Nyamakala

File:Griot-africa.jpg

The Nyamakala, or Nyamakalaw, are the historic occupational castes among Islamic societies of West Africa, particularly among the Mandinka people.{{cite book|author1=Leslie M Alexander|author2=Walter C. Rucker Jr.|title=Encyclopedia of African American History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uivtCqOlpTsC&pg=PA79|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-774-6|pages=79–80}}{{cite book|author1=Anthony Appiah|author2=Henry Louis Gates|title=Encyclopedia of Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC|year=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533770-9|page=532}} The Nyamakala are known as Nyaxamalo among the Soninke people,{{cite journal | last=Tamari | first=Tal | title=The Development of Caste Systems in West Africa | journal=The Journal of African History | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=32 | issue=2 | year=1991 | pages=221–250 | doi=10.1017/s0021853700025718 | s2cid=162509491 }} and Nyenyo among the Wolof people.{{cite book|author1=Charles Bird|author2=Martha Kendall|author3=Kalilou Tera|editor=David C. Conrad and Barbara E. Frank|title=Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzeVS6pYS7YC&pg=PA37|year=1995 |publisher= Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253209290|page=37}} They are found throughout the Sahel region, from Mali and Senegal to Chad and several other parts of the West African region historically known as the "Western Sudan".Mamby Sidibe (1959), "Les gens de caste ou nyamakala au Soudan français." Notes Africaines, Volume 81 (1959), pages 13-17

The term Nyamakala originally implied any talented people, but as slavery, social differentiation and stratification increased with Islamic religious violence called jihads, and later the colonial rule, their status fell to a lowly level below the nobles and free people. Nyama in the traditional Mandinka society implies "vital force", while Kala connotes "handle". Thus, any type of occupation that handled vital force of nature, were a Nyamakala. In its historic contexts, state Charles Bird, Martha Kendall and Kalilou Tera, Nyama has implied different meanings. In one, it connotes notions of "evil or satanic force, dangerous, polluting, energizing, imperfect self control" and in others it is "morally neutral or energizing". In yet another context, Nyama implies "refuse, garbage".{{cite book|author1=Charles Bird|author2=Martha Kendall|author3=Kalilou Tera|editor=David C. Conrad and Barbara E. Frank|title=Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzeVS6pYS7YC&pg=PA28| year=1995| publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253209290|pages=29–31}} With the arrival of Muslims, the evil or polluting contexts became their focus, while the caste people themselves preferred the neutral or energizing connotations.{{cite book|author1=Charles Bird|author2=Martha Kendall|author3=Kalilou Tera|editor=David C. Conrad and Barbara E. Frank|title=Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzeVS6pYS7YC&pg=PA28|year=1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253209290|pages=28–29}}

Among Mandinka, the Nyamakala occupational castes included Jeli or Jeliyu (musicians, griots), Numu (carpenters, smiths), Garanke (leather workers, weavers) and Fune or Finah (singers specializing in Islamic praise). The specific castes had different terms in other ethnic groups of West Africa. For example, among the Soninke people, the griots were called Gesere, the smiths Tage and the carpenter caste was called Sake.

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| footer = Nyamakala (griot caste) in Sudan (left) and Senegal.

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The Nyamakala have been endogamous, occupation inheriting castes.{{cite journal | last=Tamari | first=Tal | title=The Development of Caste Systems in West Africa | journal=The Journal of African History | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=32 | issue=2 | year=1991 | pages=221–223 | doi=10.1017/s0021853700025718 | s2cid=162509491 }}{{cite book|author=Melissa Thackway|title=Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iA--kyw_FhsC&pg=PA57 |year=2003|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-34349-6|pages=57 with caption 25}}{{cite book|author=Keith Cartwright|title=Reading Africa into American Literature: Epics, Fables, and Gothic Tales |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4aMfBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 |year=2015|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-5833-4|page=9}} Among the Mande people such as the Mandinke, Soninke and others, Nyamakala caste people have been despised and considered of lowly status, in some regions as Jon (slave) and Wolosa (descendant of slave).{{cite book|author1=Charles Bird|author2=Martha Kendall|author3=Kalilou Tera|editor=David C. Conrad and Barbara E. Frank|title=Status and Identity in West Africa: Nyamakalaw of Mande|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JzeVS6pYS7YC&pg=PA37|year=1995 |publisher= Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253209290|pages=36–38}}{{cite journal | last=Marchand | first=Trevor H. J. | title='IT | journal=Africa | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=85 | issue=2 | year=2015 | pages=356–364 | doi=10.1017/s0001972015000054 | s2cid=144653484 }}

Some scholars such as Vaughn state that while Nyamakala have been castes of West Africa, it necessarily does not mean imply a generic and uniform "caste system" because the social stratification in Africa was very complex with the inclusion of slaves, race and religious elements.{{cite book|author=JH Vaughn|title=Social Stratification in Africa|editor=Arthur Tuden and Leonard Plotnicov|publisher=Free Press|chapter=Caste System in the Western Sudan|isbn=978-0029327807|year=197|pages=[https://archive.org/details/socialstratifica0000unse_s4p9/page/59 59–92]|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/socialstratifica0000unse_s4p9/page/59}}Marguerite Dupire (1985), A Nomadic Caste: The Fulani Woodcarvers Historical Background and Evolution, Anthropos, Bd. 80, H. 1./3. (1985), pages 85-100 Others consider Nyamakala as a part of a caste system, while acknowledging that there were regional variations.{{cite book|author=Christopher L. Miller|title=Theories of Africans: Francophone Literature and Anthropology in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AIT-xLytIrkC&pg=PA78|year=1990|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-52802-1|pages=78–80}}{{cite book|author=Eugenia W. Herbert|title=Iron, Gender, and Power: Rituals of Transformation in African Societies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaSgMk31I-cC&pg=PA177|year=1994|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-11596-5|pages=177–180}}{{cite book|author=Bethwell A. Ogot|title=Africa from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fw-1DOCXUgsC |year=1999|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-06700-4|pages=17–18}}