Jakhanke people
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| West Africa | |
| Languages | |
| Jahanke language, Western Malinke,Manding languages | |
| Religion | |
| Muslim | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Mande peoples, including: Soninke, Manding (Mandinka, Malinke people, Dyula, Bambara people), Bafour people, Imraguen people, Ligbi people, Bissa people, Kpelle people, Bozo people |
The Jakhanke people (var. Jahanka, Jahanke,Diakhanké, Diakanké, or Diakhankesare) are a Manding-speaking ethnic group in the Senegambia region, often classified as a subgroup of the larger Soninke. The Jakhanke have historically constituted a specialized caste of professional Muslim clerics (ulema) and educators. They are centered on one larger group in Guinea, with smaller populations in the Gambia, Senegal, and in Mali (near the Guinean border). In Guinea and nearby regions, they speak a Manding language called Jahanke, very similar to Western Malinke.
Although technically considered members of the Soninke ethnic group (a Mandé people descending from the Bafour), the Jakhanke are commonly called Serakulle or Sarakolé in the Gambia and parts of Senegal, a variation of the Soninke name. Since the fifteenth century the Jakhanke clerical communities have constituted an integral part of region and have exercised a high level of economic and religious influence upon Soninke as well as related Manding speaking communities such as the (Dyula and Mandinka) in what is now Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and The Gambia.
The endogamous Jakhanke clerics were influential in the diffusion of Islam among the Manding people in West Africa. While originally a religious caste of the Sarakolé, the Jahanke later facilitated the trans-Saharan trade routes as merchants, such as in coastal rice and slaves, from the Guinea and Gambian coasts to the interior from at least the 17th century. In this way they are often compared with the Dyula, who formed a trade diaspora from the heartlands of the Mali Empire to the coast of what is today Côte d'Ivoire.
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