in me - Sierra Leone (No reserve price)

The Mende is the name of an ethnic group living in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau. They number approximately 700,000. Their oral tradition indicates that they came from the Sudan between the 2nd and 16th centuries. The Mende people settled in their present homeland at the end of the 18th century, straddling the northwest of Liberia and the southwest of Sierra Leone, after having long opposed the hegemony of the coastal kingdoms ruled by the current Baga and Landuman peoples. Located in a humid tropical zone, the Mende territory, covered with secondary forests, grasslands and wooded savannas, is traversed by many rivers. The Mende family organization rests on patrilineal clans (clans structured by patrilineal descent) and marriage, which rests on widespread polygyny, is virilocal in residence (husbands reside with the husband's family). The Mende village constitutes the basic political division. It is divided into quarters, each led by an elder. The villages united, in varying numbers.