Mende statue from Sierra Leone. Old piece over 30 years old.
Mende is the name of an ethnic group living in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau. There are approximately 700,000 of them. Their oral tradition indicates that they came from Sudan between the 2nd and 16th centuries. The Mende people settled in their current habitat at the end of the 18th century, straddling north-west Liberia and south-west Sierra Leone, after having long opposed the hegemony of the coastal kingdoms led by the current Baga and Landuman peoples. Located in a humid tropical zone, the Mende territory, covered with secondary forests, meadows and wooded savannahs, is crossed by numerous rivers. The Mende family organization is based on patriclans (clans structured by patrilineal filiation) and marriage, which is based on very large polygyny, is of virilocal residence (the spouses reside with the husband's family). The Mende village constitutes the basic political division. It is divided into districts, each headed by an elder. The villages combined, in varying numbers, constitute a chiefdom. In the past, large confederations of these chiefdoms were governed by a sort of superior chief assisted by a council.