Mandé-speaking peoples inhabit various environments, from coastal rainforests to the sparse Sahel, and have a wide range of cuisines, cultures, and beliefs.

Subsequently, toward the end of the Mauritanian Tichitt culture, Mandé-speaking peoples began to spread and established Méma, Macina, Dia Shoma, and Jenne Jeno in the Middle Niger region as well as the Ghana Empire.

Influences from Mandé-speaking people have historically spread far beyond immediate areas to other neighboring Muslim West African groups who inhabited the Sahel and Savanna.

[2] As a result of increasing aridification of the Green Sahara, Central Saharan hunter-gatherers and cattle herders may have used seasonal waterways as the migratory route taken to the Niger River and Chad Basin of West Africa.

[3] In 4000 BCE, the start of sophisticated social structure (e.g., trade of cattle as valued assets) developed among herders amid the Pastoral Period of the Sahara.

[4] Saharan pastoral culture was intricate, as evidenced by fields of tumuli, lustrous stone rings, axes, and other remnants.

[11] In the late period of the Tichitt Tradition at Dhar Néma, tamed pearl millet was used to temper the tuyeres of an oval-shaped low shaft iron furnace, one of 16 located on elevated ground.

[17] The civilization of Djenné-Djenno was located in the Niger River valley in Mali and is considered to be among the oldest urbanized centres and the best-known archaeological sites in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The site is located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) away from the modern town of Djenné and is believed to have been involved in long-distance trade and possibly the domestication of African rice.

The city is believed to have been abandoned and moved to its current location due to the spread of Islam and the building of the Great Mosque of Djenné.

[20] Since around 1500 BCE, a number of clans of proto-Soninke descent, one of the oldest branches of Mandé-speaking peoples, came together under the leadership of Dinga Cisse.

The nation comprised a confederation of three independent, freely allied, states (Mali, Mema, and Wagadou) and 12 garrisoned provinces.

By the 10th century, Ghana was an immensely rich and prosperous empire, controlling an area the size of Texas, stretching across Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania.

When visiting the capital city of Kumbi Saleh in 950 AD, Arab traveler Ibn Hawqal described the Ghanaian ruler as the "richest king in the world because of his gold."

The king lost his trading monopoly, a devastating drought damaged the cattle and cultivation industries, the clans were fractured, and the vassal states were rebelling.

With the zeal of converts, they launched several campaigns against the "Sudanese", idolatrous Black peoples of West Africa and the Sahel.

[21] Under their king Tinbarutan ibn Usfayshar, the Sanhaja Lamtuna erected or captured the citadel of Awdaghust, a critical stop on the trans-Saharan trade route.

The trans-Saharan routes were taken over by the Zenata Maghrawa of Sijilmassa Before the Almoravids, the Islamic influence was gradual and did not involve any form of military takeover.

In any event, following their subsequent withdrawal, new gold fields were mined further south and new trade routes were opening further east.

These were the Mane, Southern Mandé speakers (Mende, Gbandi, Kpelle, Loma ethnic groups) who invaded the western coast of Africa from the east during the first half of the 16th century.

[citation needed] Existence amongst the Mandé-speaking peoples concerning conflict with other African ethnic groups has been exacerbated since the start of the 20th century.

[citation needed] Mandé-speaking ethnic groups typically have patrilineal kinship system and patriarchal society.

Amongst the Mende, Kpelle, Gbandi and Loma Mandé-speaking ethnic groups of Sierra Leone and Liberia, there exists secret fraternal orders and sororities, known as Poro and Sande, or Bundu, respectively based on ancient traditions believed to have emerged about 1000 CE.

Amongst specific Mandé-speaking ethnic groups, such as the Mandinka, Soninke and Susu, there traditionally exists a caste-based system.

Many Mandé-speaking ethnic groups' cultures traditionally have castes of crafts people (including as blacksmiths, leatherworkers, potters, and woodworkers/woodcarvers) and bards (the latter being known in several European languages as griots).

Fadenya or “father-childness” is a word used by the Manding, a Mandé-speaking people (e.g., Mandinka), originally to describe the tensions between half-brothers with the same father and different mothers.

[33] Ethnomusicologist Eric Charry notes that these tales "form a vast body of oral and written literature" ranging from Ibn Khaldun's 14th-century Arabic-language account to French colonial anthologies collecting local oral histories to modern recordings, transcriptions, translations, and performance.

And sculpture in wood, metal, and terra-cotta, have been found, associated with ancient peoples related to the Soninke in Mali.

[citation needed] The bells on the necklaces are of the type believed to be heard by spirits, ringing in both worlds, that of the ancestors and the living.

[citation needed] Griots are professional bards in northern West Africa, keepers of their great oral epic traditions and history.