Mansa (
N'Ko: ߡߊ߲߬ߛߊ;[1]
pl. mansaw) is a
Maninka[2] and
Mandinka[3] word for a hereditary[1][4] ruler, commonly translated as "king".[5][6][7] It is particularly known as the title of the rulers of the
Mali Empire, such as
Mansa Musa, and in this context is sometimes translated as "
emperor".[8] It is also a title held by traditional village rulers, and in this context is translated as "chief".[1]
Mansa contrasts with another Manding word for ruler, faama. Faama emphasizes the military, coercive authority of a ruler,[9] and can be translated as "
tyrant",[10] whereas mansa refers to a hereditary ruler whose authority is derived from tradition[1] and mystical power.[9] A ruler can be both a faama and a mansa, but a mansa was not necessarily a faama.[9]
The word mansa (
Arabic: منسا,
romanized: mansā) was recorded in Arabic during the 14th century by North African writers such as
Ibn Battuta and
Ibn Khaldun, who explained it as meaning "
sultan".[11] Cognates of mansa exist in other
Mandé languages, such as
Soninkemanga,
Susumenge, and
Bambaramasa.[2] Vydrin also compared it to mensey, the
Guanche word for their rulers.[1] According to Misiugin and Vydrin, the original meaning of the root word was probably "chief of hunters" or "chief of warriors".[2]
An alternate translation of mansa, which Jansen attributes to the followers of
Marcel Griaule, is that mansa means "god", "the divine principle", or "priest-king". Jansen notes that they have not provided their reasoning for choosing this translation.[6]
Jansen, Jan (1998). "Hot Issues: The 1997 Kamabolon Ceremony in Kangaba (Mali)". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 31 (2): 253–278.
doi:
10.2307/221083.
hdl:1887/2774.
ISSN0361-7882.
JSTOR221083.
Levtzion, Nehemia; Hopkins, John F. P., eds. (2000) [1981]. Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa. New York, NY: Marcus Weiner Press.
ISBN1-55876-241-8.
Macbrair, R. Maxwell (1839). A grammar of the Mandingo language: with vocabularies. London.
Misiugin, Viacheslav M.; Vydrin, Valentin F. (1993). "Some archaic elements in the Manden epic tradition: the "Sunjata Epic" case". St. Petersburg Journal of African Studies. 2: 98–111.
ISSN1025-4544.