
Mauritania,
Niger,
Nigeria,
Senegal and
Sierra Leone. The Mandé languages belong to a divergent branch of the
Niger–Congo family, and are divided into two primary groups: East Mandé and West Mandé.