Most of my people live in Guinea, and if you travel into Mali, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, you will find that we are known as Malinké. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, we call ourselves Mandingos. Wherever we are found, we trace our roots back to the vast, wealthy Mali Empire of West Africa. We are proud to be Maninka, and we are proud to be Muslim. Also, we are doing our best to spread Islam from the trade routes in the heart of West Africa to the Atlantic Coast.