Dialonké
Portrait of a Yalunka (1861)
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| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Guinea, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Mali | |
| Languages | |
| Yalunka | |
| Religion | |
| Islam 99% | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Susu people |
The Yalunka, also spelled Jallonke, Yalonga, Djallonké, Djallonka or Dialonké, are a Mande people who have lived in the Futa Jallon (French: Fouta Djallon), a mountainous region in Guinea, West Africa since about the 11th century. The name Yalunka literally means "inhabitants of the Jallon (mountains)."
They are a branch of the Mandé peoples of West Africa, and closely related to the Susu people. Some scholars classify the two as one group. The Yalunka are notable for having first converted to Islam, but then renouncing Islam en masse when Muslim Fula people began dominating their region. The Yalunka fought against the Fula jihads, left Futa Jallon, migrated and established new towns such as Falaba near the region where Rokel River starts, while others settled among the Koranko, Limba and Kissi people. Ultimately, the Yalunka were subdued and absorbed by the Fulani Empire.
They speak the Yalunka language which belongs to the Mande branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Yalunka is mutually intelligible with Susu, another Mande language. In the contemporary era, the Yalunka are concentrated mostly in Guinea and Sierra Leone.
The ancient history of Yalunka people is unknown. The earliest evidence suggests that sometime around the eleventh century, the Yalunka people arrived in the hilly plateau region of the Futa Jallon in Guinea. They converted to Islam. After the seventeeth century, Islamic theocracies supported by the Fula people began a period of Fula dominance and their version of Islam in the region traditionally occupied by the Yalunka. The Yalunka people, along with the Susu people, then renounced Islam. The Fula people and their leaders such as Ibrahima Musa and Ibrahima Sori launched a series of jihads targeted against the Yalunka in the eighteenth century. The Yalunka were defeated, subdued and returned back to Islam in 1778.
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