The Soninke (Sarakolleh) people are a West African Mande-speaking ethnic group found in Mali, southern Mauritania, eastern Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea (especially Fouta Djallon).

When the Ghana empire was destroyed, the resulting diaspora brought Soninkes to Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinée-Conakry, modern-day Republic of Ghana, Kano in Nigeria, and Guinea-Bissau where some of this trading diaspora was called Wangara,[6] leading to the saying “when Americans landed on the moon, a Soninke was already there” in Senegal, with other versions across West Africa.

[7] Predominantly Muslims, the Soninke were one of the early ethnic groups from West Africa to convert to Islam in about the 10th century.

[12][13] The Soninke people are also referred to as Aswanik, Dafing, Dafi, Dyakanke, Gadyaga, Maraka, Maraxa, Marka, Marka Soninké, Sarakolleh, Saracole, Zarakole, Zagha, Sarakolé, Sarakollé, Sarakule, Sarawule, Saraxole, Seraculeh, Serahuli, Serakhulle, Silabe, Soniake, Soninkés, Sonninké, Toubakai, Wakore, Wangara.

[17] The term "Serakhulle," although often claimed to be a Wolof word, was used for the Soninke at least as far back as the 16th century and is used by peoples as far apart as The Gambia and Hausaland.

[26][27] Archaeological evidence supports an evolution of the Ghana Empire and other Mande states from roots in preceding local ancestral Soninke cultures such as that of Dhar Tichitt, rather than from North Africa or the Middle East.

[9] Soninke people are found throughout West Africa and in France, given their migration when Senegal and Mali were a part of the French colonial empire.

[5] Most of the Soninke people are found in the valley of the upper Senegal river and along the Mali–Senegal–Mauritania border between Nara and Nioro du Sahel.

Migrations under French colonial rule led many Soninke to build communities in Dakar, other cities in Africa and in France.

[5] There are also many Soninke living in cities throughout Central Africa, a population that includes new migrants as well as descendants of migration dating back to the 1800s, such as the laptots who represented French mercantile and colonial interests in the region.

[32] Trade networks led by the Wangara mercantile confederations, spread Soninke people and culture throughout most of Mali and Senegal, southern Mauritania, northern Burkina Faso, as well as parts of the Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau.

The Maraka-Soninke merchant communities and plantations (centered just north of the city of Segou, Mali) were an economic mainspring under the Bambara Empire, and built trade routes in the West Africa region.

This includes the religion of Islam, occupations, foods, the rites of passage, family structure, weddings and social stratification.

[38] The slaves were the largest stratum, one at the bottom among the Soninke like other West African ethnic groups, and constituted up to half of the population.

[43][44] McIntosh concurs with Tamari, but states that the emergence of caste systems likely occurred much earlier in West African societies such as Soninke, Mande, Malinke, Wolof, Serer, and others.

[45] However, the linguistic differences between the caste and slave systems of the Soninke and Manding on one hand and northern ethnic groups of Africa such as the Tuareg people and Moors on the other, suggests that these evolved separately.

The practice among Soninke merchants, states Saskia Brand, a professor of psychology and educational sciences, may be related to the cultural belief that cousin marriages "helps to keep the money in the family".

After one week of celebration, the women meet to show the gifts that the couple received from their parents mostly from the woman's mother.

[49] The author Mamadou Soumare wrote “Above its traditional surgery, the ritual of circumcision makes in evidence, the physical endurance, the pain, the courage, in one word the personality of the child.” The Soninke people have long carried out female genital mutilation (FGM), also called female circumcision.