Mende
/ˈmɛndi
/noun (plural same)
1A member of a people inhabiting Sierra Leone in West Africa.Led by Bai Farama, the Temnes attacked the Susus, Limbas and Mende, as well as the Portuguese and created a strong state along the trade route from Port Loko to the Sudan and Niger....
- For example, among the Mende of Sierra Leone, boys must be initiated into the Poro Society before they are recognized as adults.
- Arnold Rubin noted that the abstract, austere, and additive style of the Ijo offers a striking contrast to the smoother, more naturalistic styles found among the Mende, Dan, and Guro-Baule which surround the Kru complex.
2 [mass noun] The language of the Mende, belonging to the Mande group. It has over 1 million speakers.A Mende friend of mine who assisted Ferme at the time declared years later-with both admiration and surprise-that this American woman named Mariane could indeed speak Mende....
- But this means that we should expect that dozens of other Black English words had been traced to, say, Bambara, Mende, Twi, Yoruba, Efik, Umbundu, and so on.
- The first is the Mande language group, which resembles Mandinka in structure, and includes Mende, Susu, Yalunka, Koranko, Kono, and Vai.
adjective
Relating to or denoting the Mende or their language.Here the author makes a significant contribution to earlier scholarship regarding influential women in Mende society through her gendered discussion of the kpako, or ‘Big Person.’...
- Similarly, the Mende rice cultivators in Sierra Leone live from the forest but do not see themselves as standing over it, either to exploit or to conserve it.
- Farmer-Paellmann has found out that she originated from the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, and now can ‘meet people who share my genetic makeup’.
Origin
The name in Mende.