MENDE AND THEIR NEIGHBORS

The people of Mende occupy the southern and eastern parts of Sierra Leone. Their territory falls within the rain forest belt of West Africa. The narrow strip of coastland forms the western and southwestern boundary between the Mende and the Sherbro-Bullom, the Krim, and the Vai. To the easternmost part of Sierra Leone and the northeast are populated by the Kissi and the Kron peoples, respectively. The Jong, Sewa, and Moa rivers flowing from the more hilly northern region of Sierra Leone intersect Mende territory in the west, center, and east.

Historically, from the sixteenth until the early eighteenth century, the people of Mende were aggressors against their neighbors: the sherbro-bullom, Vai, and Gola. Mende fighters participated in the wars and revolts of the colonial period, which ended in 1961 with the independence of Sierra Leone.

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