Ethnic groups · pre-1822 and continuing
Mano people
Iron-working people of the Nimba highlands and the eastern forest.
Biography
Mano country lies against the Nimba range, some of the richest iron-bearing ground in West Africa, and Mano smelters worked it long before any European knew the ore existed. Their towns were organised by patrilineage under elders and a graded Poro; the snake and the leopard figure heavily in their masking traditions. Mano and Gio share much of this country and much of this history.
Historical significance
One of the sixteen principal peoples mapped in the atlas; Mande (southeastern) in language, with an economy built on iron smelting and mask carving.
Timeline
- pre-1500Mano settlement of the Nimba slopes
- 1926–60Documented by G. W. Harley at Ganta
On the map
Associated with Ganta-area towns. Open the historical atlas.
Related entries
References
- Harley, Notes on the Poro (1941); metallurgical survey
Suggested reading
- Dunn, Beyan & Burrowes (2000). Historical Dictionary of Liberia.